It is difficult for me to be critical when I go to concerts, because I always appreciate how much effort the artist puts into their music, and how they pour their entire heart and soul into what they are performing. Therefore, it makes it incredibly difficult to critique someone’s art. It feels like you are critiquing their entire person. But I also have never been to a concert that I disliked. Which is an entirely different conversation to be had another time. But I felt it was important to say that despite my apprehension at judging an artist, Vance Joy did not receive any negative thoughts from me last night.
Vance Joy followed my pattern of making me fall in love with an artist even more after seeing them perform live. Seeing a musician in concert just gives their music an entire life of its own that infuses their songs with such energy whenever I listen to them in the future. It is like I have a recording of the concert in my head whenever I go to listen to their songs on my phone, and I am reliving the concert and the feeling of being in that room with the artist.
I also love how concerts can completely alter the feeling of a song. For example, the specific way a musician performs their music, or how the artist talks about an individual song can bring you to think of their music very differently. At the beginning of the concert, Vance Joy came on the stage performing Mess is Mine, a song on his recent album that I had always enjoyed, but had never adored. Suddenly, as he was performing it, I could feel his energy and his happiness mixed into the song. Now, Mess is Mine is easily my favorite song on his album. Also, when introducing some of his pieces, Vance Joy would give a bit of back story about how he came to write the song. For From Afar, he told a story about being in love and pining after someone who is unavailable. I had never caught onto this storyline by just listening to the song by itself, but with this new meaning, the song takes on a much deeper emotion.
All in all, it seems like Vance Joy is out to have a fantastic tour. His stage production was very high quality, though at times the light schemes were rather overwhelming. He seems like an incredibly genuine musician who definitely is a little green, but has a lot of growing to do. If he can keep pouring out his heart through his music, I am sure he is destined for great things.
