Your last concert was to see who and when?

Last one I heard was a local country music band in the local park's outdoor amphitheater during the local fall festival. It was free. Nice!

Live concert experience opportunities are all around for music lovers at all price points. You just gotta take the time to seek them out.

I paid a few hundred a couple years back to see Paul McCartney at FedEx Field in DC. IT was wonderful. But its the last time I plan to pay megabucks for any concert. I did it in that I am a huge BEatles fan and had never seen any perform live. Now I've been there and done that one.

" it was like 90 minutes of driving through a Kansas wheatfield"

That's funny! Mahler can be that way at times no doubt.

Not a giant Mahler fan. so I don't know the repertoire all that well, but I did see a performance of Symphony #9 many years back that was a knockout. It was memorable enough to prompt me to explore his work a bit further, but I never found much else that grabbed me.

Mahler has some lovely moments, but no doubt it takes a commitment to have a chance of being able to soak it all in.

Even that Kansas wheatfield, like nature in general, has a lot of interesting things going on in places, but you gotta slow down or even get out of the car to have a chance of seeing it.

Mahler #3 is mostly about nature I believe, so the Kansas wheatfield comparison is probably a reasonable one.

I first heard Mahler #3 on NPR years ago. THere was a nice intro explaining what it was about beforehand (see wikipedia entry for it for more). I was totally taken by it from the outset. Then it was a lengthy rollercoaster ride from there, lots of ups and downs, and I felt accordingly along the way. At teh end, I felt transformed in some way, somehow more in tune with the world around me, and I was ready for some Bach at that point. I think the explanation provided up front prior to listening was a big part of that. It all made sense in the end.