EVENTS

“We were all vinyl junkies,” said Robert Plant at a packed press conference immediately following the screening of Led Zeppelin’s new live concert film Celebration Day at the Museum of Modern Art in New York on October 9.

When live sound is as good as it was at Peter Gabriel’s show at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia on September 21, I felt like I had to pinch myself to believe it. I mean, was I really hearing what I was hearing?

Never in the history of humankind has there been such a gathering of nerds, dweebs, freaks, geeks, dinks, dorks, techies, trekkies, wookiees, weirdos, waldos, and wonks like the event that is Comic-Con.

Clearly, these were my people.

Shockingly, this was my first time attending. Shockinglier, it will be my last.

Brick-and-mortar audio retailing is in decline, but fortunately there’s another way to hear the best new sound gear: Attend one of the growing number of regional audio shows. Last year saw the first Los Angeles-area show in years, T.H.E. Show Newport, which took over much of the Hilton Hotel near the Orange County Airport.

“Church.”

That was how a musician friend responded shortly after I told him via iPhone chatter that it was 10 minutes before Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band hit the stage last night in the first of two dates at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey.