I don't know exactly when it will happen, but all that matters is it will! I'm like a kid at Christmas, all wide-eyed, excited anticipation. In a thousand lifetimes I don't think I would have ever believed I would be so diehard for a local band. But here I am, giddy as shit that my faves are taking the stage again. It's been way too long, Sidecar. Way too long.
As a creative person, I gravitate toward people, place and things that ignite a bigger flame within me. It's no surprise, despite that fact that I cannot play an instrument to save my life, that music is my number one go-to for inner balance and that near-chaos I crave. Two extremes that I live by, almost simlutaneously.
No matter what my mood happens to be, there is music to suit it. I may favor the loud, heavy sound of metal, but I'm just as easily apt to listen to jazz. There are days I stream Peter Gabriel, some that it's Iron Maiden, and still others when I can't seem to settle on an artist or a genre. I'm a geek for music, though I can live happily without country and rap. Like ever.
When I'm having a day where nothing seems to be going the way I'd like, I am most likely to crank Stone Sour, Chevelle or Killswitch Engage. The heavy charge somehow sets me on a path where I can focus on what I want, instead of all the things I don't. My teenage years were a mix of pretty boy rock bands, rip your throat out metal. I honestly believe my parents may have been slightly concerned the day I started playing Slayer in my room. Far from depressed or angry, my mental clarity was and is crystal clear - getting better from the energy these bands, this music generates.
Great days are perfect for fun music like Silversun Pickups, Jimmy Eat World, or the timeless sounds of Louis Armstrong, Nina Simone and yes, I'm even guilty of a little Bon Jovi. If it makes me smile from the inside out, I don't care what someone else may think. Grabbing happy the instant you feel it, recognizing where it comes from, and parading it around like it's your birthday is exactly the way we should all celebrate life.
My first memory of having a favorite song was somewhere around the age of three. My mother was a fan of music, so I grew up listening to bands that became the basis of my auditory addiction. Changes by David Bowie was the first song I recall being able to sing the lyrics to as a child. Followed a few years later by Charlie Daniels' Devil Went Down to Georgia. I gained a crazy appreciation for the Beatles, quickly preferring their later, embattled sound. No matter how many styles of music, number of bands, I am drawn to, and get the most out of darker music.
There is something so irresistable to me in the work of Bowie. While on the flip side Freddy Mercury and Queen struck different emotions, yet produced the same wonder and appreciation for the art. Their art. It never matters how much time has passed since I've listened to their music, it's like coming home again each and every time.
Maybe that's what it is for me, with music. It's as though I am more in touch with everything that makes me who I am. I want more, do more, feel more and there never feels like there is a limit. If there was one thing, one 'creature comfort' I couldn't live without, it would most certainly be music. Take away every other form of entertainment, as long as there is music, I won't really miss the rest.
With a gift like music that lives on far past those who created it, it's possible to travel back in time, remember faces and places time made you forget. For a moment, when I hear a song from long ago, I come face to face with just how old I am, but the effects of whatever I'm listening to come with a rush of youth and all at once age means absolutely nothing.
Whenever the date is set, I'll be ready. Completely prepared to let the pure, electric waves of everything right in the world take over and push all the bullshit aside for the night. Bring on the boom, ignite my soul.
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