House Concerts Bring Music Lovers Together
Ben Dungan
Gastonia resident Carla Lane has a passion for music. In fact, she loves it so much, she doesn’t watch TV anymore.
Carla is a fan of the live music variety, too. So it made sense that she decided to host her first ever house concert. Last December, Carla invited local musician Ang Medlin along with some friends and family over to her house for an evening of live music.
Carla is one of many music lovers across the country that is opening his/her home up to performing musicians. These intimate gatherings make it possible for music lovers to connect with the performers in an upfront and personal way. Not only do the folks in attendance benefit from this experience, but the performers do as well. Often times when a restaurant or bar books a performer in their establishment, they get relegated to a corner only to serve as background music.
Talk to any musician and they’ll tell you how they love to play in front of 
people. However, playing music and being heard are two different things. Restaurants and bars rarely make good listening rooms when it comes to music. Enter the house concert – a place where the audience is fully engaged in every lyric and note played by the performer. And due to the size of most living rooms, it is often times a smaller audience. Musicians prefer an attentive audience any day. And that’s what these house concerts offer – like-minded people gathered together to celebrate their love of music.
Hosting a house concert requires three things – a passion for the music, a desire to open your home up, and a space large enough to hold the musician and your friends. For some hosts, it may be a living room. Others may have used their back deck or patio for the performance.
So, after talking to Carla, I had to know. Would she host another one in the future? She gave me an emphatic yes. She is already planning the next one in her mind. I have no doubt that Carla will open her home in the future for another concert. However, it’s not an open invite. In order to get invited, you’ve got to have one thing – a love for music.
Don’t worry, though. I have a feeling Carla won’t make you give up your TV.
