Click here to view the embedded video.

You already know how good Prince’s tribute during the BET awards was. And we all know the creative development that Prince went through over the course of his career.
Now, I’d like to introduce you to Mishon.

The 17-year-old R&B/Rap artist and actor has been wowing audiences since he was seven years old and 10 ten years later he continues to develop his talents as a live performer. And after watching his impressive opening set at BET awards (video above), I was curious to learn how that experience impacted him and why performing live lets him be who he really is.

We’ve explored the battle between openers and headliners before.

But we’re not exploring battles this time. Maybe later.

For now, in this interview with Mishon, we’re going to explore the inspirational and creative elements that make up his live show.

We’re going to voyage inside the mind and heart Mishon to discover:

• What he overcame before his BET performance
• How his work as an actor on the TV show Lincoln Heights helped shape him
• What artists have inspired his fan-to-artist-transformation
• The studio-to-live-show insights surrounding the recording his forthcoming debut album The Yearbook.

LF: How have your experiences as an actor on Lincoln Heights helped you develop your live concert performance?

Mishon: Well, I was actually a singer before Lincoln Heights. I had performed in various venues around US and Canada. But acting and performing go hand in hand because you have to become someone else.

Over the last several years, you’ve performed on Showtime at the Apollo Kids Talent Search, Steve Harvey’s Apollo West and NBC’s “America’s Most Talented Kid. What would you say is the biggest similarity and the biggest difference, between being an actor and performing live in concert?

The difference is in acting I have to play roles that aren’t me. In singing, even though I take it up a notch, on stage it’s still who I am.

How was your experience in the studio recording your debut album The Yearbook been different from performing the album’s tracks live at the BET awards?

I’ve enjoyed being able to share the music we made in the studio with my fans. I’m always learning how much work it takes, around 2-6 hours, to finish one song. Performing is one of my favorite things. Every time I get on stage, my goal is to bring energy and that energy always comes right back from the audience. That’s what I do this for.

What did you learn the most during your opening performance at the BET awards?

It was a pleasure to perform at the awards. I was supposed to hook up my electric guitar but we had a small problem that wouldn’t allow it. So I learned to expect the unexpected.

At the age of seven you surprised your family—and yourself—when you belted out a moving rendition of Bill Withers’ “Lean on Me” at your great-grandfather’s funeral. You’ve said that that moment helped you to break out of your shell. What other moments, or in what other ways, have your favorite artists influenced your live performance style since then?

When I was 10 years old I used to watch Usher and Michael Jackson DVD’s before a show. I studied how they captivated the crowd and demanded the stage. I was also intrigued on how they were able to sing live and dance at the same time. So I guess I learned true showmanship from them.

What was it like for you during the BET Michael Jackson and Prince tributes?
The tributes were great, I thought Chris did a good job. The light show was my favorite part. I think next year Me, Usher, Chris and Omarian should come together and give the world the greatest tribute ever. Prince is another inspiration. He’s so talented and to put on a great show while playing instruments is remarkable. Being that the awards were around the time we lost MJ and Prince was being honored, I wanted to put together a performance that celebrated both legends.

Thank you to Mishon for sharing his story and concert experiences. You can check out his latest mp3 releases and videos on:

Myspace: www.myspace.com/mishon

Youtube: youtube.com/mishontheyearbook

Twitter: twitter.com/mishon

iTunes: “Turn It Up” ft. Rosco Dash

What Do You Think…

is the most important element, skill or talent an opening artist needs to develop besides his musical ability?

Who have been some of your favorite, or most surprising, opening acts this year?

Last year Woodstock celebrated its forty year anniversary. And this summer, The Museum at Bethel Woods is inviting all Woodstock attendees and 1960s enthusiasts to be part of preserving history for generations to come.

Without a doubt, Woodstock is a major turning point and defining moment in the history of live music. But what do these newly released artifacts tell us about its legacy and lasting impact on the modern musical festival?

Editorial Note: Article first published as New Woodstock Stories, Artifacts Showcased at Bethel Woods Museum on Blogcritics.

The Museum, which sits on the Woodstock Festival grounds, celebrates the unique experience of the 1969 festival and the legacy of the 1960s. And from now until January, the museum is calling on fans nationwide to help preserve and celebrate the history of the Woodstock experience.

In addition to celebrating artifacts previously collected by The Museum, a new special exhibition Collecting Woodstock: Recent Museum Acquisitions opened on July 29 and will run through January 2, 2011. The exhibit, which includes photographs, objects, and ephemera from the Woodstock festival, features thirty new festival images from 5 photographers; festival artifacts that have never been previously displayed; and a video compilation of rare Woodstock footage, interviews, home video of the festival, and live music audio from the concert.

To take a deeper look into the details and significance of the new Museum artifacts, I spoke with Wade Lawrence, Museum Director at Bethel Woods to tell us more about the items, some of which include Woodstock festival photographs shot by then 18-year-old Doug Lenier – Lenier’s photographs, a “journal of artists and performances” kept by Kevin Marvelle and iconic poster art by David Byrd and Arnold Skolnick.

Considering the proliferation, popularity and evolution of the modern music festival in the last forty years we also asked Lawrence about the impact of Woodstock on modern day musical festivals like Coachella and Lollapalooza; what items and artifacts would surprise fans the most; and what single artifact, if put in a time capsule, would represent the overall Woodstock legacy fifty years from now.

Q&A with Wade Lawrence, Museum Director, Bethel Woods.

What is the biggest difference between today’s modern music festivals like Lollapalooza, Coachella, etc and the Woodstock experience?

Our country has seen drastic changes in the way music festivals are conducted since Woodstock. Today’s festivals depend on massive corporate sponsorships, changing the feeling in a strongly commercial direction. Festivals today also often concentrate on specific genres — heavy metal, women’s music, and such. Many of the problems experienced at Woodstock in 1969 have been addressed, such as food concessions, parking and access, performer amenities, sanitation, and setup/teardown delays.

Fifty years from now, how do you think the modern music festival as we know it today will stack up against the Woodstock legacy?

In fifty years, the Woodstock legacy will be over 90 years, and it’s anybody’s guess what music festivals will look like. Hopefully, we will still find enjoyment in getting together under the sky to enjoy live music in a group setting.

I do not believe there will ever be another event that encapsulates the aspirations and brotherhood of an entire generation in quite the same way as Woodstock did — the sense solidarity, cooperation, and optimism that came to represent the three days of peace and music.

If fans were to read through the “Journal of artists and performances” kept by Kevin Marvelle what would they discover? What sort of misconceptions or myths of the Woodstock experience might be dispelled? What new discoveries of the performances might fans make?

Kevin Marvelle’s journal is a charming glimpse into the psyche of a typical music fan of 1969. The two most important “discoveries” about his journal are his corroboration of the performance order, which had been disputed and argued about for forty years, and his fairly detailed description of Pete Townshend’s on-stage run-in with Hoffman.

