Musical fidelity and Amy Macdonald

I am usually a fickle music lover. I enjoy one song from a band and then move on- new song, new band. Not a good groupie . Which means, that I've never really enjoyed live bands, at least not famous ones.  I find myself listening out for the few songs that I know and spending the rest of the time lost in a faraway, quiet place where there are comfortable seats and no jostling crowds. And before I know it, the concert is over, the fans are buzzing with post-gig adrenaline and I am drifting home, thinking that the whole thing would have sounded better on CD.
  The best gigs I have ever been to are the ones in tiny venues  The smaller the venue, the closer you feel to the musicians. Sometimes it feels as though they are singing and playing just for you, like they are jamming in your living room.  Of course a small venue generally means a not-yet-famous band and perhaps that's what keeps me dancing.  A not-yet famous band in a small place has to cultivate its fans.  There is an energy and  to the playing, a sense of raw potential that is missing from world famous musicians playing to the impersonal thousands.
I was once lucky enough to hear Robert Cray playing in a small club in Paris.  The smoke was blue, the atmosphere magical, the audience mesmerised by the music .  A year or so later I heard him in a much bigger venue in London. He'd crossed the line from "almost," to "very," famous.The songs were the same songs, he sang them just as well but the atmosphere was missing, the fans less enchanted and my thoughts drifting.
So knowing all of this, I was worried yesterday night when Mia and I drove to the Dome in Brighton to hear Amy Macdonald. I'm as close to being a fan of hers as I ever get and I was really scared that even so, my thoughts would wander.
 I couldn't have been more wrong. 
From the moment Amy Macdonald stepped onto the stage, we were putty in her hands.

Amy Macdonald, Brighton Dome-not quite like being in our living room
http://vimeo.com/16399092 - One of my favourite songs

  For 2 songs we all sat politely,  our true British inhibited manners, stopping us from standing up and dancing in case the people behind us couldn't see and might be forced ot dance too.  Amy was having none of it. 
" There are only 2 explanations for you not dancing," she said: " too much Easter chocolate or laziness. Are you lazy Brighton? Sheffield last night was the most un-lazy audience we've ever played to. Do you want to be beaten by Sheffield" And there was the challenge. And even if the Dome is too big to feel like our living room, each one of us knew she was actually talking to us. We couldn't be beaten by Sheffield and we couldn't make Amy sad! 
So for the rest of the night we were on our feet dancing and stamping ( except when Amy told us to sit down so we could listen properly to the quiet songs! ). She sung all our favourite songs and even those that hadn't been our favourites, became our new favourites, with the haunting beauty and powerful gritty richness of her voice. 
And when we left, I was buzzing like a real fan. 
And I knew there was no way that what we had just heard could have felt or sounded better on CD.
So I think that maybe I have found musical fidelity with Amy Macdonald. 
Although I can't help wishing, that I had heard her in some tiny, unknown venue, when she was not-quite-famous.