OL holiday show, Alexandria VA, 28 Nov. 05

From an e-mail sent to me by María José:

Adam - if you'd like, feel free to post this to the olnet blog (I think that's what it's called?). Wonderful show at the Birchmere, of course. Pura magia. Shalom! :)

Ma. Jose
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What is it about this music? That's what I've been asking myself since first stumbling upon the online OL NPR interview unexpectedly in the Fall of 2004 and then, intrigued, sending away for La Semana from this SSRI website that I had never heard of. So much has happened in my life in the past 12 months and both OL's and Jon Gagan's music have been part of my soundtrack, elevating my mood even more when I was already feeling on top of the world and enveloping me with warmth when I felt as if I was about to jump off a cliff, plus every other mood in between. So to say that I was very much looking forward to the show at the Birchmere is an understatement.

The music began to whisk me away with the first few familiar notes. All the silverware clanging on dinner plates, conversations around me, and whatever other noise existed simply disappeared. OL's and Jon's fingers move so deftly and quickly on the strings, making it all look so easy. The string arrangements are skillfully woven into the melodies, as if they had always been part of the songs. I wondered if Davo had a treasure chest behind him with all kinds of wonderful percussion instruments - what child wouldn't love to rummage through it? I did not really pay much attention to which songs they played or the names of the songs, I was simply immersed in the music. The band got two standing ovations, one before the encore and another one afterwards.

I have been thinking that there should be a word to describe each of the following: (1) playing OL or Transit at night while being engrossed in a book, fighting the inevitability of sleep to read just one more page and listen to just one more song, only to drift off to peaceful slumber with the music still going, and (2) the ability of this wondrous music to transcend whatever you happen to be doing at the time. Now I think that there should also be a word to describe what it feels like to hear the band play live.