Institute of Contemporary Arts

DAY TWENTY-TWO: Cherry Ghost and Air Traffic

Date: 2 August 2007

Cherry Ghost. Photo: Melanie Rimmer

I don't really do live music. The last gig I went to was back in March, when I saw Bob Dylan. Well, it's not exactly a gig when it's a venue the size of Wembley Arena and that was part of the problem. Bob was a little speck in the distance from where I sat in literally the very back corner of the venue. The physical distance was underscored by the fact that Dylan didn't utter a single word to his audience. Sure, Dylan bantering away with small talk would have been pretty disarming, but to get no acknowledgement that you were really there, present as he played live, for you, was strange. To top it off, the vocal was muffled slightly, which is a problem I often have with live music. The vocal is an important part of the whole for me, it's what I listen to most, and if it doesn't come through clearly then the whole loses its meaning. In all the Dylan concert was a meaningless experience for me and I left early, convinced that a listen to Dylan's latest, brilliant album whilst lounging on my sofa would have been more satisfactory and less expensive.

Now then, I mention that as a prelude. I am not comparing Cherry Ghost to Bob Dylan. That's just silly. But, the sense of a meaningless experience is something that the two gigs had in common. I have to admit here that I had never heard of Cherry Ghost let alone knew their (his?) music prior to the gig. I was there because the tickets were free and my name got pulled out of a hat. Still, it could have been the start of something, a discovery, a piece of luck. It started well. The support band, Air Traffic, were impressive. They had a presence and they carried the audience with them. Their music wasn't anything special to me, it didn't stand up and demand my attention and make me want to know more, but their performance was great. It really felt like we were all there together sharing an experience, and from the bobbing heads in the audience, we were all enjoying it. And that's what a gig's meant to be about, right? Come Cherry Ghost's turn, though, and I felt that same estranged feeling I'd experience at the Dylan concert. The band were there, their music was interesting – it sparked more interest in me than Air Traffic had done, although that frustrating muffled live vocal limited my understanding of what they were about – but the rapport, the mutual experience was lacking. Cherry Ghost even seemed to acknowledge this two or three songs in to the gig, saying they were distracted by technical problems. Perhaps it was a bit too much effort and they'd rather not have bothered at all. Perhaps we should have felt apologetic for putting them to the trouble. The audience, after bobbing along to Air Traffic, were standing quite still now and some were even talking amongst themselves. The experience didn't seem to be going anywhere and once again I found myself leaving a gig early.

Melanie Rimmer