He liked seeing his favorite groups, but also enjoyed hearing the groups with which he was unfamiliar. Kevin’s musical likes and dislikes crossed musical genres, and he appreciated the performances of folkies like Joan Baez as well as rockers like The Who and Jefferson Airplane. If any misconceptions or myths are to be dispelled in what Kevin wrote, it would be that, at least from his viewpoint, it was all about the music — he wasn’t there for Abbie Hoffman’s political rants, nor did he find Sri Swami Satchidananda’s blessing very interesting.

What was Woodstock’s most profound impact on the modern music festival?

Woodstock did not invent the modern music festival — Monterey Pop, Atlanta, Atlantic City, Newport, and scores of other festivals from the 1960s created the genre, and the “shout-outs” that had been held in the village of Woodstock for several years before the festival was a direct influence.

What Woodstock did for the modern music festival, with its high-visibility documentary and world-wide press coverage, was to popularize the idea of the music festival. Woodstock effectively spread the word to an entire generation of young people — in the United States and throughout the world — that this is “our” music, “our” expression of freedom, and “our” party.

After Woodstock, the idea of a music festival, especially the multi-day on-site event, was completely understood by the audience.

What parts of The Museum will surprise music fans the most?

Bethel Woods is continually reminded by our museum guests that it is surprising to find a museum of such quality — in terms of research, story development, design, execution, and setting — dedicated to Woodstock and the Sixties. The preserved site and surrounding area, the world-class concert pavilion, and a museum that is so much more than a commemoration of an event all impress our guests. Even Woodstock attendees and people who consider themselves experts on the subject will come away with a better understanding of what happened here in 1969 and the events of the decade that shaped that festival.

The Museum features several artifacts and aspects of the Woodstock memory and experience. But if you had to preserve only one artifact or aspect of the Woodstock experience, what would it be and why?

I have two answers to this question. First, I would preserve a pair of artifacts that tell us volumes about the era and the coming change in popular culture: the Woodstock posters by David Byrd and Arnold Skolnick. Byrd’s poster epitomizes the psychedelic, art-for-art’s-sake posters of New York and San Francisco in the mid-1960s. The design was the message, not the words on the poster. The festival organizers were unhappy with the design because there was no room to advertise the bands or other information. They turned to Arnold Skolnick to design a new poster, and his “dove and guitar” design became the icon of the Woodstock festival. (Skolnick insists that the bird is actually a catbird, but world knows it as a dove). The iconic image became the “Nike swoosh” of the festival, marking the beginning of the logo-based branding of rock festivals (and the rest of popular culture).

My second answer is the journal. That small notebook says it all. It addresses the music and the fan experience, along with comments about “another nude guy” and the shortcomings or triumphs of one fan’s favorite musicians. It is a human artifact and represents the experience of many who attended the festival.

Admission to this special exhibition is included in the regular Museum admission. Fans can visit www.bethelwoodscenter.org for information on the process of submitting artifacts and additional details about the Bethel Woods Museum exhibit.

Were You At Woodstock?

What do you think is Woodstock’s lasting impact on the modern music festival? What makes it different from today’s music festivals?

Tell your story and let us know about some of your favorite Woodstock experiences in the comments below. And see how other fans have told their story in these exclusive Live Fix fan interviews .

Are online concert experiences changing the way we connect with each other during regular concerts? And what happens when you add social networking elements into the mix? Will the opportunity to share, chat about and discover live music together online with friends re-define both the online and real concert experience?

Continuing our exploration of virtual, online and interactive concert experiences, we’re going to take a look at Big Live, a social community site that lets fans/users discuss and share there live music experiences while watching them stream-live in real-time.

Back in March at SXSW, Big Live was awarded the 2010 PEPSI / SoundCTRL award for “Most Innovative Business in Music and Technology,” giving them a great start as they look to carve out their own space in a competitive field of online live-streaming music sites.

What Makes The Big Live Experience Unique?

Over the last few months I’ve been checking out and cruising around Big Live to get a feel for it. I created a profile, requested a few friends and watched a couple concerts from the archives. And, so far, I have to say this is a pretty cool way to connect and discover new bands with other fans.

And once Big Live gets through their current beta launch and adds more video content to archives and the community of fans grows, there are a few reasons why I’m excited to experience the site when it hits full-throttle.

True Real-Time Insight Into the Fan Experience

Yes, there are many similar sites that stream live music events: Ustream, YouTube and Vevo, to name a few.

But the way Big Live has integrated the social element makes the user experience very promising and exciting.

And as they create their own brand of online concert experience, I think they have the potential to not only redefine the online experience, but also enhance how fans interact during a real concert.

There’s a lot of things I love about going to concerts. But one of the things I always wished the wasn’t such a large emotional separation and psychological disconnect between fans.

Sure, when we’re at concerts we  always feel the experience through the emotional rush buzzing through the crowd’s collective mind and body.

But rarely do we get to actually “connect” with other fans, or more specifically, see (or read), what they’re feeling. I’ve done some of this through our Live Twitter Experiments for Beach House and Matisyahu concerts.

But with Big Live, there’s a chance to discover more by taking things deeper and being more interactive.

By integrating elements of social networking — like chat and friending — in to the online viewing experience, Big Live gives fans the chance to truly “connect” and share their emotional experiences during a concert.

Yes, watching a concert online versus watching it live in-person are two completely different experiences. And, yes, each experiences has its own benefits.

Real concerts are all about connecting physically with fellow concerts fans with the psychological connection or the emotional awareness of those around us not being as strong a factor.

But with online concerts it’s the other way around.  Since we’re not in the venue and consumed by how the music feels physically, we have a better opportunity to connect with others by expressing our experiences through typing what we’re feeling, inviting our friend to join in the show and making new friends we didn’t know before we started watching the concert online.

And what excites me the most about Big Live’s is how they’re integrating social networking into the mix to give fans the opportunity to connect during a live show like never before.

I also see Big Live as the next evolution in online concerts and the regular concert experience because it’s a fantastic live music experiment where the physical element of concertgoing is removed and the only things that fans have to connect with each other are their own comments, sharing and friending.

And during my own test run on Big Live I got a little taste of the experiment which led me to think about the next interesting element of Big Live.

How Do You Give Online Concerts A Narrative Arch?

Besides allowing fans to connect and share experience during the same shows, Big Live also lets fans jump from concert to concert and experience many concerts in one viewing session.

Before we get to our interview with Big Live founder Mike Rudoy, I wanted to share with you what he had to say earlier this year in an interview with Mashable about creating a “narrative arc:”

“It’s really easy to watch an episode of ‘The Office’ in bed on your computer because it’s a passive experience and there’s a narrative arc,” Rudoy said. “If you’re watching something like a concert, there isn’t necessarily a narrative arc. It can be difficult to keep someone’s attention for an hour. So the question was, what do you need in a video platform for someone to be able to stomach long-form video without a narrative arc?”

“…You can recognize who you’re watching a piece of video with, sort on that crowd, and find the person who you might be most interested in speaking with … and making some kind of connection with,” explained Big Live founder Mike Rudoy. “We’re a social networking site and we’re using video as the medium [for] making a connection, as opposed to a fact, like what school you attended, as Facebook does.”

In some ways the Big Live experience reminds me of being at festivals like Pitchfork, Lollapalooza, Rothbury or Coachella.

