I bought a new skateboard. The first one I have purchased out of a shop in a long, long time. It has a big piece of weed on the bottom. Weird. After the helpful skateshop employee in Columbus gripped it for me, I felt compelled to take a picture of it with my cell phone. Even weirder. I am old now.
An old friend dragged me out to see Dinosaur Jr. play this past Monday. The show was one of those "reunion show, play an album in it's entirety" kind of affair. The album of the night was "Bug". I was a little psyched and a little ho-hum about it. The show was at the Cat's Cradle which has been an old haunt for many of my music memories.
After connecting with some friends, we make our way in, grab a beer, and hunker down. The show is opened by Henry Rollins interviewing J, Lou, and Murph. It's humorous at times, but it does nothing for me. They are not divulging and state secrets that we didn't already know from the countless magazines we had read back in high school.
Once the music started my feelings started to shift from being an old "seen tons of bands, this won't be any different" jerk to that long haired, misunderstood, scrawny, "nobody loves this band like I do" high school skateboarded. I wasn't prepared for the wave of memories that ensued. The heat of the club, being shoulder to shoulder with taller people, hearing those familiar sounds coming from the loud speakers, and standing in a venue that I have gone to since I was 15 was taking me back to a place that I hadn't thought about since forever.
They opened with a Lou Barlow song. It was pretty forgettable. It was followed by "In a Jar". All the words were right there on my tongue. I wanted to hear the album that THIS song came off of. I was taken back to my time at Brevard College. Skating by myself at a local ledge, missing my friends from high school, and feeling like no one at that school could fill that void, I'd slip into that comfortable loneliness of Dino Jr.'s "Your Living All Over Me". After those two songs, they commenced the playing of Bug. Freak Scene was first of course.
At one point I found myself back in the bathroom staring over the pee trough, which I don't even think is legal in the state of NC anymore. Many times I have stood here to take a wizzer and to give my ears a break from the tunes, but this time I had a feeling of having to be in school the next day. It felt like the end of the school year and I still had a few days left before summer break. Tomorrow I'd have to evade Hida's crippling titty twisters one more time or try not to get in trouble in Mr. Rankin's class. It was a strange feeling. I felt like I had stepped into a time machine.
Once I got back to the show, I had decided that J, Lou, and Murph deserved my respect for being part of my formative youth and instilling in me a passion for music and helping to grow the memories of comradery that I share with my friends. I have decided that this sentiment must be true for those other bands that may now be completely sucky. I have to give Red Hot Chili Peppers my respect. It's really hard, but there were times when they were crucial to the memories of my youth.
Not sure why I needed to spilled all this out, but I had a great experience from something that I thought would be a mundane show. It rekindled my feelings for Dinosaur Jr. and got me missing my bro's. Enjoy the video above.
For those folks dwelling up there in America's Hat, life can be discouraging. Your neighbors in the land of the free know nothing about your homeland or the kindness of your people. All we know is that your beer sucks and we've somehow stolen your greatest cultural export: hockey.
Well that's where Stompin' Tom Connors comes in. He keeps the home fires burnin', makes you proud to pass a Sudbury Saturday Night, laugh off some back-breaking work in the fields of Tilsonburg, or haul Margo's Cargo to Ontario. Ask any Canadian worth their salt, "Who's the best man in Ottawa?" And they'll reply, "Big Joe Mufferaw!"
Stompin' Tom almost makes you wish you were Canadian, almost.
Enjoy this ode to the most delicious spuds, the ones Bud is driving down from Prince Edward Island (and stay tuned for the creepy Jayne Mansfield promo).
Not sure about you, but I'm going back to Wilson Creek and going fishing for that dead dog we found floating in the river and I'm going to throw it through the window of the crooks that took all my shit.
