08.05.07

Rock Music Saved My Soul

Posted in Music at 1:19 pm by Joe Blubaugh

Anyone who’s been to a rock show recently knows the sort of turmoil that constantly occurs in a crowd: people trying to squeeze in front of you to get a better view of the show. At The Hold Steady’s show yesterday, two guys squeezed just in front of me, offering the traditional “Sorry, man.” For some reason, now seemed like the time to address this meaningless platitude.

“Like Hell you are.”

“What?”

“No one is ever actually sorry for squeezing closer to the stage. You don’t need to apologize to me.”

“It’s just that we really love this band, man. You understand.”

“Of course I understand. I’d like to be as close as possible, too.”

“Sweet, thanks. You want some wine, man?”

“Absolutely.”

And just like that, we’d gone from almost enemies to best show friends. I learned about their lives: a Navy jet pilot trainee and a finance guy for a Chicago automotive company. They invited me to an apartment after-party, and then we jumped for joy together for an hour. That’s the power of pop music: it creates kinship with people who’ve never met. It’s an inexpressible energy that I shared all day with different people; it’s a power I’d forgotten, and it erases cynicism with pure, unfettered joy.

That was the story of my entire Lollapalooza experience: pure, unfettered joy. Randy’s landlords/housemates were incrediby welcoming, although not so friendly as their Cardigan Corgis, which are dogs so cute that they make a run for my love of cats. When I get a pet, it’s going to be a hard choice between a Corgi and a friendly cat. It was fantastic to see Randy again, too. We had a lot of thoughts and music to share, and we also shared a great meal at Leona’s after Lolla. Having such a great companion made the concert experience, even if we only got together for a few select shows.

The concerts, as stated above, blew me away. I didn’t expect Matt & Kim to be as joyous (sorry, but it really is the only word to describe the day) as they were at 11:45 in the morning, but from jokes about ‘dipping your pen in the company inkwell’ to incredibly bouncy anthems about nerding out and loving your life, they opened the day in fantastic style.

I’m From Barcelona deserve their own post, but they’ll just get a paragraph for now. From the instant they came out on stage (all 18 of them!), you could tell that they were as excited to be playing for us as we were to be listening to them. It was an hour-long party. We jumped around. We threw balloons to each other like volleyballs. We waved our arms all in unison. At one point, we all counted down and 2,000 people bounced as one to the poppiest of pop. That’s what a show is all about: happiness, joy, and enthusiasm. I hope they come back to the US again, even if they get split from Huus-Ton to Cleev-Land, as the Swedish accent says.

The Hold Steady were the absolute top of my day. Like I said, they turn enemies into friends and make you love being alive, even if you’re a reformed ex-Catholic from muggy, buggy Indiana with too many bad choices in your past. You. Must. See. Them. It is not an option. It is essential.

Maybe I’m just jaded from seeing too many Spoon shows, but I guess I just know what to expect from them now. The set was well-considered, well-executed, and powerful, but it didn’t contain any surprises. I had a great time there and made some fast friends up on the rail as we fended of crowd-surfers’ feet, but it was more of a come-down, a perfect cool-off to an incredibly exuberant day.

I’m still coming down. Perry Farrell, no matter what you’re like as a person, you know how to pull a festival together, how to make a day great.

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