During those festivals many shows are going on simultaneously.  And as you watch one show, you often feel the need to go check out another show because you don’t want to have to choose between the two. So usually, like most fans, I do leave that show to head to another in hopes of discovering something else. And in the process I end up discovering a third band unexpectedly.

That said, in some ways Big Live is mirroring virtually what most concert fans are already experiencing at music festivals.  And I don’t think one way is bad or good, I just think that jumping around from show to show, virtual or real, is becoming the reality for most fans.

But, again, with Big Live, you don’t have to jump around if you don’t want to. You can stick with just one show. Which is nice because I know sometimes I like to bounce around and other times I like to stick with one show and see it all the way through like I would at a venue as opposed to a music festival.

So, does the Big Live experience give fans the best of both worlds? Does the ability to truly connect with other fans emotionally and psychologically replace the physical connection we feel during a real show? Possibly.  It all depends on how much fans choose to connect with each other and whether fans prefer to connect physically or emotionally.

Either way, I hope fans do make the most of the opportunity to connect with each other via the social networking elements because I think the Big Live experience give us a great chance to discover more about the wonders of concert genealogy.

Interview with Big Live founder Mike Rudoy

Now it’s time to see what Rudoy had to say when I asked him how Big Live will change the real concert experience, why he chose to integrate social networking, and which of his all-time favorite concerts he would like to re-experience via Big Live.

Live Fix: What impact do you think Big Live will have on the off-line or real concert experience?

MR: We’re focused on the online experience right now and less concerned about the off-line experience. Big Live can help deliver a great experience to fans who can’t access or afford tickets — a major pain point in the concert industry. I think eventually connecting the off-line and online experience between fans would be fantastic, however that is a roadmap item. We are focused on creating an enjoyable and fun online experience.

Big Live incorporates elements of popular social platforms like Facebook, YouTube and forums. What other online technologies inspired you to create Big Live? How do you plan to evolve your vision?

We want people to discover content based on what their friends are consuming in real-time. To us, this is the best discovery engine. The first step is to understand what your friends are doing and the second is to join them and engage. We are focused on marrying a media experience to the social networking experience. We think there is a lot of data (for content owners and consumers) to be unlocked with a successful implementation.

One of the goals of Big Live is to make the concert experience more about community through the online social experience. What have been some of your most memorable moments at concerts where you connected with someone you didn’t know? And how are did you draw from those experiences to create Big Live?

I connect with people at shows who are directly standing next to me. The problem here is that that person might not be the most relevant in the venue to me. In an online platform, we can help make the perfect connection.

How do bands get featured on Big Live?

They can play in one of our venues (to be later released), their label or management can contact us, or they can contact us themselves at info@biglive.com!

How do you develop the live events that are featured on Big Live? Is there a production plan, or a crew, for each concert?

We are not in the production business so most of the content we get is from 3rd parties.

If you could go back and use Big Live to experience some of your favorite concerts, which concerts would you pick and why?

The Strokes first shows at Mercury Lounge. I am a big fan of the band and these shows were the genesis of a new scene. I am fascinated with the origins of major movements, especially in music. This also applies to the birth of Chicago house music, the early days of CBGB, festivals like Woodstock, etc. Hedi Slimane, the rock and roll photographer sums that up in the title of one of his books, “London: The Birth of A Cult” which is centered around Pete Doherty.

If you could take one element of your favorite concert you experienced as a fan and use it to inspire the creation and development of Big Live, what concert and band would it be and why?

Jay-Z, Blueprint Lounge Tour. This was a small tour of small clubs when he released his classic album The Blueprint. Intimate and focused!

As a fan, what “Little Things” have you noticed during some of your favorite concerts?

I love the moment a when a band comes on stage. By far my favorite part of any show. The peak of excitement and drama.

Thank you to Mike and his team for taking the time to talk about Big Live and his concert experiences.

We’ll continue to keep you updated as the Big Live community grows, develops and officially launches in September. For now, go check it out and sign up. My user id is LiveFixChris and feel free to friend me.

What have been some of your favorite virtual concert experiences?  How has a virtual concert changed your real concert experiences?

Usually I’m the one asking questions when it comes to live music culture, but this time Frank from Windy City Rock graciously flipped the script on me and asked some good questions about why I started Live Fix, how we mix social media with live music, and what the future looks like for concert fans. And I was surprised by what I had to say about our ambitiously pioneering live concert community.

I’m always honored when someones wants to hear more about what we’re doing here on Live Fix. And it was a massive pleasure to answer Frank’s questions.

That said, I wanted to share them with you because the way Frank’s questions and the way he asked them allowed me to talk and think about Live Fix in a way that I haven’t before.

Among other things, I explained in detail why I decided to start a blog about live music and concert fans. I also explained why I think what we’re doing here on Live Fix adds value to the music blog community and gives concert fans a great opportunity to more fully realize and celebrate the power, impact and influence that going to concerts has in our lives.

Here’s the interview with Frank.

Frank: I always enjoy reading Live Fix because it takes such a fresh, unique and community-focused approach to music blogging. How and when did you come up with the idea for the site, and what did you initially set out to accomplish with it?

Chris: Thanks for the kind words! I’m glad you’ve enjoyed reading Live Fix. I’ve enjoyed Windy City Rock, too. Especially your post about seeing the pregnant keyboardist at the Wicker Park Fest last year. I’ll always remember how that post sent me on a really fun train of thought.

I came up with the idea for Live Fix about three years ago while I was writing reviews for other music websites. I love writing concert reviews and I love the challenge of using words to describe live concerts. But after awhile I felt led to explore the live music experience beyond the stage and get into more of the reasons why concerts are so amazing besides just the music.

So much goes on during a concert in our hearts and minds for both fans and bands, and I thought it was very important to begin to understand and celebrate some of the psychological, physiological, and sociological reasons why the concert experience is such a life-changing event.

I didn’t see any other blogs or music sites writing in that way about live music regularly, or taking the time to dive into those types of topics, so I decided to start Live Fix and take a stab at doing it myself.

One of the things I love about Live Fix is having the chance to talk with bands and concerts fans of all ages, shapes, sizes and genres and listen to them explain how a certain concert changed their life. I always learn something new about concerts when I talk to fans during an interview. And I love it when a fan describes his or her concert experiences in a way that ends up surprising them and me.

One of the things I’ve learned is that you have to ask the right questions and be patient because most fans aren’t used to talking about their concert experiences. I don’t know why that is exactly. Maybe it’s because of our culture’s obsessions with the “rock star.” Maybe it’s because fans think that if they’re not on stage, then their concert story doesn’t matter or doesn’t have value. Whatever the reason might be, I think fan concert stories need to be told because there are some really beautiful and profound things to discover when fan recalls and reflects on their concert experiences. Same goes for bands when I ask them about their favorite concert experience before and since they’ve become a musician.

Since interviewing concert fans or exploring live music in this way is a relatively new approach to writing about live music, I stick close to the trail blazed by one of my heroes, the late Studs Terkel. He was a master at talking with the common person. And I’ve used many of his books like Working and Division Street as guides on how to listen to concert fans and how to get them to talk about their favorite shows. I also closely study the work of NPR’s Terry Gross on Fresh Air and in her book All I Did Was Ask.

