We’ve been cruising along with the new Live Fix Radio podcast and every time I talk with a fellow concert fan for a new episode I’m always so pumped after our chat. I freakin’ love hearing about all your live music stories!

That said, we recently met up with Eric “Nihilist” Kolkey who’s in the film You Weren’t There, one of our favorite rock docs about the early punk scene in Chicago. We talked with Eric about his experiences as a promoter and tour manager during the early punk scene in the 80′s, what he feels and does during Vivian Girl concerts and what was so scary and exhilarating about seeing Lady Gaga live in 2007 and then in 2010 at Lollapalooza.

We’ll be sharing our chat with Eric very soon on an upcoming episode, but I just wanted to share this moment with you because if I didn’t I leak a little bit of excitement out of the podcast pressure valve I feel as if I might burst.

I also wanted to share this preview with you because I want to encourage you to swap stories with us and the other concert fans you know.  It’s so powerful and fun to hear what you’re all experiencing at shows and I hope we can do more of this in 2012.

That said, we invite you to join us on the new Live Fix Google Plus page because we’ll be hosting live Hangouts in January and we’d love to have you join us to talk about some of your favorite shows of 2011 and what you’re looking forward to in 2012. You can also follow us on our Twitter page @livefixmedia too for experiments, the latest news, interviews, concert contests and stuff.

Until then, drop a comment below and stay tuned for more!

As you know, we’ve been exploring how Google Plus and Hangouts are allowing fans and bands to connect in new and intimate ways to revolutionize the virtual concert experience.

Now, we’d like to share with you a very interesting story we’ve been following about singer-songwriter Daria Musk who’s been using her Google Plus page and marathon Hangout Concerts to “change her life” and quickly become a rising star on the web.

As you can see by the fan map above and the snippet from Musk’s post about How Google Plus changed her life, the new social network, and it’s ability to create an instant virtual community of live music fans, is completely changing what a concert is, how it’s experienced online, and how the shared experience of a concert can spread virally across the world.

As night turned to day for viewers in Europe, evening into the wee hours of the morning for me, and morning shifted to afternoon in Australia… I kept playing to see as many of their beautiful faces as I could. We played for 7.5 hours straight.

We played for guys in Sweden, ladies in London, a girl in the Dominican Republic, people in Argentina and Ghana and a mother and son in China. A hospital in Portugal fed the live-stream of the concert onto the screens in their ER room to cheer up patients and nurses. I saw little girls dance to my music on an Australian Sunday morning when it was Saturday night for me. I watched the sunrise in Norway through a new fan’s screen while I played my song called “Foreign Cities”. It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.

Musk is a very savvy musician and she’s released the Hangout Concerts online. And I had the pleasure of watching her ask fans what the Hangout Concert album should be called and it wad great to see the community rally around her and most importantly see her connect and interact with her fans directly.

What’s also interesting about Musk’s story is that it’s very similar to how Kate Diaz, another singer-songwriter who has successfully used YouTube to showcase her songwriting skills, develop her talent and get gigs playing with K’NAAN.

Who Else Is Using Google Plus?

Here’s a long list of other artists and musicians who are using Google Plus to connect with fans. The fan engagement level and style varies for all of them. For example, I didn’t see a whole lot of Hangout’s or two-way dialogue from Madonna, Snoop Dogg or Britney Spears, just a lot of the standard tour updates, slice-of-life posts and promotional stuff. But my personal favorites on the list are Blink 182′s Mark Hoppus, and Fallout Boy’s Pete Wentz all of whom have hosted several hangouts with fans.

We’ll continue to follow Musk’s story we’d like to hear what you think about artist using Google Plus to re-invent the meaning of live music. What artists have you enjoyed connecting with and following? Let us know and share your thoughts in the comments below and we’ll include them in a future episode of Live Fix Radio.

We’re also putting together our first Concert Fan Hangout, so connect with us on the Live Fix Google Plus page.

