Every week the Collegian publishes a bunch of concert previews. There's one in just about every issue, and usually another few in Venues. But no matter how well-written they are (and since I've written a ton myself, you know they're well-written), they always lack something:

The music itself.

Yeah, profiles and previews are nice, but if you're on the fence about going to a show, your best bet is to just listen to the band. At the Collegian, we're working on getting with the times and running audio and video with some of our stories, but until that's commonplace, just hit up the bands' websites and MySpace profiles.

This isn't exactly breaking news, but it probably deserves mention.

Whenever I interview a musician, one of the first questions I always ask is "How would you describe your sound?" It's a clichéd question, sure, but it's of relative importance when it comes to a concert preview.

As I've mentioned in past blog entries, musicians rarely have a good answer for this. At best, they offer something way too abstract to understand without hearing the music, and at worst, something along the lines of "rock and roll."

In their defense, it's not their jobs to describe their music. That's the job of music critics and reporters, and even we're not all that great at it.

But even when we do a good job, there really isn't a substitute for actually hearing the band. And while listening a few songs on a band's MySpace is hardly comparable to attending a live performance, it can at least give you a decent idea of whether or not the show might be worth your time.