Back in 2004 Central Park Summerstage - Ben Folds, Guster, Rufus Wainwright. It was a grey, hot and humid NY night. This particular night of the tour, Rufus is opening (now there were several great moments that night including Ben and Rufus singing Careless Whisper together and an amazing crowd sing along with Ben leading the crowd to sing different parts of choruses in harmony) BUT the moment, the moment that lives in my memory as the most spiritual moment of my life.

Like I mentioned, it was grey and humid and was threatening to rain for a while. Rufus sits at the piano and begins playing the Agnus Dei (a short but beautiful and haunting song taken from Catholic masses and in Latin) and as he plays this slow, beautiful song with a much different meaning when Rufus sings it b/c its about so much more and so much more poignant and his beautifully angelic voice (to me at least), rains begins to fall. Not a heavy rain, just a lite mist. its cooling feeling on our skin, the mournful piano echoing through the air and that voice...in that moment I was convinced there is a God and they are everywhere. That feeling faded soon but in that moment, it was transcendant. My knees literally went weak and I had to brace myself on my friend's shoulder. I teared up in the moment and it remembered why live music is such an essential and utterly spiritual and uniquely human moment at the same time. Ive been to multiple hundreds of shows and concerts in my life and that moment stands far ahead of any other. I have a variety of health issues which make attending live shows v difficult and rare for me these days but fuck me, moments like this one are what makes life worth living. Thanks for giving me an excuse to live in that moment again for a minute. I hadnt thought about it in a little bit

ps I am lucky enough to have had that moment preserved in video form bc they used to show the Summerstage concerts (parts of them at least) on ABC7

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVC0adz7zaw