Since the start of the pandemic I have been to very few gigs. Gigs last for several hours, in poorly-ventilated venues, and it's simply not worth the risk most of the time. But the balance with my mental health is precarious, particularly with the dark nights drawing in, and some of my very favorite bands are playing gigs this autumn.
I had failed to get tickets to see Godspeed You! Black Emperor at the Ritz before they sold out. But on the evening of the gig, about an hour before the doors opened, a friend mentioned on Facebook that she had a spare ticket. Which was fine but I didn't really want to go without ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cosmolinguist. Usually one ticket would be enough for this - I can often be his PA for the gig and get in for free myself, but this needs prior discussion with the venue (and isn't really cheating; I don't think he'd go to gigs without my help). But one of her friends said he also had a spare ticket! So we made the appropriate requests and jumped on a bus. After food and a pint we got into the venue on just one ticket - they looked at E's white cane and him taking my arm, and just waved us through! I wouldn't want to count on that though.
Inside, the CO2 numbers were predictably horrible, but my new AusAir mask is comfortable for longer durations. We ended up sat at the side on the balcony, with no view of the stage but it didn't matter too much. The support act whose name I didn't catch started slowly and quietly, just an acoustic guitar and a lot of effects pedals. The crowd was talking loud enough to impact the music, and I was worried this would end up like the time I saw GYBE at the Manchester Academy, where hipsters chatting and filming on their smartphones rather spoiled things for me. Fortunately the artist seemed to pick up on this as well, and got louder, bleeding into the resonant frequency of the building in a way that made my trousers vibrate. It was fairly experimental at times, pushing at the envelope of what can be considered music, in a way that I enjoyed.
Then Godspeed You! Black Emperor came on, and I spent two hours blissing out. For all I hadn't wanted to go without E, we mostly sat next to each other in silence, often with eyes closed, barely touching and just vibing with the music. I found myself moving at times, almost involuntarily, and trying to follow patterns within the music. It was beautiful. The claustrophobia of wearing a mask throughout the gig wasn't great, but it was definitely worth it. I wasn't moved as much as the Academy gig, and I doubt any performance of theirs will match up for me to seeing them in Birmingham, blissed out on the wooden floor of the Q Club, leaning into a dear friend. However, I felt a kind of peace by the end of the performance, and I'm very glad I went.
Afterwards we went back to the Thirsty Scholar with our friend who'd originally posted about the spare ticket, buying her a Red Bull as a thank-you. She gave us a lift home and stopped in briefly to pet Gary, but it was around midnight at that point and we were all knackered.