I’ve had lots of fun these last three years and I’m honored that readers, bands and fans, have enjoyed my experimental take on live music. I’m always trying to make sure that the blog is a mix that’s fresh, fun, entertaining and challenging. And I hope that a Live Fix post makes you think differently about why we all live going to concerts.

Miike Snow at Empty Bottle

Tell us more about what live concert “experiments” are. How do they challenge the way people typically think of live music?

The experiments are an extension of the “explore and examine” part of Live Fix. I started doing “experiments” because I saw the live show as a great sort of live and organic Petri dish where I could test and explore the past, present and future of the concert experience.

There’s so much that we experience during a show and things happen so fast, that we don’t usually have time to reflect on why a certain concert was amazing or completely sucked. So the experiments are a great way to stop and dig deeper so we can learn, laugh or even make our next concert experience better and more enlightening. I used the word “experiment” loosely only because it implies that we’re going to push boundaries and possibly discover something new. The experiments aren’t always scientific, but each one always aims to challenge the concertgoing status quot in a fun and interesting way.

What’s one experiment or article you’ve done as part of Live Fix that you’re particularly proud of, and why?

I have to pick just one? [laughs]. Since I’ve got several favorites, I’ll go with these six since they come to my mind right away and they’ve been some of the most read posts.

1. Bon Iver and the Power of the Little Things — ongoing series about the impact of the lesser know but important parts of concerts.

2. The Dancing Guy – I had the chance to guess and be wrong. Which led me to actually have a fantastic interview with the Dancing guy himself and learn all about fan self-expression at concerts.

3. The Live Tweeting During Matisyahu – This is concert fans at their creative best and I unexpectedly connected with a fan through a Live Twitter experiment I was doing.

4. Don’t Do This at Your Next Concert - This moment caught me at a Miike Snow show completely off guard. And I still wish I could talk to the fan who poked me in the stomach.

5. Sensual Smack Down With Michigan State Police at Rothbury – Always beware of the cops when you’re at a music festival and don’t count on your Twitter followers to care at all either.

6. Secrets To the Oprah Flash Mob In Chicago: An interview with one of the Flash Mob Dancers about what it was like to train and participate in the dance.

When it comes to live music experiences you’ve had that stand out as particularly memorable or unique, what comes to mind for the following?

I love asking this questions and now I realize how hard it is to answer it [laughs]. Off the top of my head I would say:

• - Most amazing/biggest “wow” moment? Seeing any Saul Williams concert the guy can make a concert transcending like no other. I also love seeing Radiohead for the first time at Lollapalooza 2008. I did a “no eyes” experiment and it made the show completely awesome!
• - Craziest? Seeing Wu-Tang at Rock the Bells 2007. I watched filled with anxiety as Colleen, my wife and photographer, took photos in the pit and standing between the Wu-Tang and the fans while the band flung Hennessey bottles at the crowd and incited the fans in the first row.
• - Strangest? Seeing John Legend at Ravinia amidst the Screaming Lady and other adoring fans. Great show by Legend and his fans made it even better.
• - Biggest surprise? Seeing Phish In 3D in April. I’m not a big Phish fan but I gained a new appreciation for the band and their fans. Also, seeing Keith Urban at Joe’s Pub and Augustana and Jakob Dylan at Morton Arboretum recently.
• - Worst? Tough to say, but I’d go with seeing Colbie Caillat for half a set at Rothbury in 2008. Sometimes you just have to make compromises when you married. Most of the time, Colleen and I are on the same page but other times not so much. She was curious and thankfully we only had to endure a few songs.

Live Fix is all about collaboration and communication among everyone involved in live music scene – the musicians themselves, concert-goers, writers, etc. How collaborative do you think the Chicago music scene currently is? What do you think is great about it and what do you think could improve?

That’s a tough question to answer. But I think there are certain groups of people in the Chicago music community that seem to be more open to collaboration and those people see the benefit in working together and I’m happy to work with them.

I will say that it is a bummer to see the others who for whatever reason don’t want to work together in the music writing scene. I think things would be a lot better if music writers did have a better way to collaborate. I know it’s tough because we all have crazy schedules and the music writing or blogging scene doesn’t always lend itself to opportunities to collaborate. But I wish we all did do a better job and weren’t so segmented or cliquish at times. I always try to stay positive and realistic about working with other music bloggers because the fact is that everyone is not going to get along with everyone else all the time. I’m cool with that, but only if it doesn’t take away from discovering something new about music writing or hurt the creativity of live music blogging.

Social media is a big part of what you’re doing with Live Fix. In your opinion, what are some of the most useful social media tools for the music community? How have you seen people using these tools in particularly innovative ways?

I love using social media to explore live music and today it’s nearly impossible not to use when covering live music. That said, there’s still a lot not being said about how we can use social media to explore live music even more. That’s why I try to drill down and examine each way concert fans use the different social platforms, and depending on whether it’s blogging, Twitter or YouTube, there’s always a great opportunity to study how fans use those tools. And I also get to use those tools to study fan behavior and fan emotions themselves.

I’m constantly fascinated by human behavior so I’ve used Twitter to study how concert fans respond before, during and after concerts with various real-time concert experiments. I think we’re just beginning to discover how to use blogs, Twitter, forums, and YouTube to connect fans and explore live music. And with Live Fix, I like to push the boundaries and see how we can use social media to celebrate, explore and examine live concert culture.

Besides Twitter, I’ve used YouTube to connect with concert fans and study their behavior. And I’ve had many great discoveries as I study artist live performance and get feedback from other fans.

Recently, I’ve been reporting on how virtual concerts communities are starting to pop up more and more, and with each new development those communities are evolving what a “concert” really is.

What have you found to be some of the most effective ways to engage readers?

Be real, honest and yourself. And be helpful. Some of my most popular posts, like the Experiencing Joy, Grief and Community in Live Music , are the ones where I’ve shown vulnerability or shared something that’s helpful emotionally or informatively. Besides, just live music I also try to help other bloggers who are where I was three years ago. One of the most important things about social media is to share your knowledge and let other learn and get better from your own experiences, so with the  like How to Start Your Own Live Music Blog series, I try to give back as best I can.

I love reading honest reviews and I always try to work that in to a post. I also think that it takes time to truly know what a certain group of fans like. It’s also important to understand how readers behave online and offline at concert.

I know that not all live music fans are going to enjoy Live Fix. But I don’t care abot that and I don’t spend too much time thinking about the non-readers. I’m writing for those fans that want to explore live music in a way that’s honest and not like other music blogs. So if those fans want to gather round and learn with me than that’s great and I hope more readers join us. Most importantly, I always ask for fan feedback on almost every post. Sometimes fans respond and sometimes they don’t. But either way I always want them to know that they are valued and I want to know what they think.

Jakob Dylan at Morton Arboretum

What are some of your favorite bands/musicians at the moment, both Chicago-based and beyond?

Tim Fite, Saul Williams, Yeasayer, Wilco, LCD Soundsystem, Radius, Streets on Fire, St. Bagu, Eminem, Deanna Devore, Phoenix, Brother Ali, School of Seven Bells, Atmosphere, Soul-Junk, The Dead Weather, Polysics, Jakob Dylan, JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound, Sage Francis, Common, to name a few.

