Talkings heads speaking in tongues tour

"Music Airported 2" AAaaqccqfrewddddwwweradddfgyyunnnndddllipoirreqqadnmghjr llloliiewasewqtbadersynuklllimmllooindndngssdreeeniytrwwwhteerpolttccdaanaaahhaanddeeqqdzxxxññlpppppppoorrfwwwwdderqcaftrssrsrdvdvtdvtdvdttvddtvnwnwnccnwcwocwocwcwjiiwcjcwijcijwooclkkkckkcckiickkkkxiixkkxkxkxkxkieemkkkk

Boy Dylan playing Highway 61 Revisited in Minnesota in 1997. Or maybe Richard Thompson playing 1952 Vincent Black Lightning about 8 feet from me in Morgantown, WV, in 2004.

The cave singers with mom at the tractor

Seeing Arvo Part's Tabula Rasa live. it changed my life

If I had to pick one favorite, it would be seeing Satyagraha at the Met in 2008.

Lila Downs at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York. In the basement. I remember crying spontaneously at the end of the concert. Juggling. Sound. It was a complete surprise, I did not know her music. Sound.

Sleeping through it. Of course. John said it was fine.

Seeing the Steve Reich Ensemble in the late 80's, possibly at the Whitney Museum. In the middle of Drumming part IV one of the marimbists lost their place in the complex structure of the work and fell out of the piece. Reich, playing the tuned drums, was simultaneously trying to give the lost musician the count by nodding his head on the "and . . . one". All the other musicians by sheer will were sort of generating an energy field trying to carry their colleague back into the piece. We the audience were collectively holding our breaths and then, after what seemed like a minute, the musician reaquired the count and launched back into the magnificent weave. It was a tremendous moment! We all knew we had just witnessed something very special—to be shown the inner workings of this complex, Swiss watch-like piece and what it takes for an ensemble of percussionists and singers to keep it aloft. We gave a huge and heartfelt ovation. It was an infinitely better concert experience than had every piece of the evening come off flawlessly.

My first gamelan concert, and at the Temple of Dendur - an ages-old fusion of sound, space, architecture, human spirit and imagination past and present