Folk-punk and the house show experience is something I want to describe for people who've never been to one.

A house show is not a concert with a more intimate setting. It's a categorically different event. The relationship between performer and audience is not the theater relationship — the stage and the floor, the performance space and the audience space. There is no stage. The performer is in the room with you, often at the same level, sometimes with the audience sitting around them on the floor or standing in a circle.

This creates a kind of shared attention that venue shows don't produce. Everyone in the room is there because they chose to be there in someone's house, and that choice creates a specific quality of attention. The performer can see every face. The acoustic properties of a house room create a directness and immediacy that a PA system at a small venue can't replicate.

The best house shows I've been to have felt more like participatory events than performances — something happening together rather than something being presented.