That’s a question I’ve been wondering about this week as I think about the collective impact of our previous Michael Jackson mourning, social media and virtual concert Experiments. And it’s fascinating to think how all those experiments have somehow merged into one for this Michael Jackson Tribute Concert.

So here’s details on how our MJ emotions will be getting stirred up today in the UK.

According to Billboard, the tribute to the late King of Pop will be co-hosted by Jamie Foxx and BBC Radio-1 presenter Fearne Cotton. Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green, and Smokey Robinson will perform live at the event, among others, while Beyonce will perform via live video stream. Profits will raise money for charities, including the AIDS Project and the Prince’s Trust. The show will be broadcast online worldwide.

Unfortunately the Black Eyed Peas, who were both originally scheduled to perform, had to pull out at the last minute due to “unavoidable circumstances.” And sadly it doesn’t look like the BEP will be having a Google Plus Hangout or a Flash Mob either.

Billboard also reports that the tribute has fallen short of sell-out by 10,000 tickets.

But those numbers don’t include the virtual tickets.

Yes, as I mentioned at the start, there’s a social media element to the concert.

If you can’t make the show in-person, you will be able to tune in virtually courtesy of Milyoni and Ridgeline Entertainment and Facebook.

Billboard says this will be the first ever live Pay-Per-View event available to the social networking site’s global audience. And you can purchase access to the broadcast from Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales for 40 Facebook credits ($3.99) prior to the Oct. 8 show, or for 50 Facebook credits ($4.99) on the day of the event.

Furthering the social experience, viewers will be able to like, comment, chat and share the concert experience with fellow fans around the world. Merchandise will also be made available through a shopping cart application embedded within the Michael Forever: The Tribute Concert Facebook page.

Will You Be Tuning In and Getting Emotional?

Have you had an emotional experience at concert that was MJ-related? Do you plan on tuning in to the Facebook concert? Were you at the live show in the UK? Let us know in the comments below and we’ll share your MJ story during a future episode of Live Fix Radio.

Last night we had a great time continuing our Google Plus Experiment by hosting and joining in a Hangout. And I have to say that I’m even more pumped and excited as I was before about using the social network to share concert stories and connect with you, my fellow live music fans.

Steven’s Gate Crashing Story

As we told you during our Lollapalooza podcast episode and concert fan tribute, we had the pleasure of meeting Steven and discovering a few of the details about his gate-crashing story as we headed into Lollapalooza this year.

And last night during a Google Plus video Hangout we had the chance find out more of the inspiring and creative back story of what happened before and after Lollapalooza, and more about Steven’s concert experiences which involved seeing and being in a Flaming Lips video and seeking in to see the Wu-Tang Clan at SXSW 2011.

We’ll be sharing Steven’s full story on a future episode of Live Fix Radio so keep your eye out for that episode because what he told me had me smiling and shaking my head in amazement and I have a feeling you’re going to really enjoy Steven’s story too.

I always get excited when I have the opportunity to talk with other fans about their experiences and I have to say this Hangout test run that included me, Steven and Colleen was a perfect primer for our plan to have regular Hangouts with concerts fan where we talk about our live music stories and other concert topics. And I’ll tell you how you can join us in a moment.

But first, let me tell you what else happened last night.

Spontaneous “Open Mic” Hangout

Immediately after our time with Steven we jumped right into a other “open mic” Hangout hosted by musicians Heather Fay and Cat Beach.  This experience still has been buzzing this morning because it allowed us to continue our virtual concert experiments.

And what I love the most about this open mic Hangout (photo above) was that it was intimate, friendly, communal and totally spontaneous, which are all qualities I’ve enjoyed about most of the concert-focused Hangouts I’ve been a part of. You can find out more about Fay’s virtual “open mics” nights at Hangoutparty.com.

It’s in these types of intimate online live music settings that I think bands have the greatest opportunity to create powerful connections with fans before, during and after the show.

And these types of virtual mini-concert experiences are also great for creating valuable connections with other bands and promoters to build a strong support system, especially when it comes time to tour and collaborate on future albums.

