海角大神

Music has those 鈥渃harms to soothe.鈥� What a welcome attribute in .听

Performers of live聽music, suppressed by the pandemic,聽are聽finding responsible new ways to connect and uplift even with venues shuttered..

A Brooklyn for enchanted passersby. The Avett Brothers sing for at the Charlotte Motor Speedway 鈥� also taking a lap, to cheers, in an old Plymouth Roadrunner. The Flaming Lips, performance pioneers, try extending their long-running plastic-bubble motif by聽.听

Interplay is the driver, and it鈥檚 a two-way kick. Many bands 鈥� not just jam bands 鈥� use crowd input to shape each show.听

Stephen Humphries, the Monitor鈥檚 chief culture writer, calls this a 鈥渃ommunion.鈥� Stephen鈥檚 a concert devotee. (He and I have tickets for a David Crosby show that got bumped from last June to this coming one.)聽

鈥淭here's a whole different dynamic when a band is playing live,鈥� he says. He recalls a pre-pandemic concert at which Canadian indie-pop singer Feist began exchanging bird calls with his wife as Feist teased an avian-themed song.听

It was one of several points, Stephen says, at which 鈥渢he sheer beauty of the music made me feel as if I was levitating.

鈥淭hat kind of feeling 鈥� which, in normal times, people around the world experience every night at live shows 鈥� can't be replaced.鈥澛�

We wave our virtual lighters and embrace its cautious return.