The concert I chose to attend was one by the rock violinist and dancer, Lindsey Stirling. She is currently on her, “Brave Enough” tour and one of her multitudinous stops was in Chicago. The concert occurred on Thursday October 13, 2016 at the Rosemont Theatre. It began at 8 p.m. and lasted until approximately 10:45 p.m. Her opening act was a singer, pianist, and guitarist by the name of Shawn Hook. I was very enthusiastic about completing this assignment as this was the first concert I had ever attended and my experience at the concert has inspired me to attend more. During her concert I was able witness Stirling’s music style and band interaction, I could identify several elements we have learned about in class, and I was able to experience the environment created during the performance.
The style of music played by Lindsey Stirling and her band was mainly rock. Stirling’s intro began with a very heavy rock beat that pounded in the listener’s ears. I could also identify that the beats seemed to be emphasized on the second and fourth beats. Stirling also played the electric violin whose timbre was very sharp and complimented her rock pieces. It was quite noticeable that many of Stirling’s pieces seem to be composed and there was little improvisation. I was able to come to this conclusion due to the fact that a large part of Stirling’s performance is her dancing to choreographing while playing the violin. She also had a group of four backup dancers throughout the show with whom she performed with while playing the violin. I believe Stirling is a virtuoso of both violin and dance as she performs highly professionally in both categories. The instrumentation of the concert focused on 3 main instruments; keyboard, drums, and Stirling’s violin. While vocals did accompany a majority of her songs, Stirling’s violin playing was emphasized. During the concert, Stirling dedicated a portion to introducing her band members; Drew and Kit. They did a mini-performance in which they went “back to the basics” by performing on miniature versions of their current instruments to show the audience how their love for music began. Drew performed on bongos, however he spent a lot of time exciting the audience by waving his arms, I believe this was supposed to metaphorically represent how percussionists use their drum sticks to count down to the beginning of a song. Kit played on a tiny piano set and Lindsey performed on a child size violin. They began performing the song, “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” and as the song continued they strayed away from the basic notes and made the song more challenging. Additionally, Lindsey spoke about one of her best friends, Gavi, who was the keyboardist of the band before he died last year. The two began their relationship as bandmates and it bloomed into a beautiful friendship. Stirling shared that they were writing a song together before he became ill and passed away soon after. She spoke of how she wanted to honor Gavi by finishing the song and titling it, “Gavi’s Song” which she performed at her concert. I found that the band beautifully blended their music style with their composed material, instrumentation, as well as demonstrated the tight bond they share.
I was able to hear many of the elements that we have learned in class. Many of Lindsey Stirling’s songs were very up-tempo. She did had some sentimental songs such as “Gavi’s Songs” but many of her songs made people dance and sing along due to their quick tempos. The rhythm of the songs was carried by the drums, the keyboard and the violin. Since these were the three main instruments that were played by the band, there were no solis since there was not a section of instruments. I was able to identify some dynamics through the violin playing of Lindsey Stirling. Whenever she played longer notes with her bow, the sound would be louder and more emphasized. They seemed to prepare the listener for the very quick section Lindsey would play of shorter notes which were not as loud but they would amaze the audience by the speed which Stirling was able to play at and in addition that that, she would still be able to incorporate choreography into it. During the concert I was not able to identify much collective improvisation since the band focused on playing songs off Lindsey Stirling’s new album entitled, “Brave Enough,” however they also played several songs off older soundtracks. Her repertoire included songs such as, “Shatter Me,” “Gavi’s Song,” “Something Wild,” “Crystallize,” “Roundtable Rival,” “Phoenix,” “Elements,” and “The Arena.” I was originally introduced to Stirling by listening to her song, “Shatter Me,” which she wrote to describe her struggle with anorexia. During her performance of the song there was a 3-D Screen and when the vocalist sang the words, “Shatter Me,” the audience was able to see a snow globe shatter which seemingly symbolized Stirling overcoming her eating disorder. I thoroughly enjoyed how each song performed by Stirling had a different artistic approach to it. Many of the elements we have learned in class were displayed during the concert and my knowledge of the elements allowed me to gain greater appreciation for her performance.
During the concert, Lindsey Stirling was able to create a very warm mood inside of the venue. She was a very upbeat performer and the audience can tell how much meaning each song she played had to her as a person. She was a very sincere artist mentioning a few times how her faith in God had motivated her to continue striving to become a dancing ballerina. She shared a backstory on how when she auditioned for America’s Got Talent, the judges told her she would never perform to a sold out venue yet her show at the Rosemont Theatre was sold out. She wanted to motivate her fans that no matter how much someone tries to bring them down, they should never stop trying. The atmosphere of the concert was very emotional. The audience responded to every song played by Sterling. All the songs seemed to have a different impact on the audience. One of my favorite songs she had played was, “Something Wild,” which was the theme song for the new Disney movie, “Pete’s Dragon.” Stirling told the audience how it was her dream to work with Disney and the audience responded so emotionally to her news, I could tell how genuinely happy they were for her. Furthermore, the audience at the concert greatly ranged from “punk rockers” to little kids. An audience member that caught my eye was standing right by the stage. He had a pikachu hat on and his head bobbed through every song, the faster the tempo of the song, the faster his head bobbed. There were little kids who seemed to be attending their first concert, like myself, and then there were people like me who knew who Lindsey Stirling was but were mostly likely not as involved with listening to her music as the “punk rocker” fans whom seemed to be veterans at Stirling concerts. Lindsey Stirling had a very strong interaction with her audience. She began the show by welcoming everyone to the Lindsey Stirling family which right away made me realize how much she values her fans. She had a very inviting personality and showed this through numeral occasions. There was a part of her concert where she brought her dog on stage who was touring with her and the band! While I was at the concert, I felt like Lindsey Stirling was a friend to me and she performed to each individual person there. She would dance through the audience sometimes and had a wide variety of quick costume changes to heighten the experience of the audience at one of her concerts. I loved the environment created by Lindsey Stirling and her band and honestly, did not want the concert to end. I hope to have another opportunity in the future to not just attend another concert but to attend a future tour of hers if she decides to come back to Chicago again.
I believe that the concert assignment was a wonderful way to expose the class to how much work goes into being successful in the music industry. Just by attending the Lindsey Stirling concert, I was amazed to see how she can make such a difficult job look so easy. The music style of Stirling and her band was easily identifiable and her band showcased a wonderful bond between its members. Lindsey’s music featured a plethora of elements we have been learning about in our lecture from tempo to dynamics. Lastly, Stirling was able to create a very warm and inviting environment during her concert. The assignment has made me very excited about being able to experience more concerts in the future and I’m glad that I was finally able to attend my first one.