Ambient

Monkey, Buds, and I went to a concert on Sunday night. It was called Ambient Church and it was completely my idea to attend. I loved listening to Music From The Hearts of Space every Sunday night in college.

Buds used to tease me about "music from space," but he and Monkey were both willing to go to the concert with me. It was held at the Methodist Church here in town that I have attended a couple times, and Buds and I have gone to other concerts there, so we knew the space was great for music.

Monkey was glad for the chance to get dressed up. I loved the chance to be out in a crowd of people, people-watching, listening to conversations, accidentally holding the hand of the woman in the pew behind me. You know, the usual.

Those parts, I enjoyed, but the concert itself just did not hit the spot for Monkey and me. Possibly because it didn't begin until 8 p.m., which is late for me. Possibly because we sat in the cheap seats, so the visuals weren't as immersive as they were for people in the front, possibly because our concert was heavy on the cricket sounds, not the didgeridoo as in this sample video.

The musicians were obviously very talented, but when the people next to me started looking at their watches, and a few lucky souls braved the public scorn by leaving, I began to hope I could escape in some way besides the sweet release of death.

I leaned over to Monkey and whispered about how much I wanted to leave. (This was at 8:40.) She said if it wasn't over by 9:15, she was outta there. I wondered why she would wait that long.

At one point, I looked over and Buds was leaning on his arm at the end of the pew, and Monkey had her head resting on his shoulder. I was pretty sure I would soon hear snoring. The music was very soothing.

When 8:55 rolled around, I picked up my coat, leaned over to the two of them and whispered, "Should we go?" Monkey and I both looking at Buds with big, hopeful eyes.

"I don't think so," he said.

I sat back in my seat, trying not to huff, wondering if there would be an intermission and I could make a break for it then.

But at 9:10, the crickets slowly quieted and the lights came on. There was loud applause, and we quickly gathered our coats and made for the door. We had just gotten to the exit when the musicians came back on the stage for an encore. Buds paused, but Monkey and I did not look back.

Best comment of the night was from Monkey as we were driving home. When asked what she thought of the concert she replied, "It feels like I'm being proselytized to by LSD."

I'm glad we had a night out together, but I'll take my space music in the comfort of my own home from now on.