Right now it appears that Hangouts are limited to about 10 people, but it seems that some Hangouts can hold more people or they be configured differently for larger audiences, especially when it involves a band or musician. I say this because the Black Eyed Peas recently hosted the largest pre-show Hangout to date with their NYC concert on Sept 1st, that raised over 4 million dollars for charity.

According to Google Plus news here’s what Will.i.am said about the Hangout and connecting with fans:

lets have fun at the backstage hangout…we even have a hangout onstage as well…
i want to re-define backstage interaction with fans who can not make the show…i think this will be the very first online backstage onstage web cam session…
“i like doing things 1st”

And here’s a 3hr plus video that captures the event.

After our Oprah Flash Mob Experiment we’re not surprised that the BEP’s are early adopters on Google Plus and we’re looking forward to seeing what they and other bands will offer fans i n the future.

How Can You Join Our Experiment with Google Plus?

As we mentioned before, we’ll be hosting more Hangouts about Emotions, complaints, Dancing Guys and other popular Experiments we’ve done, and we’d love to have you join us.

Google Plus is now open to everyone and all you need to do is sign up here. Once you’re set up go ahead and find me on Google Plus, and then add me to your circle. Be sure to drop me quick note letting me know you’d like to be involved in the next Live Fix Hangout.

Until then, I’d love to hear what you’ve been experiencing on Google Plus so let me know what you think in the comments below and we’ll share your story on future episode of Live Fix Radio.

After we began our tour tour rider experiment last week, I’m excited to tell you I have some excellent evidence to share that we discovered at the Hideout Block Party on Sunday just before Mavis Staples’ set.

As you can see by the picture above there was a large throne waiting for Mavis Staples. It was created by the folks at the Hideout as they wanted to do everything she requested in her tour rider.

And I was able to capture a piece of the action for you below in the Soundcloud player as Tim Tuten from the Hideout shares the funny tour rider story with the crowd explaining why they felt The Queen deserved her very own throne.

I also have to say that it’s been a great last two months of shows, especially when it comes to experiencing ageless wonders like Staples and Tony Bennett. These two artist have really shown how they are rare gems and STILL have the power to show up today’s artist who are not even half their age!

Why Did Mavis Staples Move Me?

I couldn’t help but marvel at Staples during her set. There was so much soul, grace & righteous power flowing from her heart and into ours that I just stood there and soaked it up in utter glory.

One of my favorite moments was during “You’re Not Alone,” the title track from her Grammy-winning album that was produce by Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy.

It was the first time that I had heard the song live, or experienced Mavis Staples live, and I will never forget was it was like to watch her perform the song with fellow Chicagoan Nora O’Connor.

It was as if Staples was revealing a deep part of her soul and life with us as the song unfolded.

And the moment moved me so much so that I could help but continue our Twitter Experiment and tweet this message below because so many of my own thoughts and emotions that we buried down deep all of sudden came shooting up to the surface of my mind and heart. And there was so way I could push them back down or denied them.

Again, only a handful of artists have every done this to me during a show and Staples is certainly on that very short list.

Were You There?

Were you at the Hideout Block Party? Have you ever felt like this at concert? How has a artist moved you emotionally during a show? Let us know what you think and we’ll share your story during a future episode of Live Fix Radio.

Mavis Staples Intro – Hideout Block Party at Hideout Block Party by livefixchris

So the other day I saw this tweet that Roger Ebert tweeted and I replied back to him asking him what he thought about a today’s female pop stars handling the very rowdy situation at Altamont.

Well, I was really hoping to hear back from Roger. But I haven’t yet.

So I thought I pass along my question to you, my fellow concert fan.

And to help you answer my question, you can read this about Katy Perry. This about Lady Gaga. This about Rihanna. And this about Beyonce.

Oh, and you can also watch the video below that inspired Roger’s original tweet. (There’s a wee bit of concert skin in the video, this is 1968 after all. So watch with caution.)

I really look forward to what you have to say (especially you Roger).

And stay tuned as we continue to explore how pop stars of different generations would respond to different live concert situations. Yes, it will get emotional.