If you could see one band/musician live who you either probably or definitely will never get the chance to see, who would it be and why?

I would like to voyage back to the first days when Afrika Bambaataa was spinning records in the Bronx. Hip hop is one of my favorite genres and I would love to experience what those first days were like. I would like to also see the Grateful Dead at their peak. I’ve grown to really appreciate the communal power of jam-bands live and they’re the ultimate jam-band, so I would like to go back to either Woodstock or their best live show to experience it.

Jimi Hendrix, Neil Diamond (during the Hot August Night tour), Janis Joplin, Black Flag, Joy Division, Frankie Knuckles first shows at the Music Box and Warehouse, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Bruce Springsteen and Prince are all also on The List for various reasons.

What’s in store for Live Fix’s future? Any new experiments or ideas you have in mind that you’re looking to try out going forward?

We have a lot coming up! We’re going to be introducing a very special guest and regular contributor who has expert experience in psychology and addictions. This new contributor will be able give readers a deeper understanding about the psychological reasons for our “live concert addictions.”

We’ll also be exploring more about concert genealogy, having more contests, adding a podcast with fan and artist interviews later this year and collaborating with you and Windy City Rock. We’re really excited about the future of Live Fix and we’re looking forward to connecting with concert fans online and at the show.

Thanks so much Frank for letting me share Live Fix’s story! Your questions were lots of fun to answer.

Go check out what other things Frank and the Windy City Rock crew are up to. You’ll be glad you did.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Watching rock trio Crash Kings cover “War Pigs” live and then pay tribute to the history of Guitar Rock (without a guitar) got me thinking about the awe of not just hearing, but also “seeing” a band push the boundaries of live rock music.

Crash Kings will be playing Otto’s in DeKalb, IL tonight and to get you ready for the show we have a couple videos, a free mp3 and more deep thoughts about guitarless live rock music.

Editorial Note: As an added bonus we have added an interview with Tony and Mike Beliveau and Jason Morris of Crash Kings below that was included after the post was published yesterday.

Many times “watching” a band play is just as much a rush as “hearing” them play.

That said, I’m always fascinated when I see a band do something that’s strange, unexpected or unorthodox about the way they play or arrange their instruments on stage.

And by the looks of the video above and the “War Pigs” live video below, the Crash Kings have already begun to push the boundaries of what a live rock show is, or could be.

What will it be like to watch lead singer Tony Beliveau play his “whammy bar-laden” clavinet and merged it with the thump and rumble of the bass (Mike Beliveau, Tony’s brother) and drums (Jason Morris) in a live setting?

Well, at first listen, their guitarless sound reminds me of similar blues-rock groups like The Black Keys, White Stripes, Cage the Elephant and other bands who find creative ways to transform their instruments into weapons of musical mass destruction during a live show.

And watching the “Evolution of Guitar Rock Without Guitars” video above made me think back to Evil Beaver’s show and our Almighty Set-List Experiment earlier this year. I loved how they made a single bass and a pickup sound like three guitars in one!

And since Crash Kings are touring in the wake of releasing their self-titled debut album Crash Kings, we’ll also see how they’re translating their studio energy to their live show. And hopefully the band will measure up to Mannish Boy.

We asked Jason Morris, Mike Beliveau and Tony Beliveau a few questions about their live show. And here’s what they each had to say about playing their dream venue in Greece, learning how to put on a show by watching the Flaming Lips and the influence of jazz on their live performance.

Interview with Jason Morris

LF: In what ways have your live shows evolved since your first show?

JM: Our live show has grown astronomically since the first. We started with a little keyboard on an X stand and minimal bass/drum setup. We have now super-sized our gear setup, graduating to in ear monitors, a real piano with a clavinet modded with a whammy bar run through a guitar amp, a massive bass rig with separate clean and dirty amps and a thunderous drum kit with a 26″ kick and huge cymbals. Aside from gear we’ve since honed our live show to be much more fluid and high energy with the occasional cover tune thrown
in.

Are there any memorable shows like your appearance on Jimmy Kimmel performing Mountain Man, or others that have influenced your debut album?

We just played George Lopez and had an amazing experience there. Not only did we play an amazing talk show but we were happy with our performances, hung out with George and the guys in his band AND met Bill Cosby! Game over!!!

As an artist, what “Little Things” do you look for during a show for real-time insight or inspiration?

The little things that give us inspiration at our shows are most always the crowd reaction, the venue and the sound of the room. The more into a show our crowd is the better we play just like if the venue sounds good and the people at the venue/promoter are awesome we have an awesome experience as well.

As a fan, what “Little Things” have you noticed during some of your favorite concerts?

As a fan I’ve noticed that I always have a better time when the band is getting into their own music on stage. If they don’t want to be up there performing I don’t care to watch them. And I much prefer watching bands that can pull of their “thing” live, whatever their thing is.

Interview with Mike Beliveau

LF:What was your first live concert like as an artist and what did you learn from it?

MB:The first Crash Kings show was around Halloween time in 2006. We got offered a show at Molly Malone’s in Los Angeles. Our drummer at the time didn’t want to play it cause he didn’t think we were ready yet but Tony and I were anxious to play a show. We decided to find a drummer who was more hungry like us. Tony called Jason to play the show. He learned all 10 of our songs in only a few practices and pretty much nailed the whole show. About 30 people came to see us and it turned out to be a great show. After we played we asked Jason if he would join the band and he obliged.

If you could play one “dream” venue in the world where would it be and why?

The Acropolis in Athens, Greece. Tony and I are part Greek. Playing the Acropolis would pay homage to our ancestors who built the first acoustically sound amphitheaters providing the public with a place to
share their art and music. I don’t think they let bands play there anymore though since Sting put on a show and some of the ruins fell due to the sound system.

If you could take one element of your favorite concert you experienced as a fan and use it to inspire your own live show, what concert and band would it be and why?

We recently played a festival in Maine called the Nativa Festival and the Flaming Lips headlined the day that we played. If you haven’t seen their show, its a must see. I really liked how much of an experience the show was. They had balloons, confetti, and crazy lights during the entire show. Wayne Coyne even came out inside a giant balloon that rolled over the crowd at the start of the show. The musicians were incredible but the production took the show to the next level. I would love to add some of those elements to our show – in our own way of course.

What do you love the most about performing live?

I love performing live because I am connecting with people in a very raw and human way. Every performance is a release of energy and also chance to share my craft with people and I am very grateful that people get
enjoyment out of it.

Interview with Tony Beliveau

LF: What elements of modern live performance would you change if you could?

TB: I would like to change the way people listen to live performances. Somehow make it so you could go to a loud rock show, and listen to the whole show without wearing earplugs, and not have that ringing in your ear afterward. I am actually working on a project with a friend which will allow us to do this in the future. Not only will you not lose your hearing, but you’ll hear all the subtleties that can be missed at a live show. You would also be able to hear the performance in stereo no matter where you were standing.

What is something unique about your live performance that fans might not realize or be aware of?

