It’s not unlike how this summer helped many white folks find a clearer sense of accountability in connection to the many manifestations of systematic racism in America. Whether we’re talking over singers who are baring their souls, or failing to compensate those same artists by streaming their music instead of buying it at the merch table, listeners could stand to hold themselves accountable in ways we haven’t in the past.
But what Dawid did in Germany feels vital for this moment, especially as we have some time and distance from live music to think about how concerts work. Think “You’ve Got a Friend” from Donny Hathaway’s similarly titled Live album - the crowd becomes a part of the song during the choruses, and there may not be a more beautiful recording of that well-traveled composition. The very best live albums find a way to break down that barrier. And not by stopping the show and having them removed or shunned by the rest of the crowd she brings that onlooker’s decision to withhold support into the song itself. We need you to affirm us.” In that moment, she shatters the whole set of power dynamics, especially the one about crowd participation being earned, en route to something both totally revolutionary and refreshingly simple: She holds someone in the audience accountable.
You hear it in the opening moments of LIVE, when Dawid is scolded by a hotel employee for playing a lobby piano, and you hear it during the set, when Dawid entreats an audience member who didn’t join a call-and-response chant: “What’s wrong with me? You don’t love me. While that whole set of invisible exchanges - everything from the height of the stage and the price of admission to the convention of applause - often flies under the radar for attendees, imbalances are acutely perceptible when you’re the performer, and on this night in Germany, Angel Bat Dawid & Tha Brothahood turned a lack of balance (resulting from racism they experienced while on tour) into art. In the process, she lays bare the set of power dynamics that hangs in the balance at a concert. The word transcendent gets thrown around a lot, often as hyperbole in place of “really good.” But this live set from Angel Bat Dawid & Tha Brothahood breaks through the performer/audience barrier in spectacular fashion. – Angel Bat Dawid & Tha Brothahood - LIVE Here are a handful of 2020 live albums I loved, starting with one that immediately feels like an all-time great. And if Bandcamp Fridays have been any indication, artists have also been turning to the format - as a way to engage fans while we all wait for tours to resume.
It’s so heartening that relief for those venues is on the way, as a result of recent Congressional action, but with live music’s return still a ways off, I’ve been turning to live albums as a way to fill that void. Of driving by them and wondering what it’s like inside. Either way, I wouldn’t have been able to imagine how this feels - the strange sensation of my favorite venues seeming so remote. If you’d told me on January 1st that concerts would register as a distant memory by year’s end, I’m not sure whether I would have either laughed or cried.
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