I’ve been having lots of fun on Google Plus these last couple months.

Ever since I got my invite I’ve been playing around with it to see what the value of the social network is for concert fans. And I have to say that I’m really excited about the possibilities.

What I love the most about the experience is that there’s a lot of functions that are improvements on Twitter and Facebook, and this is the first post, of many I’m sure, where I’ll be sharing with you what I think are some of the best ways for you to get in on the fun as other concert fans are having with the new social network as it evolves.

What Happened During The Metallica Live Stream On YouTube?

For starters last night I had one of my favorite virtual concert moments when I was a part of a thread started by Robert Scoble who posted about Metallica being streamed live from Rio on YouTube.

The reason I loved this moment was because it was so fluid and spontaneous and the nature of the thread was filled the buzz of discovery and thrill of real-time storytelling and memory sharing about everyone’s feelings about Metallica at that exact moment and thoughts about Metallica in general.

Here’s how it unfolded.

I was working on another project and I had my Google Plus stream open and the second I saw Scoble post about the Metallica concert which I was also watching at the same time, I posted a comment and asked him a question about his Metallica concert experience.

A few minutes later, Scoble responded with the post noted above in the screen shot.

And it was fantastic to get insight into how the show was moving him at that moment mainly because that’s what I love to do. I love to know what it is about a specific live music moment that gets us so excited and I think Google plus has the greatest possibilities to do just that.

And from there the others joined in and the thread on the Metallica YouTube live steam really took off!

It was quite the rush to see everyone chime in from all around the world.

Some fans where in Rio, some had friends who were at the show and others were just adding context to their real-time experience by posting comments about what they were loving about the show.

Here are some of my highlights of the thread, especially Nick Wood post about mixing in Google Plus Hangouts.

I’m calling out Nick’s comment because I believe Hangouts possess the greatest possibility for concert fans to experience live music and share our concert story in a whole new way.

I’m not going to get into all the details right now but I will tell you that some bands are already taking advantage of the Hangouts such as Joe Satriani and other artists who’ve been using the live video chat feature to take fans into the studio and share live show stories.

Why Should Bands Start Using Google Plus as Fans?

And when you think about, the benefits for bands to start using Google Plus now it that it’s a fantastic way to connect with core fans on a very grass roots and personal level.

And those bands that do jump in on threads like this Metallica one, or other live music threads, and interact with fans will certainly stand out.

Think about it…

How cool would it be as a fan to find yourself  randomly  interacting with James Hetfield or the member of your favorite band in a thread on Google Plus.  If this were to happen, it would be a great way for band buzz to build virally on a social network during a tour or before a tour kicked off.

As you can tell, I’m pretty jazzed about this sort of thing and I’ll be posting more examples and info to this post and future posts as I discover other artists who are using Hangouts and other Google Plus features in creative ways.

But right now, the band’s taking advantage of these great opportunities are few and far between because there’s not a whole lot of bands on the network yet as Mashable points out.

What Else is Getting Me Jazzed About Google Plus (So Far)?

That said, the most buzz and excitement I’ve experienced so far is when I interacted with other fans and Google Plus staff who’ve also been demonstrating how to best use the network for sharing virtual concerts experiences and live music memory storytelling.

And it those those types of experiences where I’ve gotten most of the value out of Google Plus, which is why I’ll be pointing you in the direction of insightful folks and fellow concert fans like Natalie Villalobos, a Google Plus Community Manager.

Natalie’s shared her backstage and front row experience with the Black Eyed Peas front man Will.i.am and her favorite ACL moments.  She’s also posted helpful info like this one that I shared about how you can use Google Hangouts and other new features to enhance your concert experiences and connect with other fans.

How Can You Join Our Experiment with Google Plus?

On Live Fix, we’ll also be doing some Hangouts just for concert fans, and if you want to be invited go ahead and connect with us on the Live Fix Google Plus page and we’ll let you know when it’s happening. Until then, I’d love to hear what you’ve been experiencing on Google Plus so let me know what you think in the comments below and we’ll share your story on future episode of Live Fix Radio.

