Concert, Teh Awesome
So tonight Tony and I headed on down to the Bluebird to see Jon Crosby, the dude behind VAST, perform live. It got my knickers in a twist since it was so good. I have been in love with his work since the 1990s.
Where to begin? Dude's a musical genius, for starters. He was seriously written up in some guitar magazine or other when he was only 13 years old. He was a guitar prodigy from an early age. But the main reason I like his music is that it resonates with me on a variety of levels.
The music is layered and deep. You can dive into it, listen to any given song 20 times, and find a new thing to notice each time you listen to it. When I was much younger (19 years old), he wrote songs that spoke to me. His message mirrored the various things I was going through in my own life, both in terms of lyrics and stylistically.
As the years have gone on, this is still pretty much the case. Not always, but often enough to hold my attention. He and I have seemed to go through similar developmental stages. And it's intensely interesting to hear one's own life reflected in the music of someone who is not even aware that I exist.
His voice is very sensuous. Even if I didn't like anything else about his music, his voice would still keep me spellbound.
The themes he writes about tend toward the negative, especially feelings of loss, longing, and alienation. Alienation is probably the biggest one. Feelings of alienation have been a constant plague on my life, and I suspect the lives of many others. But the music soothes the wild beast, or so the proverb goes.
Jon Crosby is probably one of the most creative musical minds of our generation. His compositions are invariably perfectly balanced.
For all these reasons (and probably more that I'm not thinking of right now), Jon Crosby is my favorite musician.
Where to begin? Dude's a musical genius, for starters. He was seriously written up in some guitar magazine or other when he was only 13 years old. He was a guitar prodigy from an early age. But the main reason I like his music is that it resonates with me on a variety of levels.
The music is layered and deep. You can dive into it, listen to any given song 20 times, and find a new thing to notice each time you listen to it. When I was much younger (19 years old), he wrote songs that spoke to me. His message mirrored the various things I was going through in my own life, both in terms of lyrics and stylistically.
As the years have gone on, this is still pretty much the case. Not always, but often enough to hold my attention. He and I have seemed to go through similar developmental stages. And it's intensely interesting to hear one's own life reflected in the music of someone who is not even aware that I exist.
His voice is very sensuous. Even if I didn't like anything else about his music, his voice would still keep me spellbound.
The themes he writes about tend toward the negative, especially feelings of loss, longing, and alienation. Alienation is probably the biggest one. Feelings of alienation have been a constant plague on my life, and I suspect the lives of many others. But the music soothes the wild beast, or so the proverb goes.
Jon Crosby is probably one of the most creative musical minds of our generation. His compositions are invariably perfectly balanced.
For all these reasons (and probably more that I'm not thinking of right now), Jon Crosby is my favorite musician.