There’s this meme online where people show mundane but powerful moments of human life – a family playing in the park, someone hugging their dog after a long time away, or maybe two best friends going for a walk – with the text “I almost forgot this was the whole point.” It’s so easy to get caught up in work and the everyday tasks of maintaining a household or navigating personal issues that we can forget to take a second to appreciate the moments of connection and happiness that we experience along the way.
I was thinking about that meme recently at a Noah Kahan concert at Wrigley Field. In the modern world, it’s so easy for us to think of art and culture as digital commodities. Where does a new song rank on the Spotify charts? What new TV shows are now streaming on Netflix? But art and culture are fundamentally experiential things. Historians say people have been paying to attend concerts since at least the 17th century and ancient Greeks were gathering to see live theater way back in the 6th century BC. There is something primal and exciting about watching people play music or deliver lines. It’s real and raw and happening right in front of our eyes.
At Wrigley Field in mid-July, Noah Kahan and his band were firing on all cylinders, pouring themselves into deep cuts like “Haircut” and “Willing and Able” and rocking their way through hits like “Stick Season” and “Doors” for 40,000 audience members gathered on a hot and muggy 90-something degree night. It was easy to get swept up in spending time with friends and family outdoors at a concert, feeling the bass and singing the melodies. It’s a simple thing attending a summer concert, and it’s easy to almost forget that it’s the whole point.
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