One of Erin Jane Laroue’s favorite things to do is watch people play music. It always has been. It’s a love that might’ve started back when she was a kid in Massachusetts and her parents regularly took her to see what we now think of as classic rock bands. Or maybe it started one night in 1996, when Laroue discovered the existence of avant-garde icon Diamanda Galás via a poster on a telephone pole in Providence, Rhode Island. Hours later, she was at the show, having her mind properly blown.
Or perhaps Laroue cemented her love of live music over the past 18 years in Portland, where she’s well-connected within the music scene and has had a chance to see just about any killer band you can think of at least once, if not several times. The point is: Laroue has been going to concerts for a long time, and for about 30 years, those experiences were tied together by her feelings of admiration and awe for folks who could step onstage and perform for a crowd.