Well, the biggest thing that I believe makes our band unique, is that we don’t have any guitar in our band and we can rock out pretty hard and loud. I also play a clavinet with a whammy bar (which is a rare modification) through pedals and a tube guitar amp, which allows me to get a guitar-like sound without actually having any electric guitar in the band. It’s also a blast to play.

I really enjoyed the “Evolution of Guitar Rock with Guitar” video! You must have watched a lot of live rock guitarists during concerts and closely studied how they played their solos and riffs. Can you explain how those live experiences and studying the nuances of the performances helped you recreate them with the custom clavinet during your live show?

I didn’t really do much except for listening to the solos from the records. I grew up playing by ear from the age of six, so I comes pretty easy for me. I used to learn jazz piano solos by artists like Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock, Keith Garrett, John Medeski, Keith Emerson, ect… THOSE were difficult to learn. Guitar riffs and solos are a bit easier, but definitely more fun to perform!!

As brothers growing up, what sort of shared live concert experiences did you and Mike have? Did one introduce live music to the other? What’s the chemistry like and what goes through your minds while you’re playing on stage

Mike and I went to see various artists growing up, mostly jazz artists though. Being a few years older, we never went to many rock concerts together. My first show was in 1994, when I saw LIVE play during their throwing copper tour. That was sweet. Mike and I were and still are always introducing new music to each other. We have such a great bond on stage, and with Jason, I feel like I’m playing with two brothers on stage. We’ve developed such great chemistry with each other and it makes every show feel unique and special. We pride ourselves on the fact that we never use backing tracks and that all of the sound is coming from us on stage.

We thank Mike and Jason for taking the time to share their insights and concert stories.

If you’ve seen them live already or see them tonight at Otto’s let us know how the show goes and what you saw and felt during their set and share your comments below.

Check out Otto’s site for more info on tonight’s show.

MP3: “Mountain Man”

Follow Crash Kings on Facebook, Myspace and Twitter via @crashkings.

Tour Dates:

July 28 Otto Bar DeKalb, IL
July 29 Newport Music Hall Columbus, OH
July 31 K-Rockathon Syracuse, NY
Aug 1 Bonzai 2010 Rochester, NY
Aug 3 Middle East Downstairs Cambridge, MA
Aug 4 Club Hell Providence, RI
Aug 5 Higher Ground Lounge Burlington, VT

Video: War Pigs Cover – Live

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Though they love to tell a good story that’s usually steady, mid-tempo and gradually unfolds, there comes a time when a singer-songwriter wants to let loose and put more rock to their live show. So how do they pull it off and still stay true to their folk and storytelling roots?

On her sophomore album You (Understood) 23 year-old singer songwriter Samantha Crain traverses through her songs with a likeness in songwriting and style to Joanna Newsome and Cat Power.

And inspired by those influences Crain adds her own nuances, rawness and edge.

Her mix of  folk, pop and indie-rock both tugs on and kickstarts your heart. And with emotive lyrics filled with hope, pain, joy and angst, she lures you in and keeps you wondering what’s around the corner with each passing song.

Her shows on her current tour have been described as having “an avant-garde feel and aggressiveness live that’s new for her.” And Crain’s new band is a trio with a nice bearded fellow on bass/vocals and power hitter chick drummer.

And after watching the video above for “Sante Fe” — that was directed and shot in New Mexico by Native American filmmaker Sterlin Harjo (Barking Water) and features Sam’s labelmates Frontier Ruckus — and listening to the swooning ballad “Lions” from her new album You (Understood) my curiosity was piqued about what it would be like to see her live.

So here’s what the 23 year-old Oklahoma-born, Choctaw songwriter had to say when we talked about the Little Things, her dream venue and something that most fans don’t know about her live show.

LF: How have your live shows over the past year influenced and inspired your new album You (Understood).  Are there any shows or live music moments in particular that stand out more than others?

SC: I think over the past year we always wanted to “rock out” a little more on stage so we would change the song a little bit from the album version to do that (e.g. speed up, more dynamic parts, etc). So with You (Understood) we just recorded the loud guitars and sped it up from the get-go. We rock out on the actual recordings, so now we can REALLY rock out at the live shows.

As an artist, what “Little Things” do you look for during a show for real-time insight or inspiration?

I’m looking for people in the audience that are really trying to connect with me. I’m looking for people trying to get the most out of this show they came to. That is real-time inspiration for me. I can take that energy and use it immediately in the show.

As a fan, what “Little Things” have you noticed during some of your favorite concerts?

I am always really interested in the little personal touches people add to their instruments and amps. Seeing stickers on drum heads or cool guitar straps or paintings on amp clothes or anything like that is really neat to me. I keep an eye out for that.

What was your first live concert like as an artist and what did your learn from it?
I don’t really remember the first time I played live. I’m sure it was at an open mic or something, but it wasn’t that memorable; nothing sticks out about it.

If you could play one “dream” venue in the world where would it be and why?
I already played it! Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa, OK with the Avett Brothers.

If you could take one element of your favorite concert you experienced as a fan and use it to inspire your own live show, what concert and band would it be and why?
The way that Scott McMiken from Dr.Dog moves on stage while he’s playing is so cool to me. I’m always trying to pick up on the way certain people move and learn from that.

What do you love the most about performing live? What elements of modern live performance would you could change if you could?
I love seeing the participation of the show, looking over and seeing that my band members are into it, the bartender is into it while pouring drinks, the sound guy is into it, the people that came to the show are watching and bobbing and into it. I like it when that room feels like its own universe. If I could change one thing about modern live performances though, I would make sure there weren’t TVs on in places where the shows are happening. That just ruins the vibe.

What is something unique about your live performance that fans might not realize or be aware of?

I keep a bucket on stage with me. It moves around to various locations in each show. I use it to carry my cables and pedals in but I also keep a list of my songs propped up in there during the show. That bucket used to be the “snare drum” to a junkyard drum kit that my friend, Beth, and I made when we first started touring.

Also, I almost always get the verse order of “Rising Sun” and “Scissor Tales” messed up while I’m singing on stage.

You’ve gone from playing a smaller venues like Schubas in Chicago on to playing a large music festival like Bonnaroo the following day. How does your mental or emotional approach change going from such different venues and live show environments?

I’ve made those sorts of transitions so many times now that I don’t think it requires any special preparations but I do change my set lists according to where I’m playing; slow and quiet songs can be done in intimate venues but at festivals it’s really hard to pull that off because there is so much noise most of the time.

Any thing else you’d like to share about your live performance or some of your favorite concert experiences?

Sharon Jones is my favorite live performer. She has it.

Album Info & Tour Dates

Amazon Store: Samantha Crain

Tour Dates:

7/15 – Schubas, Chicago, IL

7/16 – High Noon Salon w/Todd Snider, Madison, WI

7/17 – Cactus Club – Radio Summer Camp , Milwaukee, WI

7/18 – Vaudeville Mews, Des Moines, IA

7/20 – The Bottleneck with Fronteir Ruckus, Lawerence, KS

7/22 – The Boiler Room, Denton, TX

7/23 – Granada Theatre, Dallas, TX

7/24 – The Parish, Austin, TX

9/3 – The Blue Door, Oklahoma City, OK

10/8 – Shakorim Grassroots Festival, Pittsboro, NC

10/10 – Fall For Greenville, Greenville, NC

Sometimes there are concerts that are so big, so huge, so monumentally massive that words can’t describe the impact that they have on fans and bands. Yes, I’ve been to a few concerts like that. And if I were to compare weekly wrap-ups to those mega concert moments, I would say that combining the last two weeks of posts in to one Super Duper Double Bonus Weekly Wrap-up would be pretty damn close to being just like those “big, huge..” life-changing concerts. So you better buckle up and brace yourself, before you click that Read More button.

