On Dec 9, 1998 I went with a friend to a big show in Seattle's Key Arena with a number of bands that, while not my very favorites, were bands I liked: Hole, Garbage, Mark Lanegan, Cake, Cherry Poppin Daddies. But as I sat there throughout the night, nothing made my hair stand on end, nothing made me feel like moving, and to my surprise I found myself fairly bored.
This put me in quite a state of despair. I should have been enjoying these bands. What was wrong? Was I too old? Too jaded? Was I -- and this was the hypothesis that seemed most likely and most heartbreaking -- just too old to get excited by music anymore?
Thankfully just three days later I attended a show the (first incarnation of) The Fenix in Seattle to see Einsturzende Neubauten. To my great relief, the show was electric and thrilling. I finally realized to my great relief that music was not dead to me - big arena shows were dead to me. Oh, I will still attend and enjoy one now and then, and usually find them pleasant. But not exhilarating. Not alive in a way that daily life does not approach. Not something that for a few minutes or hours makes the hair on my arms literally stand on end and I feel awash in a shuddering, overwhelmingly different time and space. Thank God the smaller clubs can still do that for me, especially with groups like Neubauten.
This put me in quite a state of despair. I should have been enjoying these bands. What was wrong? Was I too old? Too jaded? Was I -- and this was the hypothesis that seemed most likely and most heartbreaking -- just too old to get excited by music anymore?
Thankfully just three days later I attended a show the (first incarnation of) The Fenix in Seattle to see Einsturzende Neubauten. To my great relief, the show was electric and thrilling. I finally realized to my great relief that music was not dead to me - big arena shows were dead to me. Oh, I will still attend and enjoy one now and then, and usually find them pleasant. But not exhilarating. Not alive in a way that daily life does not approach. Not something that for a few minutes or hours makes the hair on my arms literally stand on end and I feel awash in a shuddering, overwhelmingly different time and space. Thank God the smaller clubs can still do that for me, especially with groups like Neubauten.
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