I am no Bill Nye, but I do know that sound moves in waves, and when explicitly talking about live music, this sonic wave can hit an audience like a jackhammer in the gut. It’s not a matter of the volume of the music (although remember to bring earplugs at concerts or live events. In general let your friends laugh and say you look like an old person while they can’t hear from their right ear for two months; that’ll show them).

It’s a matter of feeling. When you’re in close proximity to live music, whether it is your local coffee shop band that you can’t hear over the espresso grinder or the new pop sensation of the day, the sonic waves hit you and you can feel any type of emotion ranging from rage to joy to confusion, but never boredom. When you’re at a live music event, no matter where you’re sitting, that jackhammer will find you – there’s no escape, and when it hits you, those emotions will come out like a floodgate.

If what I just described brings back memories of great live shows you’ve experienced in the long distant past, then I have great news for you because live music is back in Buffalo Niagara, and here’s why that’s important.

Why do we need live music? In the digital age, it’s a fair question. At present, everything’s so digitized/personalized it’s way too easy to just put on your headphones and continue your day without putting a face to the music you listen to every day. With streaming, only superstars are set front and center in the eyes of the public. Everyone else, to be frank, doesn’t exist. When it comes to your modern-day music consumer, only the songs matter. Only the tune of the day carries real weight, but if you go to a live show, all that is turned on its head.

When you go to a live show (hold on, let me get my captain’s hat), you actually see the performer and thus add an extra layer of tangibility to his or her music. This can have an affirming effect on the listener, making them appreciate the music on a deeper level, or completely turn someone off from the music they gleefully jammed to with headphones on. The live show has a full circle effect on the listener, making them confront and either revel or discard what they hear in front of them.

Not to sound like a hippie, but another significant aspect of the live show is sharing the experience together. Being present during a live music performance is something utterly unique in that every single person in attendance is participating in the experience. The act on stage sends out their specific sonic wave-like power blast, and attendees pick up this energy like finely tuned antennas ready to receive, and that energy passes through everyone until everyone in some form is absorbed. People jumping and twisting in the air or people slightly bobbing their heads to the rhythm, more are tapping their toes on the beat—these are all tell-tale signs that the sonic wave has taken hold.

As a result, everyone joins to become a single organism for a brief period. Passing on momentum and energy from one another to keep the exciting/refreshing feeling going while at the same time making every participant feel the peculiar sensation of what it is to be alive at that very charged moment. Like anything, there are variations to this (don’t expect to see people moshing to Kenny G or getting riled up to Norah Jones), but the basis is always the same. The performer shares with the crowd, and thus, the crowd absorbs what is given.

On top of emotions possibly being released through this process, a sense of catharsis can take place as well. Music is known to have a healing effect (Marvin Gaye once made a song about it, although it was rather carnal in nature). So by going to a live show, it’s possible that you could be going straight to the source for some sonic healing (just don’t cancel any doctor’s appointments just in case).

Music is an integral part of everyone’s lives, whether you realize it or not. Music is and will continue to be more than today’s pop hits on a Spotify playlist. It’s about the feelings derived from the music and the effort its creator put into it. This aspect of music is shown raw and uncut whenever a performer steps on stage. It’s the perfect time to open yourself up to the experience and allow the performers sonic wave to hit you in whatever way it inevitably does. So if you’ve missed that sense of connection you can only get when your just one in a mass of many.

Indulging in the music of the moment as the stage lights beam on the performer like a hot sun that seems to give them the strength for the momentous task at hand, rest easy because that time is here again. All you have to do is pick a night, pick a show you’re sure to enjoy or at least are curious about, and get ready to live, live!