Musical happenings

I attended a concert last night at Orion Studios in Baltimore. Orion’s a nice place to see a show, as it’s a small venue that doesn’t blow your ears out. It’s also BYOB, so although you need a cooler if you plan on having more than one beer, you don’t have to pay $4 club beer prices and you get to bring what you want.

Orion is the center of the Baltimore progressive rock scene. I won’t go into detail about what “prog” is actually, since the definition isn’t always agreed on. However, prog fans tend to like it because it’s musically complicated and discusses strange lyrical stuff most music won’t touch. People that hate it dislike it for the same reasons.

One of my friends here in College Park is in a band that he originally formed in Mexico (called Sonus Umbra), and I went and saw them. Andy, my bandmate, helped them out at the last minute by playing most of the acoustic guitar parts for them. Afterwards, a Michigan band called Eyestrings played. Both sets went very well and were well received by the crowd (myself included). There were about 40-50 people there. Most were seated on lawnchairs they brought into the studio, my two friends and I shared a couch.

Despite the show being good, though, I couldn’t help leaving with a newfound sense of inadequacy. As I was telling Andy on the way home, it wasn’t the same inadequacy I get after watching a show with John Petrucci or Monte Montgomery. Those guys are just amazing and I couldn’t aspire to be as good as they are. However, the two bands that shared the stage last night seemed to do playable music while still convincing me that a lot of hard work, thought, and inspiration went into their stuff. I feel I lack a lot of the things necessary to do that sort of thing. It’s not necessarily playing ability, but good guitar players are a dime a dozen. I have no confidence in my songwriting abilities (at this point… I’ll update again in a month or two if that changes), and I’m never that inspired to create something. I’m not convinced anything I work on will approach a level of quality that’s worth the work. Therefore, my passion for music (and physics, to some degree) is in doubt.

These are problems I’ve had a long time. You’d think that acknowledging them is the first step toward facing them. Hell, I can even accept that a certain amount of “crappy creativity” must be endured before I get good at it. I should just be able to tell myself “Dammit, just do it. Make something. Try anything. You have to… at least once.” I have tried this, but it doesn’t work. Any ideas?

END RANT

Anyway, although our music isn’t really prog, I found this joke simultaneously funny, true, and depressing: How do you make a fortune playing prog?

A: Start with a fortune.