I went to Schubas and saw Canasta last week, on the last night of their month-long (?) Practice Space residency. I'd heard some of their stuff, albeit in a limited capacity, and liked it, though I was blown away by seeing them live.

I am always happier with music when it's performed before me. There is such a shared sense of urgency and passion when you're in a room with an artist and he or she or they are conveying his or her or their music to you live. Even bands I don't particularly care for - such as the band I saw last night at Empty Bottle with its "experimental" noises and clacking - I appreciate hearing them in person, more than listening at home.

My music tastes are, as evidenced here on countless occasion, fairly pedestrian. I do a fair job of keeping myself educated on what's out there, and am open-minded to just about anything and everything, but for the most part I'm partial to bands like Canasta. I love something, with, um, a beat that I can dance to. I love music with certain pop sensibilities, and don't think it's not lost on me that I just typed out the phrase "certain pop sensibilities" because I know it automatically makes me a music snob of the highest degrees.

It was this song, "Slow Down Chicago," that made me sit up and take notice of the band that night. The arrangement is beautiful, the lyrics are lovely and the lead singer's voice invokes such a fervor for what it feels like to live in a city like Chicago, and most certainly Chicago itself, that my heart melted all over the floor at Schubas.

One of the things I most love about living in Chicago is how vital being a part of it makes you feel to its existence while subsequently reminding you that all of the best parts about it will go on whether you're here or not, which is pretty much what life is about anyway. To live in a place where you're constantly aware of such a truism is a pretty big blessing.

At least it is to me.