A hot tip for feeling old in America is to go to an all ages music show with a mosh pit on a Saturday night. Though results vary, I was having flashbacks to 17 years ago, when I came into the city from the far suburbs, usually via the hatchback of somebody's parent's car, or the train, and tried to find Medusa's.
In contrast to those electric youth memories, tonight I felt kind of old, creepy, and tired, though it was nice to see S.
I had been excited to put on a skirt, and boots, as it had been a while, but as I stood there with S. in the Logan Square auditorium, her with her quirky goat cheese t-shirt, and puffy vest, also being over the age of 30, though closer in age to the teens than I was, I longed for my sweats, slipper socks, and a bit of the wrist-slitting, uber melancholic Bonnie Prince Billy we could have seen tonight, but decided it would be too depressing.
The Black Lips sounded like they must be Geminis, the sign of the twin, because their music was much noisier than the clips on their MySpace page, and unlike the polished few songs I'd heard I could barely hear the lyrics as they were sung on stage, or rather mumbled into the microphone. The 16-year-olds near the front didn't seem to mind, and there were lots of fists waving, and feet up in the air, or maybe it was the same girl that kept diving into the pit, which seemed to not ever stop moving.
I knew when I wondered about how diving into a mosh pit would feel for a person with lower back problems that it was my cue to go home. Almost at the same time I was thinking this, S., in her polite way, told me we can leave at anytime, she's ready when I am.
We left before the end of the show, and on the way out a guy overheard us talking about how old we felt, as well as disappointed by the show, and he expressed a similar sentiment, though I doubt he was anywhere close to age 30. He told us he'd interviewed the bassist for the Black Lips for a zine called Pop Matters earlier in the week. I'll have to check out the article.
Peace out.**
** pics of my friend Jeff doing karaoke in a Black Flag shirt. I don't take photos at shows, and this Black Flag shirt reminded me of the Black Lips.
Hey, I saw you get carded two short weeks ago. Take heart that, though you may feel old, you do not look it!
ReplyDeleteSurprised you know who Black Flag is.I Said F..L..A...G... not Samwell.... Anywho.. I enjoy mosh pit nice exercises..... Of coarse I mean the friendly ones.. Not like my brother 6'-2" 280 .lbs that went off to see many bands like Danzig to come back with clothes ripped and cuts and bloody nose. "Nothing like getting a roundhouse kick to the face.", he said. O_o
ReplyDeleteAw, thanks, Aster. It was more of a feeling inside that I was tired/out of place. There was a guy there with gray hair at the temples, which was comforting. Speaking of looking young, remember when that woman in the thrift store from a year ago saw you and the kids, and came up to you wanting to ask advice b/c of her teenage pregnant daughter? That was hilarious! Mrnunnylakins: I don't know who Black Flag is, my friend is a fan. I know Black Flag the bug killer spray product.
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