We went to see Alkaline Trio and Rise Against the other night at this genormous place in the suburbs of the Twin Cities. The bands were good. Lots of rock and roll. I feel like a jerk because I felt happy that Tim from Rise Against appears to be starting to go bald. I mean, I’m way further along down that road than he is, which sucks, but watching seeing someone else start down it felt good in meanspirited kind of way. Here’s the thing, though. I liked the show but I didn’t love it. My wife loved it. She’s more rock and roll than I am. I want to chalk it up to the venue - big, uncomfortable, crappy sight lines, full of young dudes doing their young dude schtick - but I’m not sure it was. I need to go to a show in a smaller space soon and test this out. I want to be someone who still gets excited about rock shows. (Speaking of which, my friend Heather’s boyfriend goes to rock shows all the time, she’s always complaining about them. Turns out he’s an amateur geologist, going to look at agates and stuff. Seriously. That cracked me up.) Part of it’s the lifestyle. I’m tired a whole lot of the time, so staying up late to see bands doesn’t sound a lot more fun than going to be early and getting a lot of sleep. I mean, I stay up late all the time (sometimes because I have stuff to do and sometimes because I’m a creature of inertia and sometimes because I’m an insomniac) so I probably shouldn’t complain, but like … staying up late sucks. I don’t like it.
Here’s the other thing. It really is the young dudes doing their young dude schtick. I just hate it. Go work out your masculinity issues somewhere else. In a way I guess I’m asking for it, because I like loud aggressive music that’s prone to this kind of macho bullshit in the crowd and stuff. Maybe that’s why I’m so sick of it, I’ve been seeing that kind of stuff for like 15 years now. The sad part is that I think my “this stuff is getting old” feeling is actually a sign that I’m the one getting old. Oh well. At least I can be smug or something. And I have … uh … whatever the benefits of oldness are. A naturally well ventilated scalp and no worries about getting carded?
“A naturally well ventilated scalp and no worries about getting carded” — Priceless. I must try to remember these enhancements due to age and be properly thankful for them.
Comment by LumpenProf — November 21, 2008 @ 9:19 am
Im really old (55) and child of SF rock scene ans as such really don’t understand “loud ,aggressive”. Nihilism. alienation,post modern angst, wtf? We had motorcycle gangs and Nam for dudes that needed to hurt things.
Comment by troutsky — November 21, 2008 @ 4:11 pm
hey Trout,
There’s this Zappa quote: “You can’t always write a chord ugly enough to say what you want to say, so sometimes you have to rely on a giraffe filled with whipped cream.”
It’s like that. Except instead of the giraffe, speed and percussiveness serve to augment the ugly chord.
cheers,
Nate
Comment by Nate — November 21, 2008 @ 7:16 pm