Love and hate. Pleasure and pain. Doubt and clarity. Those were just some of the profound and entertaining topics I discovered as I compiled our second edition of Tweets of the Week.

It’s been fun watching this experiment evolve and it’s turning out to be a facinating exploration into what you love to express at all points of the live music experience.

My initial hunches are being confirmed, and through this experiment I’m finding hard evidence that our lives are being changed not just during the show — but before and after.

I’m discovering more about the truth that the surge of our live music emotions, complaints, memories and expectations is taking us all on a wild and surprising ride when we least expect it — and we’re all turning to Twitter to share the glory of this emotional rush with our fellow concert fans.

This week’s list was longer than last week’s, and it was hard to pick which tweets were my favorite. But I was able to narrow it down a little bit out of the hundreds of tweets I saw over the last seven days.

As I mentioned in our first post, I use a keyword search to compile the list. And this week I decided to mix things up with other Live Fix experiments by focusing on the phrases “I love concerts”, “I hate concerts,” “9/11” and “concert emotions“.

So whenever any of you tweeted using a combination of those words that’s when your tweet popped up in my search. (I’ll be creating a special Live Fix hashtag allowing you to be included in the experiment, so stay tuned for that soon.)

And boy did a lot of great tweets show up in my search stream!

Why My Face Is Frozen In A Perpetual Smile

I caught myself many times during the week laughing out loud at the brilliance and wit of your 140 character expressions.

Many times during the week I had to shove my mobile phone in front of Colleen or even read your tweets out loud to her because these tweets were so revealing, funny, witty and insightful to say the least.

As you’ll see, whether you were thinking, dreaming or reminiscing about Nirvana, Justin Bieber, Selena, Chris Brown, Beyonce concerts,  the tweets below show a side of concert fans honestly speaking our minds in real-time as the show unfolds right in front of us.

Ya’ll Got Deep With Your Tweets Too

And then there were several tweets filled with profound moments of reflection and revelation as you tweeted your thoughts while heading to your car after the show, contemplating the deeper meaning of live music, or sitting in your bed vomiting wishing you were at a concert.

It’s was also a pleasure to come across a tweet from our friends at Concert Weirdos who’s tweets always put a smile on my face and remind me how awesome live music really is.

So without further ado, here’s this week’s list. And check out our special invitation to join this experiment below.

What About Your Tweets?

What did you tweet during your last concert? How do you think Twitter is changing live music? Follow us on Twitter @livefixmedia and let us know what you think and we’ll share your feedback during a future episode of Live Fix Radio.

Continuing our exploration of Live Nation and social media, this past weekend I noticed that Live Nation asked concert fans a very interesting question on their Facebook page. And I’d like to ask you the same one too, but in a different way.

Live Nation’s question to their 368,230 Facebook fans was “If you won the ultimate live music experience, what would that entail.”

I really like this question and it took me a while to think of my own ultimate scenario. In the screenshot above , you can see what I posted above as the Live Fix fan page.  And since I was also entertained by what other fans posted, here’s a few of my favorite fan comments too:

“I’d want a 2 staged concert with Clay Aiken on half the time and Eminem on the other half of the time. Kinda my Angel/Devil coming out in me. heehee”

“Sitting on stage at a Prince Concert with him singing Adore to me. ”

“My entire summer vacation touring with the one and only LADY GAGA. Not performing, just being backstage and watching her awesomeness unfold. That is my ultimate dream. Hearing her sing born this way would compete my life. A dream career (bu…t will never happen) is being on her tech crew for her shows. I don’t care if she is bossy and relentless wanting everything perfect, I will make it happen. I will do what she asks in a heartbeat. (Almost anything, mass murder not gonna happen. Ahhhh it is nice to vent my feelings like this ”

“Seeing Deftones and then having Chino bang me afterwards!”

“Play a round of golf with the Eagles. Watch a concert back stage with the Eagles. Have dinner and drinks with the Eagles. Priceless!”