There’s always something going on in the wonderful world of live music. And the last two weeks have been packed with all kinds of crazy and exciting stuff. So crazy in fact that I forgot to do the regular weekly wrap-up.

What kinds of crazy and exciting things did you miss?

Well, top to bottom, front to back, side to side, inside and out, This wrap-up will blaze through a special Father’s Day Festival featuring 10 Dads who love live music, tips for starting your own blog, a exploration of Bobby Parker, Led Zeppelin and concert genealogy, a fan riot at the canceled concert Drake in NYC, a fan who tackled Slash in Milan, a Jakob Dylan preview plus an interview about a concert venue that will grow on you, an interview with the Fiery Furnaces and more.

Your Two Week Mega-Weekly Wrap-Up

Father’s Day Festival: 10 Dads Who Love Live Music — A special Father’s Day mega-post spanning over sixty years of concert fan experiences. These dads know how to rock (and tell stories.)

Ever Wonder How They Do It? — A questioner all live music fans need to check out about how your favorite concerts are created.

How To Start Your Own Live Music Blog — Legendary runner Steve Prefontaine helps us kick-start a series full of tips, stories and how-to’s for bloggers.

Be A Street Teamer For Reggies In Chicago — A call for hungry and willing concert fans who want to be street teamers at one of Chicago’s coolest venues.

How The Fratellis’s “Chelsea Dagger Makes Blackhawk Fans Go Nuts — Is it the song, the fans or the Stanley Cup?

Why Does a Tackled Slash Recall Painful Concert Memories –  Take a painful peek into the past to see how a tackled Slash in Milan makes concert fans cringe.

Enhanced Concert Review: Tim Fite at Schubas — An enhanced concert review of Tim Fite at Schubas. short films, itsy bitsy spider and one….

Chicago Blues Festival Triggers Concert Genealogy Exploration — See how Bobby Parker and Led Zeppelin spurred an exploration into concert genealogy.

Why Did Fans Riot At Canceled Drake Concert In NYC? — Rioting is never cool. But for some reason concert fans can’t stop doing it? So why was it Drake fans this time?

Win Tickets To see Pavement via CHIRP — A fun concert contest that I hope you entered.

Concert Preview Jakob Dylan at Morton Arboretum — Will a unique concert setting enhance a Jakob Dylan show in Chicago?

Concert Preview: The Fiery Furnaces Return For Two In Chicago — Ever wonder what goes on inside the mind of your favorite artist during a concert? See what’s burning inside the minds of this indie rock duo.

Thanks to Reza Vaziri for the Massive Attack concert photo.

I often think that where you see a concert is just as important as who’s performing. And this Saturday Jakob Dylan will be playing at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois. The venue is primarily a 1,700 acre outdoor museum of trees, shrubs and other plants. And like other unique outdoor music venues, it sounds like it’s the kind of place where a live show can really grow on you.

Back in April I shared a snippet from a Jakob Dylan review that made me smile and I’m excited to share with you another opportunity to see Dylan play in a venue as he tours in support of his latest album Women and Country.

Chicago, and it’s surrounding suburbs, gives concert fans the chance to discover new places to hear live music all the time. So here’s one more unique venue to add to your list. And I want to thank the folks over at the Morten Arboretum for passing along the info and taking the time tells us more about their summer concert series.

As I mentioned in the intro, The Morton Arboretum is a world-renowned leader in tree science and education, working to save and plant trees. The 1,700-acre outdoor museum features “magnificent collections of 4,117 kinds of trees, shrubs, and other plants from around the world.” It’s located in Lisle, IL, a suburb of Chicago. And now that I know it’s also a concert venue hosting artists during it’s “In Tune With Trees” Summer Concert Series, I’ll definitely have to check it out.

Jakob Dylan

I wanted to get you some more info on the history of the summer concert series so I asked Marilyn Baysek, Special Events Manager for The Morton Arboretum, a couple questions about why they created the venue and what makes it a unique setting for a live concert. More details on the Jakob Dylan concert and other artists playing this summer follows the interview.

Live Fix: What inspired the creation of a concert venue at the Morton Arboretum?

Marilyn Baysek: Back in 2001, summer was not a time that many people visited the Arboretum (compared to spring or fall). It seemed like the perfect time to employ the beauty of nature’s stage as a setting for performing arts. The lovely sloping lawn off the Thornhill building provided the original inspiration as a beautiful, unique setting. When the new Visitor Center, Arbor court, etc. opened summer of 2004, we moved the concerts over here to accommodate the growing attendance.

What makes the Morton Arboretum unique from other outdoor venues?

We are a tree museum first and foremost. Our concerts are held to support the Arboretum’s primary mission to plant and protect trees. We are not a traditional “performing arts house” even though we are presenting national, exciting acts. The majority of our audience is still made up of members who understand our mission, and appreciate that their ticket purchase goes to support a cause that they as members also support.

What have fans enjoyed the most about seeing a concert there?

The fact that there is not a “bad” seat in the house and that everyone has a direct line of sight to the stage. Also, the ambiance is sophisticated and upscale, and people love to do the whole gourmet picnic thing with silver candelabra and wine.

Concert info: Jakob Dylan
with special guests Augustana
The two will appear Saturday, June 19 at 7 p.m.
Tickets are $27 in advance; $29 Day-of.

June Concerts

Friday, June 18; 7 p.m.: Blues Traveler and Dr. John & The Lower 911

Saturday, June 19; 11 a.m.: Justin Roberts & The Not Ready for Naptime Players (Family Concert)

Saturday, June 19; 7 p.m.: Jakob Dylan and Three Legs with special guest Augustana

Sunday, June 20; 7 p.m.: Kenny Loggins with special guest Malea McGuinness

July Concerts

Friday, July 23; 7 p.m.: Huey Lewis & The News

Saturday, July 24; 7 p.m.: Indigo Girls

Sunday, July 25; 3 p.m.: New Millennium Orchestra of Chicago (Family Concert)

Sunday, July 25; 7 p.m.: New Millennium Orchestra & special guest artist Matthew Santos

August Concerts
Friday, August 6; 7 p.m.: LYLE LOVETT and his Large Band

Saturday, August 7; 11 a.m.: Ralph’s World (Family Concert)

Saturday, August 7; 7 p.m.: Lee Ann Womack with special guest Mark Chesnutt

Sunday, August 8; 7 p.m.: Marc Cohn with special guest Bettye LaVette

Reggie’s music venue in Chicago is looking for street teamers to help promote shows. Are you game? Get more info after the jump.

