Being A Part Of Something

There is this electricity that comes with recognizing that you have just taken part in something with a room full of strangers. Certain moments in life where people collectively accomplish something leave the individual with an incredible internal sensation.

While the moment I am referring to was not really life changing or charitable, it was still one that left me in a state of awe. The fall of my Junior Year, myself along with a few friends went to see Feist in the city. I really enjoy her music and had seen her once before, prior to actually getting to know her music. She was supporting Bright Eyes on a non-album tour and instantly caught my attention.

A few years later she would put out The Reminder, and further convince me of her music talent. I don't remember being terrible excited for this show. Feist, while very good, isn't someone who is necessarily exciting. Her music is very subtle in its upbeat-ness. The show turned out to be very much enjoyable. It would probably have been a little better at a seated venue as it is not the style that you need to be on your feet for.

About midway through the set, Leslie started talking to us about something she wanted to try. Trying to decide how to split up the audience, she eventually chose first letter of your first name. So she would pick a series of letters, say A-E. She would then assign people in this group a note to sing. First she would hold the note, and she would then have everyone join in. She did this for the entire alphabet, assigning everyone something to sing.

Not everyone can sing. Further than that, even less people are able to reproduce a note they aren't currently hearing. It is one thing for someone to say, "sing AHHH" and you open your mouth, start producing a note somewhere near there, and adjust until you match it. It is a whole different monster to be told a note to sing, and then 2-5 minutes later (depending on where you fell in the alphabet and how late or early you got your note-assignment) reproduce that note without any guide.

So, with almost no hope that this would be anything other than very comedic and a fun task, I closed my eyes and listened to her count down. And then I was no longer in a the crowd of a concert in the city. Instead, I transported. Instantly I was in the middle of a one thousand member choir in a giant church of some sort. Somehow, despite everything pointing against this as a good idea, or how little chance there was of it sounding good, we sounded together. Moreso, we sounded beautiful. Everyone, still holding their notes looked around and started to smile. We were all in disbelief of what we had accomplished. It was so pure and so unexpected I can still recall how it sounded, what I saw when I opened my eyes, and how it felt. It was something incredibly spectacular to be apart of. A room of over one thousand people joined together by singing one thing. It was different than the crowd chanting along lyrics. There was this sense of accomplishment that propelled the moment beyond that and into something really fantastic.

I have been to almost one hundred concerts and I have so many great memories but this is the richest one.

(here is an example of what we did. in this show she used birth year instead of the alphabet)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JThX433Kc2I&feature=related