Now, I invite you to take a moment to share your ultimate scenario and post it in the comments below.

Is Their Question Genuine?

As I was posting my response on their Facebook page, I asked myself… Is Live Nation’s Facebook community truly a community of live music fans, and do fans feel like their concert moments are truly being celebrated or just turned into marketing research and service promotion like their Ticketology blog.

And if social media is suppose to allow companies and brands to be transparent, than why doesn’t  Live Nation lead the way and find a creative way to use their Facebook page to tell the ongoing story of the merger and the current state of the concert ticket industry as it continues to dramatically impact the fan experience.  And is Live Nation really interested in celebrating the fan experience? Or should we continue to assemble our Concert Fan Complaints Choir?

What do you think?

And stay tuned as we share more of our extended SXSW 2011 coverage and quotes from the concert ticketing industry panel we attended while in Austin.

Coachella sells out in a week? A rapper threatens to shoot up a crowd? Linkin Park is using fans to test out new marketing channels? Parrot Heads go from ecstasy to horror in a matter of seconds? Foursquare expanding its concert experiments? A Live Nation lawsuit?

It’s been a busy week for concert news, so here’s a mega-post of updates and links to bring you up to speed on the last seven days of action in the wacky and wonderful world of live music!

Jimmy Buffett Falls Off Stage After Climatic Cruise Song

It’s never fun or easy to share news about an artist falling off stage, but oddly and strangely enough it happens more than we’d like to admit, and watching the pain unfold in front of us certainly impacts how we feel and react to the show the ends so abruptly and with such pain.

This week Jimmy Buffet fell off stage at the end of a show in Australia, and the video below captures the odd and painful moment. As always, we wish Mr. Buffett a speedy recovery.

To put the moment in context, a here’s a second video that a fan took that shows a bit more of the before and after.

Plies Gets hit with Cup at Concert, Threatens to Shoot Up Crowd

Now, this next video is not safe of all audiences since it does have some nasty language and is a terrible representation of live hip hop show, lest I even call it that. But you be the judge and tell us if you think, rapper Plies needs to work on his crowd control skills.

Here’s a quote from the fan who took the uploaded YouTube video below followed by the Plies’s comments, just in case you have a hard time hearing what he said.

Fan account:

“Plies hit with cup at concert. This was in Orlando. Some dude in front of me threw the cup and they was looking like I did it. I got a bottle of rose’ in one hand and I phone in the other. Plus who really throws drinks, thats alcohol abuse.”

Plies words of wisdom:

“I swear to God, next [person] to throw something up here, I’ma shoot this bitch up in here right now!” growled the rapper, who was caught on video. “Next bitch that throw something up here, they gon’ get it,
bro.”

Live Nation To Pay Out 22.3 MM Lawsuit

Continuing our exploration into the adventures of Live Nation Ticketmaster, it looks like 2011 might be more like 2010 as they get ready to pay out a pretty hefty lawsuit as Billboard reports.

Is Foursquare Expanding Your Concert Check-in Possibilities?

Yes, social media is changing the course of our live music experiences, and according to this MIDEM interview with Foursquare’s Naveen Selvadurai, the geo-location service might be getting more interactive for artists and concert fans.

There’s some other good stuff from MIDEM here too.

Coachella Sells Out In Six Days?

I’ll keep this simple and say that when I heard the news of Coachella selling out in six days, I had my doubts that it was all “fans” buying up the tickets. Was it another fake promotional situation? Probably not.

But, of course, we’re always up for a healthy and thought-provoking debate. What say you, insightful concert fan? Does anyone else smell the sent of scalpers?

Linkin Park Testing Out New Strategies On Concert Fans?

Last but certainly not least, this Chicago Sun-times story about Linkin Park experimenting with new ways to make money touring was quite intriguing considering their music really hasn’t improved over the years as much as their allegedly innovative marketing and revenue-generating strategies have.

That’s it for now. What was your favorite news story this week? Did we overlook something? Don’t hold back, and by all means, please enlighten us and share your thoughts in the comments!