All I ask

I claim no special insight into what makes a concert great. But attempting to define a great concert is a fun challenge, because it recalls to mind some potent memories.

A great concert makes people dance. The music is melodic, the percussion syncs to a fast heart rate with a dollop of syncopation, and the volume of reverberating air is a partner held close. At Paul Simon's Graceland concert with Ladysmith Black Mambazo in Madison Square Garden in July 1987, people were dancing in the aisles even 500 feet from the stage.

A great concert includes a phenomenal band. When Jane Siberry performed her Child holiday tour in December 1996, she brought together a dozen top musicians including Tim Ray, Rebecca Campbell, Phillip Brown, and others who can all stand on their own as soloists or lead performers. Musicians who have nothing to prove, and everything to share.

A great concert showcases a performer's repertoire. You hear old favorites brought to new life, new work that surpasses your old favorites, and you come to new understandings of why you love this musician. You learn about the performer through anecdotes and introductions that bridge the songs, a process that makes lyrics shine. And over and over, you lose yourself in the music as much as you imagine the musicians do.

A great concert has layers of standing ovations and encores because neither the audience nor the performers want to let the evening end. A great concert wears your feet out from tapping, wears your hands out from clapping, and simultaneously energizes your soul. Suzanne Vega's last lyric tonight was "All I ask is you remember me." When she puts on a great concert like she did tonight, that won't be a problem.