Hear in This Place

From "Listen: The Stages And Studios That Shaped American Music" by Rhona Bitner, Rizzoli, 2022

Spaces where music took place. Where something happened, and when people play there now they realize that they are standing on the same stage where—and let’s say it’s First Avenue in Minneapolis. Before you played here you used to wait in line on the sidewalk and look at the names inside the stars on the facing wall. It’s sort of corny: names inside of stars. But then you’re on stage and you realize that your right foot, just a step in front of your left, is in the same spot where Prince put his. You can almost imagine that there is an imperceptible depression on the stage. That he left a mark. And so you press down harder, as is if you will, too.

Or, perhaps with even more force, you’re in the crowd in the same place. You’re looking up at the stage. You know that countless people before you stood where you are standing now and when the show was over they walked out feeling as if the world had changed, as if nothing would ever be quite the same—and that, maybe the odds are a million to one, that that will happen tonight, and everyone will feel it. The band plays this set every night; maybe it means nothing to them. It’s their job, their work, their calling, even—they can’t imagine doing anything else. But for you, it’s as if you’ve entered into history. Nothing like this has ever happened to you before, and you can feel, with an odd combination of disappointment and satisfaction, that nothing like this will ever happen to you again. Because if it did, then that first time wouldn’t be that special at all, would it? If it could happen anywhere, any time?