Small rock clubs pack big punch

There’s nothing in the world quite like a good rock show, and there’s no better time for a… There’s nothing in the world quite like a good rock show, and there’s no better time for a good rock show than the summer.

We’re out of school with less to worry about, and just about every band with half a brain knows it’s time to pack up the van and go on tour. But live rock ‘n’ roll, like most worthwhile things in life, comes with options: Where to go? Who to see? And most importantly for teenage girls, what to wear?

My first rock show was the decidedly un-rock Dave Matthews Band. My family and I sat in nosebleed seats in an outdoor stadium, and my mom sang along to “Crash Into Me.”

At the time, I thought Dave just talked funny, but he was actually completely wasted. I was in fifth grade, though, so please don’t allow this to discredit my opinions of rock shows – I promise, I’ve been to more than a handful since then.

When it comes to live music, I prefer a tiny club. I want to walk into a club, a basement or the like, wearing my rock ‘n’ roll best and walk out a disheveled, sweaty mess. In my experience, the more disgusting, beat-up and deaf I feel after the show, the better the show was. By this measure, bands like Anti-Flag, Head Automatica and Thursday have played some of my favorite shows. I want to feel sore the next morning, knowing that whatever band I saw made me dance, sing or go absolutely crazy.

A live show in a boxy, smelly club is personal – you and the few hundred other fans are basically alone with the band. The club is a world within itself. The music (the louder, the better) is all yours, and it’s being played just for you.

Please don’t mistake my penchant for post-show soreness for silly brutality. By no means am I that dude who comes to concerts with the “get in the f—ing mosh pit, bro!” mentality and starts swinging before a single note is played. (Note: Please, please never be that dude. Everyone hates him, and he somehow is always standing directly in front of me.)

But, at the same time, if a band starts playing with enough intensity to get me moving, I won’t hold back a bit.

I’ve caught countless fists in the face, resulting in several bloody lips and a few lost contact lenses in mosh pits. But really, unless I caught them from “that dude,” it’s fine with me.

But why would anyone be fine and dandy with such wild behavior at a show? Well, herein lies the magic of live rock ‘n’ roll. While listening through headphones can, at most, make you bust a move at a party or help you lift obscene amounts of weight at the gym, live music grabs you. It shakes you around; it plays with you. The trick is letting it do just that.

The best way to enjoy live music is to let go of your inhibitions. Don’t be embarrassed to dance if you feel it, and don’t be afraid to jump in that mosh pit if the music makes you want to bust loose. (Another note: Mosh pits might be scary, but can also be quite friendly. If you fall over, people will stop to pick you up. With the exception of “that dude,” of course. He’s just there to bust some skulls.)

If you let it, good, raw, live music can be a life-changing, even spiritual experience that can take control of your body and mind.

So, we’ve covered what live rock ‘n’ roll can ideally do, but what makes a live show any good? Well, the answer is different for everyone, of course.

Some people prefer to see shows in a stadium or arena – the band too far away to look any bigger than ants – and find their groove in the bleachers, feeling a connection more to the sounds than to the performance, more to the thousands of fellow fans than to the band itself.

This is why my parents, who (aside from my mom totally digging Taylor Hicks) have pretty good music taste, love to drop big bucks every summer for shows like The Who, The Rolling Stones and, this summer, The Police.

The merits of a huge outdoor show are obvious: Some bands, like those above, play music too epic for a tiny room. I can’t imagine seeing U2, for example, play anywhere but a huge, huge venue. Like them or not, and I haven’t for years, U2 is gigantic. And I’ve seen some great shows at big venues – my dad took me to see now-defunct jam-band Phish at Hershey Stadium as a kid and accidentally introduced me to marijuana (“Dad, what’s that smell? And why is that guy dancing around naked?”).

But, for me, live music works best in a smaller setting. While a big, outdoor show is more about the spectacle of rock ‘n’ roll, a club show is all about the connection. By watching the band recreate its songs in person, you communicate with them, with the music. You see them move, see them sweat.

A good rock ‘n’ roll show, be it a mellow folk duo or a goth-metal octet from Sweden, will make the music come alive for you and make you forget about finals, your parents, or that pesky underage you got last weekend. A good rock ‘n’ roll show will cast all that aside and just make you feel good.

So during the next few months of summer, now that you have time to get out of Oakland, go experience some live music. If a club show sounds more up your alley, look up your favorite band’s tour schedule. And if you want to celebrate with the masses outdoors, there are mind-blowing festivals like Bonnaroo and Coachella going down across the country this summer.

You can share the soul-shaking with a few thousand strangers or spend a night in a club and groove with a few hundred. Whatever your fancy, take advantage of the beautiful thing that is real, live rock ‘n’ roll this summer.

At the very least, it’ll get you out of your house and away from the folks. And Lord knows we’ll all need that.

Started a mosh pit and lived to tell? E-mail your most brutal rock moments to Justin at jhj11@pitt.edu. Oh, and have a great summer.