go live

“I love when one of my band members

plays something unexpected that inspires me.”

~ John Legend

One of the things I never do (and I know I should do it because I love it when I do it) is actually spend money on tickets to a performance of some sort. When so many of your peers and friends ask you to attend readings of their new plays or comp you for their shows, it’s easy to spend more time watching plays in their development process than seeing them in production.

Maybe as a painter, your “fun” time ends up being spent in galleries. As a novelist or poet, you always find yourself at readings. As an actor, you shift uncomfortably in your movie seat as you watch the performances of other actors instead of losing yourself in a film.

When the majority of “entertainment” time gets swallowed by what is, in truth, “work” time, it becomes clear it is actually time to go have so good, old, mindless, rock-out fun.

TODAY’S CREATIVITY CHALLENGE:

Find a band you want to see or a band you’ve never heard of, check the paper to find out what Broadway musicals are touring in your town. Maybe the opera? A symphony? A local open mike?

If you’re a performer or a musician and all of this still feels like work, then you need to find a ballet or a modern dance performance happening soon near you. Something musical that doesn’t trigger that competitive voice: “My band is better than...”

Find a live performance. Buy tickets. Set the date in stone.