An August Concert

You know how you have some sort of "list" before you get married of qualities you want in a spouse? Don't pretend you didn't or don't have one. One of mine was "has good taste in music."

I am a total music snob. I've been this way for decades, and I'm completely unapologetic about it. I was sneering at my New Kids on the Block-loving friends while I listened to Depeche Mode's Violator or The Smiths' Strangeways Here We Come. I was lucky to make similarly-minded friends in college and finally had people to go to concerts with...Weezer, Rage Against the Machine, Nirvana, Beastie Boys, Foo Fighters, Ska Patrick's Day, and so on. (Shout out to Jamie, Melissa, and Emily. I wish I kept better track of people. Wouldn't it be amazing to hit a show together again?)

Anyway...when I found myself dating a boy who actually owned an Evanescence cd, I got a little concerned. My music was so a part of me--the total joy of finding of a new, great band, dancing alone through the house to a favorite cd, or taking pleasure in loving a non-mainstream band--how could this boy "get" me? And how could I "get" him if he listened to garbage?

Fortunately, I only paid attention to the actual important items on that "list," and said "yes" before he even finished popping the question.

Fast forward five plus years, and--thanks to my honey--I've received some stellar cd's (introduced me to Florence and the Machine, for example) and gone to some sweet concerts (including a festival in Paris featuring The Shins and Arcade Fire). Isn't he so great to embrace my music snobbiness rather than fight it? :)

For my birthday this past May, he got me tickets to a Death Cab for Cutie concert, with Frightened Rabbit as the opening band. Woot! Woot! The only downside was I'd have to wait until August to go. The following bullet points are random thoughts, experiences from that night:

• The night before I freaked out about not being "current" in my Death Cab and Frightened Rabbit cd's. I'll never be able to enjoy the show! I haven't done my homework! Argh!! I quickly downloaded and burned 2 sets of cd's for Alex and me to "study" pre-concert. Yeah, I'm a little nuts.
• Stupid LA traffic had me totally panicking about getting there in time. In some ways, I was more excited to see Frightened Rabbit. My Death Cab interest had diminished somewhat with their increased mainstream popularity. I did say I was a snob, okay?
• Made it there in time!!
• The minute Frightened Rabbit started playing, I just felt through and through how much I LOVE good music...and to be able to hear some of my favorite stuff live? Awesome, so awesome.
• Kinda feel bad for opening bands. "Pay attention!" I wanted to scream, "These guys are great!"
• Apparently, the band felt similarly because they threw out suckers to the crowd to encourage their interest. Hilarious.
  
• If Alex played guitar and spoke in a Scottish accent, he would be perfect. And, alas, totally out of my league.
• The played "Backwards Walk," which has a special place in my heart, as I used it in one of Hamilton's baby videos. If you listen to the final lyrics, it's pretty hilarious I used it...and sent a dvd to all our family. Fortunately, it's kinda hard to understand.
• "Keep Yourself Warm" is simultaneously romantic and dirty. It was the last song (and came far too soon). Oh, those Scots. :)
• In case, you're out of the Frightened Rabbit loop, or want a break from my meandering....click here or here.
  
• Once Death Cab for Cutie started playing, I realized that I've been listening to them for almost 10 years, so my earlier freak-out was really unnecessary. It also reminded me why I started listening to them in the first place: they're good. Really good.
• Why don't people STAND UP at concerts anymore? Is this an LA thing? I HATE it. I was actually told to sit down by some chick at a Snow Patrol concert. Seriously? Listen to a cd at home or go to the symphony. Why did you come?? So, so lame.
  
• They played some of my favorites: "Lack of Color," "405," "New Year," and Benjamin solo "I Will Follow You into the Dark."
• They also played "What Sarah Said," which is a sweet, sad song whose last line "But I'm thinking of what Sarah said, that 'Love is watching someone die'" has always rung so true for me, thinking of my mom and thinking of her and my dad. This time, though, the whole song reverberated with me, as I thought about this last July and August when Alex's family spent so much unexpected time in an ICU waiting room, showing love for Alan.
  

And it came to me then that every plan is a tiny prayer to father time
As I stared at my shoes in the ICU that reeked of piss and 409
And I rationed my breaths as I said to myself that I'd already taken too much today
As each descending peak on the LCD took you a little farther away from me
Away from me

Amongst the vending machines and year-old magazines in a place where we only say goodbye
It stung like a violent wind that our memories depend on a faulty camera in our minds
But I knew that you were a truth I would rather lose than to have never lain beside at all
And I looked around at all the eyes on the ground as the TV entertained itself

'Cause there's no comfort in the waiting room
Just nervous pacers bracing for bad news
And then the nurse comes round and everyone will lift their heads
But I'm thinking of what Sarah said that "Love is watching someone die"

So who's going to watch you die?...


postscript:
I've been thinking about the end of this entry over the last couple hours and wondered, "Is that a weird ending," "Was that too sudden," "How lame am I for copying and pasting lyrics here," and "How did I manage to fit so much stuff into an entry that was supposed to just be about a concert??" Upon reflection (done not in a quiet, woodsy moment, as the word connotes, but rather on the elliptical machine and later ignoring my kids in the car), I decided that this entry genuinely reflects life, which is full of friendships, music, love, adventures, and loss. So, I'll keep it. I will add, however, that Alex's brother, Alan Harmon Spjute, died at age 19 after a rare form of pneumonia took its swift course.