A few weeks back I was at a festival in Wiesbaden, where I was fortunate enough to see a performance by the Gaslight Anthem. As I mentioned in a previous post, we had a met a few youths who were out enjoying the day, and one of them just raved about the band, saying that we absolutely couldn't miss them. He was totally right.
I did share John's view that the sound perhaps wasn't the best quality, which was a little strange as most of the other shows throughout the day had had no particular problems. However, it was only a minor detail; the stage presence of the band, particularly the lead singer, was excellent. Said lead singer just didn't stop smiling. Clearly, all of them were enjoying themselves, and really playing their hearts out. Early on in the set, I knew I was going to be a fan. In fact, despite the sound inadequacies, I was even truly blown away by a handful of songs.
Turns out that these guys come from New Jersey, and the previous week had played Glastonbury, where Bruce Springsteen joined them on stage. This apparently has had significant influence on the bands record sales, which certainly illustrates Bruce's longevity. Funny, I didn't need Bruce's endorsement in order to go buy the album, though in an ironic twist, I may just pick up a little more Springsteen; he seems to hang out with an OK crowd.
True, I'm not a tremendous fan of the Boss, though I certainly respect his contributions to the world. He actually played in Frankfurt the night before the punk show, and during the Gaslight Anthem set, I did reflect that, had I had to make a choice between Bruce's show the previous night or the show I was at, I had made the right decision, for me anyway.
I will stop short of going absolutely nutty about this relatively new band. Their show was great, and I've been listening to them a lot on the ipod lately. I made a comment to a guy last week that I thought of them as a bit of a mix between Joe Strummer and Bruce, and I do have the feeling that they'll be around for the coming years.
However, what had the greatest impact on me was simply seeing a group of guys thoroughly enjoying themselves as they played their set. I found this significant as only three hours before, I'd just seen the Bouncing Souls play their hearts out, too.
So, for the past few weeks, I've been thinking about this from a slightly different perspective. Though the day of the festival was the 4th of July, none of the American acts made much mention of it. One singer, when prompted by some of the fans, kind of said, "hey, we're all from the same planet, right? We're all human."
I was glad he stated things that way. It's possible that he was merely recognizing where he was at that moment, central Europe is not necessarily where you want to stand up and go "whoop whoop," proudly proclaiming your pride, especially if you come from another part of the world.
However, I believe he, like most of the other acts that day, demonstrated their pride simply in the way they played their sets. While I recognize that a performer is "on stage," I like to think that some of those individuals tend to be very genuine off stage, too.
In my own little, way, I'm trying to do the same thing in my own life. (yep, even years after adolescence, music still has the biggest influence on me.)
The longer that I live away from my home country, the more sense of pride I seem to get. It comes from meeting new people, and learning about their own backgrounds, and sharing things about my own background.
Whether it be in the workplace, or in social settings, or in personal relationships, it's all about the same. True, I tend to be consistently wacky in all three of elements, but at least it's real, and most people tend to recognize that. Yeah, they may find it amusing, aggravating, and even annoying, but I suspect that they also sense that it is refreshing, thoughtful, confusing, and, perhaps best of all, simply OK.
Is it so important that I decide what I should do about my love life? Is there an explanation as to why I always tend to wear sunglasses indoors and out, yet open up to people as soon as the glasses come off? Can one really explain why I'm still a two pack a day smoker, yet strive to get to the gym 4-5 times a week? Is it so necessary to hide my emotions, my stress, my frustrations from my colleagues at work, even though we know that the fate of the site will be decided in a few weeks time? And why, why on earth do I seem to consume espresso in the exact same quantities as a 48 ounce cup of coffee from 7-11 (circa 1992)?
I'll save the answers to those questions for another day. Right now, I'm going to enjoy my day off, walk around in the sunshine, and maybe even do a little work on my German grammar; it's the one thing on my list of goals for the month of July that has not progressed as far as I wanted.
Here's to keeping things complicated in the summer of '09. Good thing the music sounds great.
Keep the faith
bryan
soundtrack
1) You've Made Us Conscious - The Audtion
2) Electricity - NoFX
3) One Small Day - Ultravox
4) In Your Hands - Thrice
5) A Forest - The Cure
6) Afraid - Yellowcard
7) The Brightest Bulb Has Burned Out - Less Than Jake
8) Rain in the Summertime - The Alarm
9) Memory - Sugarcult
10) Destination Ursa Major - Superdrag
11) Between the End and Where We Lie - Thrice
12) About You - The Jesus and Mary Chain
13) The '59 Sound - The Gaslight Anthem
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