Always Press Play: From The Meadows to the Mat

By Liz Hosman, Yoga Instructor at The Iron Cactus in Kingston, NH

Two people. One venue. Thirty years of music memories.

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A true sucker for live music since The Meadows in the 90s, we all know that attending a concert every weekend is not feasible with busy schedules and financial responsibilities. This is why I try to bring a concert to everything I dedicate my time and energy to.

If you’ve ever taken one of my yoga or strength classes, you know that the playlist is a huge part of my structure. Classes often have music themes (70s rock, 80s synthpop, 90s alternative, etc.) and my choreography is about 90% improv. Yes, that’s right. I’ve spent a lot of energy over the years designing classes and ended up changing them on the spot due to participants’ interests/injuries and overall reading of the room. Not a single playlist has been duplicated in the more than 10 years I have been teaching.

Fitness instructors are like great performers. The setlist doesn’t mean a damn thing if the crowd is not with you. O’Riordan didn’t sit her ass in a chair like a zombie because of her injury. She read The Meadows crowd and gave everyone what they came for, a rock show that lingered for hours.

While I typically teach from the studio or virtually from home, I had the opportunity to teach at the Berkshire Yoga Festival in June 2025. I reached out to Press Play Curation because I knew the crowd needed something bigger than what I could build alone. From the “awww shit, I love this song” moment, I knew that this was the perfect partnership.

I read everything Liz just wrote and kept nodding.

Not because I know anything about teaching yoga, but because I know exactly what she means about walking into a room and listening before you do anything else.

I have my own Meadows memories. Piling into a car full of friends as a teenager, windows down, cruising Route 84 toward Hartford not entirely sure what the night was going to be, using printed out Mapquest directions to try and figure out how to get there. Lawn seats for the Radio 104 fests, which technically meant lawn seats right up until they didn't. We got pretty good at finding our way down closer. 2 Skinnee Js. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones. Local H. And one night, Counting Crows, Foo Fighters, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers on the same bill, which still sounds made up when I say it out loud.

The first time I heard Everlong played live I understood something I could not have explained at the time. It was the same song I already knew, but it was not the same experience. The room made it something else entirely.

That is the thing about the Meadows. Every great night there had a shape to it. I showed up way too early, sleep deprived from excitement for the show. I watched the lights go down and felt my stomach drop in the best possible way. The opening note hit and the crowd went from a room full of strangers to one single living thing. I never stopped thinking about who made those decisions before a single person walked through the gate. That is what I think about when I build playlists at Press Play Curation. Not for 10,000 people in an amphitheater, but for your corporate event, your private party, your business. The playlist is never just a list of songs I like. It is a map of how the room is going to feel.

When Liz told me about teaching at the Berkshire Yoga Festival and what she needed for that crowd, I understood immediately. Not because I know yoga, but because I know exactly what it feels like to build something for a room full of people who came ready to feel something. That is the job. That is always the job. The Iron Cactus is where she does that work every week, and if you have never been there, it is worth knowing that it is not just a yoga studio. It is a place built around the idea that people deserve to feel better when they leave than when they arrived. That is not a small thing. That is the whole thing. It is also exactly what Press Play Curation is built around, which is probably why the two of us ended up here.

Press Play Curation exists for the same reason. The music is never just background. It is the thing that holds the whole experience together, whether that is a yoga class on a Wednesday night in Kingston or an event playlist for a crowd full of strangers who are about to become a room. Music made both of us pay attention. It made Liz a better teacher and it made me a better curator. And it is what brought the two of us to the same table, 30 years after we both stood in different crowds at the same venue, feeling the same thing.

When Liz and I started talking about the Meadows name coming back, we just started listing bands. And then we realized we were building something. Back to the Meadows is our way of saying that music still has a shape to it, and it still deserves to be heard in the right order.

First Crowd Surfing Experience, September 1998 - Radio 104’s Big Day Off at The Meadows, Desperately Wanting by Better than Ezra. I was dating this guy that my mom absolutely hated. We skipped school to go to the show and I remember running around the wet grass on the lawn. My mom found out I crowdsurfed. “You let all of those strange men grope you in your Abercrombie tank top?” I was banned from shows for a month.

First Tailgating party, August 1999 - Dave Matthews Band at The Meadows. Hanging out with a bunch of college boys sounded so cool, until you missed half of the show and your favorite DMB song, Two Step. Buy a $15 beer inside the venue instead because life is short but sweet for certain. (Probably $5 back then…)

Final dance performance with DanceWorks Boston, December 2011, We Used to Wait by Arcade Fire. My dream of becoming a professional dancer or cheerleader was short-lived, vicariously through DanceWorks. Peeking behind the curtains, the flashing lights settled deep in my brain, rehashing a recent loss that I was having a difficult time overcoming and I began to sob. I had no choice but to quickly pull it together. The DWB Boston Project was two nights and I performed on the second night with the flu. Talk about another badass. A huge thanks to DWB because something so small kept me alive. 

The last song I saw performed live, October 2025, Burning Down the House by David Byrne (Talking Heads) at Boch Center Wang Theatre in Boston. I met my yogi-music soulmate, Kathy B., at The Iron Cactus, when I first started teaching there. I had on my pink Talking Heads hoodie and it was love at first sight. When Byrne announced his “Who is the Sky?” tour, she surprised me with tickets. Talk about a once in a lifetime experience!

Do you remember your first concert? I do. New Kids on the Block, Summer of 1990 Hangin’ Tough tour at Lake Compounce in Bristol, CT.

Do you remember your second concert? I do. The Cranberries at The Meadows in Hartford, CT, September 1996 with my aunt Judy and best friend, Nicole. Dolores O’Riordan was battling her ongoing knee injury and was hobbling around on the stage like the badass she is.

Just about every memory of my life (the good, the bad, the ugly and the incredibly random) is paired with a vividly-remembered song.

Not on Spotify? Find the playlist on Apple Music or YouTube Music.

Ready to hear it for yourself?

Back to the Meadows is a 100% human curated playlist built from the bands that made Meadows Music Theater legendary. No algorithm picked these songs. Two people who were actually there did.

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If you liked this playlist, you will want to be on our list.

Every month we drop a new curated playlist, plus notes on why each track made the cut. If you are planning an event and want music that actually sounds intentional, that is what we do.

Class at The Iron Cactus Yoga Studio, 2026