Entertainment Editor Andy Gray

After more than 40 years of going to concerts, I learned something new — it’s possible to be too close to the stage.

Last week, my wife and I went to see Marshall Crenshaw at the Music Box Supper Club in Cleveland.

If you don’t know Crenshaw, check out his 1982 self-titled debut or his sophomore release, “Field Day.” His debut is one of my all-time favorite albums and one of the records I most associate with my college years.

Crenshaw played John Lennon on stage in “Beatlemania” and Buddy Holly on screen in “La Bamba,” and he shares the gift of songcraft with both.

“Someday, Someway” from his debut was his only top 40 hit, although “Whenever You’re on My Mind” from the second album got a fair amount of rock airplay. Bette Midler had a minor hit with her cover of the Crenshaw B-side, “You’re My Favorite Waste of Time.”

There isn’t a bad song on that debut album. “Cynical Girl” was on the first Valentine’s Day mixtape I made for my future wife, and the album is filled with other earworms in the best sense of the word, songs I’ll find myself singing in my head while cutting grass or doing other chores.

If you’ve never been to Music Box, it’s an intimate, adult concert venue — table seating and good acoustics. I still love a stand-and-crowd-the-stage venue like Westside Bowl or the Beachland, but my back and knees sometimes appreciate a chair, a table and a server.

I’ve seen a dozen or so shows at Music Box over the years — including favorites like Los Lobos, Steve Earle, Graham Parker and the Baseball Project — and have had some very good seats, but I’d never scored seats at one of the tables right up against the stage.

When Crenshaw tickets went on sale, I checked what was available, and the first two seats at the table just to the left of center stage came up. I immediately hit “buy.”

Thursday’s show was fun with Crenshaw mixing his own material with covers of some of the songs that influenced him.

But here’s the problem. We were so close, we essentially listened to the whole show through the wedge monitor of his lead guitarist, Fernando Perdomo. Perdomo is a talented player who’s worked with a host of musicians, and he blended well with the band in what was his first gig.

Since most of what we heard was coming from the wedge, our sound mix seemed to be 60 percent Perdomo’s guitar, 25 percent drums, 5 percent Crenshaw’s vocals, 5 percent Crenshaw’s guitar and 5 percent bass. I know all the words, but it would have been nice to hear Crenshaw sing them.

The show wasn’t sold out, and I contemplated moving back. But the tables at Music Box are so close together, and we were right in front of the band. There was no way we could have moved back without causing a disruption and / or making it look like we were walking out the show.

So we stayed where we were.

A friend who was a couple of rows of tables behind us said the sound was fine where he and his wife sat.

I guess the moral of the story, the next time you go to a concert and are feeling envious of those people right against the stage, take comfort in the possibility that the sound is better farther back.

Andy Gray is the entertainment editor of Ticket. Write to him at agray@tribtoday.com.