Music travel plans

Getting out of town, whether it is for a full blown vacation or a brief weekend breather, is a great way to get out of a rut and recalibrate your attitude. But if you are like a lot of us, you may have had the experience of circling a destination on the map and then following through and taking the trip, only to find that you never really did anything that was all that memorable when you were there. You settle into the room, do some sightseeing, go out to eat, and then you may find yourself in a lounge somewhere staring at the wall or listening to a gaggle of locals singing karaoke (not that there’s anything wrong with that).

One idea to consider when you are planning a trip is to make your plans around a concert that you would like to see. A lot of people have done this when they were in their younger years, but it is just as much fun no matter how old you are. There are some fantastic venues around the country, both large and intimate, where you can enjoy all that a particular town has to offer while topping it off with a great time seeing one of your favorite musical artists. It’s a lot more fun to anticipate a trip to New York to see McCoy Tyner at the Blue Note if you are a jazz fan than it is to simply sip a martini in your hotel lounge. And you may never plan the trip at all if there is not some reason to go that gets you excited about it.

If you haven’t planned a trip around a concert that you’d like to see in a while, give it some consideration. There is nothing more exhilarating than a live musical performance delivered by an artist that really means something to you, and when many of us look back on the best times of our lives, live music was often a big part of these memorable experiences.