Thanks to our friend Frank over at Windy City Rock, who also covers the local live music scene in Chicago, I got word that Reggie’s Music Joint, Rock Club and Record Breakers is looking for live music fans to join their street team.

Here’s the details:

To participate, you have to be at least 16-years-old, live in the Chicago area and be able to put flyers up at least once a week.

Interested? Get involved by sending an email to reggieslive@gmail.com, including your availability and answers to the following questions:

• Why do you want to be part of the Reggie’s street team?
• Who are your top five favorite bands?

If you decide to join the Street Team at Reggie’s or you’ve been a street team member for another venue, let us know, we’d love to hear about your experiences and spotlight them on Live Fix.

Reggie’s has been the scene for some of the bands and events we’ve featured on Live and here’s a list of previous posts for you to check out:

Band Interview: The Kickback Is Ready To Explode

Concert Review: Every Drop Counts: A Community Grooves and Moves As One

Artist Interview: Every Drop Counts: The Making Of A Haiti Benefit Concert

With each passing concert mobile apps continue to change how we experience live music. But how exactly are some of the most popular mobile concert apps made? Do developers depend on concert fans to improve their apps? Are concert apps becoming more than just a convenient alternative to the usual crumpled paper schedule?

In the update to the Live Fix Summer Music Festival Mobile App Guide, I mentioned that I received an email from Todd Rodgers from Seed Labs. And after his welcomed update, I asked Todd via email to tell us a bit more about how Seed Labs develops the mobile apps for Sasquatch Festival, Lollapalooza, HullabaLOU, ACL and CMA Fest.

Since Seed Labs has learned a lot after developing the first Lollapalooza mobile app last year, Todd also told me how they’ve overcome development barriers, why they depend on live music fans to make their apps better each year and what his dream concert mobile app would be.

I hope you enjoy the chat with Todd and, as always, if you have any questions go ahead and post them in the comments below.

Live Fix: How does Seed Labs create a mobile app for a festival?

Todd: In theory it’s a pretty straightforward process. If a festival signs up we give them a login to a portal site and they put in their band and schedule data, then after they are done with it we pull together artwork for the different platforms, pull the data into the apps and make sure it all looks right. All of the data is stored in the phone so the app will work even if you aren’t on a cell network, that’s why we stick it all in there ahead of time.

Once a festival is happy with the way it looks and works, then we publish it. So far we’ve only had one festival that worked that way though. Most festivals want something different, a feature added here or there, or their data is a little different from how we have things structured. A lot of them already have their data in some other system, so we build into our portal the ability to pull that data in so they don’t have to do any work.

Does Seed Labs do any fan or field testing during development?

We’re all festival-goers ourselves, so we are tuned in to what fans want. Posting a picture to Facebook is a feature we added because I got frustrated at Lollapalooza last year using the Facebook app. You would take a pic, post it, and if the network wasn’t there it was lost forever. So we added the feature in and we save the photo to the camera roll too, in case you can’t connect.

Once we have a feature like that we experiment as best we can, showing it to friends and trying it out at events where we aren’t doing an app. If we get a good response then we know we’re on the right track.

What’s the biggest barrier when creating a mobile app for a concert festival?

The data! It seems like once our clients get their data in and take a look at the app, they realize they need to do more than stick a picture in there. Getting good YouTube links that work on the phone, getting good feeds, all of that stuff is important because people use it. We have a view that lists all of the artists that have video links and you can click them and watch a YouTube video. We had a festival app that went out last week where all of the videos just didn’t work on YouTube, so we stayed up all night finding ones that worked so the feature was actually useful.

How is your approach to concert mobile app development different from other mobile app developers?

I think it helps a lot that we use the same code base for all of our apps, we aren’t writing this thing from scratch every time. We’ve worked out issues at the beginning of the season so each festival that uses it ends up benefiting from that.

We’ve also built in a pretty extensive back end, so if a festival needs to change content in the app after it is in the hands of the users, they can. I got a call from Jazz Fest on the day before Aretha Franklin was supposed to play and she was canceling. They wanted to coordinate updating people’s phones with a press conference they were having that Friday morning, so we set it up and everybody got their schedule updated to show Earth, Wind and Fire were playing instead. We can update the maps, pictures, artist info, stages, whatever the festival wants.

Lastly, we come in pretty cheap compared to how much it would cost to develop from scratch. You can get iPhone, Android and Blackberry for about the cost of writing a basic iPhone schedule app from scratch. Plus, you get a lot of features that would just be too difficult to get into a custom app in the time usually allotted to getting the apps pulled together.

Can you tell us how you created the Lollapalooza, Sasquatch Festival and other apps? What did you guys learn from how fans used last year’s mobile apps?

Lollapalooza 2009 was our first app and it was complete mayhem getting it pulled together in time for the festival. We didn’t have any infrastructure in place to make all of the data management easy so most of the content was put in by hand. From there we took what we built and tried to generalize everything so we could have a repeatable process. We all come from enterprise software backgrounds so we just applied what we had been doing for years in corporate software to this and it worked out.

Learning from last year’s apps, we really dug into the comments people left to figure out what we could have done better and what people wanted that wasn’t there. Our next big release will be the Lollapalooza 2010 app and it will have several features taken from review comments. We’re having to rush rollout for an app store feature, but we will release a cool feature a couple of weeks before Lollapalooza that should be handy to use at the festival.

What do you think is the biggest impact that mobile apps have had on the concert experience?

I really like being able to take pics and push them out there for people to see. I think if we can get our friend finder feature perfect then it will help people coordinate better. But at the end of the day I don’t want to be looking at my phone, I want to be watching!

How do you think mobile apps will continue to change concert culture?

For me at least, festivals are about finding bands that I haven’t heard much of but I like, so maybe apps will evolve to help concert fans discover bands ahead of time or go back and watch what we missed because fans can’t be in two places at one time.

If you could design the perfect or a “dream mobile app” for a concert fan, what features would it have and why?

I’d love for it to be able to record the show, either audio or video so I could go through it again later. I’d love to have it show me the set list after the show so I could remember some of the tunes I heard. And it would also need an ‘unlimited free beer’ coupon built in.

As a fan, what are your top three favorite concert experiences ever?

Lollapalooza last year was tops for me. Jazz Fest this year was a close second. And Austin City Limits festival about 5 or 6 years ago because it got me motivated to go learn guitar.

How would those concerts have changed if you had a mobile app to enhance your experience?

I have pictures from Lollapalooza last year where I still can’t figure out which band it was, so filling captions in automatically with the band name this year is going to be helpful. At Jazz Fest I wish we had more data for the food and crafts areas. I want pictures and descriptions of everything you can eat so you can really plan out your eating schedule. And I don’t think a mobile app would help my guitar playing, unless I could have pulled down the guitar tabs for the songs I heard at the festival.

How can concert fans help make your mobile apps better?

I’d like to let fans know that they comment really help us make the apps better. We always look at the comment fan note in the app reviews; we dig through the comments after each festival to find new ideas for next year. I think my favorite one this year was a comment on the Jazz Fest app asking for the weather forecast in the app so you can know what gear to bring. Cool idea and hopefully we can stick it in next year!

Thanks again to Todd and Seed Labs for taking the time to share their insights and concert experiences.

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