Our Awesome Music Club
Back in 2012 while at a gig in Bar Bodega, Wellington, me and a friend-of-a-friend were discussing our our various music tastes. Back and forth we listed styles and bands we'd enjoyed our entire lives or recently stumbled upon. Now, 4 years and 20+ meetings later, our Music Club is going from strength to strength...
That night we realised we were having a conversation many of our friends would really want to be part of; ranting about what we love, discovering new avenues to venture, shooting down the opinions of others! We decided to convene a regular get-together of similar-minded music fans, sharing aural insight while enjoying good beer and fine food.
Basically what we're talking about here is a modified book club, although way cooler, obviously. A member volunteers or is designated to select a theme a couple of weeks in advance of a meeting, and that decides the order of events for the meeting. A member hosts and we each bring some beer and food to enjoy while we listen to the selections of each of the attendees (and also tele-representatives who cannot be present). Each selection is preceded by an introduction by the selector of what the choice is, some background on it, and how it's linked to the theme.
Themes we've had in the past include:
We've deviated from each person selecting 2 tracks on the theme by having full album selections and have just recently begun a run of 3 'Brewsic Club' gatherings over which time we're brewing a 7+% red IPA to be enjoyed at the last session.
This group and regular gathering has introduced me to many, many artists and styles I may not have otherwise gotten round to checking out; styles such as jazz hip-hop fusion through Kamasi Washington, deathly drone from Haxan Cloak, indie punk classics by Hüsker Dü and irreverent British hip-hop by The Sleaford Mods.
I encourage more music clubs to start up all around the world - go forth; share your passion open mindedly with others, and smugly berate them for their inferior taste!