Dear Fest Fanatic
I was soaked down to my underpants…
My good cowboy boots were filling up with water. My $1.00 rain poncho was leaky and I had to look through a waterfall spilling over the brim of my coveted Pandora baseball hat like a clogged gutter pours over a roof. It was Lollapalooza Music Festival, Aug 2011. I was a 54 year old mom in a mosh pit of music superfans (“going deep we call it” -a place I rarely go.) But this time was worth the brave push up to the front of stage left, focused, waiting, in a blinding rainstorm, to see a favorite band I loved and had never seen live: Cage the Elephant at the Playstation Stage. It was a summer festival moment I will never forget, a surreal childlike experience of playing in the rain but even bigger, of oneness that only a live show can bring.
There’s a peace love & rock n roll unity that music fest fans feel as they crowd together, singing out loud as one - every lyric & every line - at the top of their lungs – a giveback of love and honor to the band onstage. It’s a gift of the ultimate kind; a scenario that every rock star wannabe has role played while singing in the shower. And for the fest-goer it’s a feeling of fraternity, the crescendo of a 360 club activation ceremony where you become one for a moment – you’re all in with no judgement, no pushback, no status, no ifs ands or buts. I’ve loved live music my entire life, from my uncle’s garage band in the 60s, to my high school youth center’s local bands, to my first live concert at age 13 (Rod Stewart at the Akron Rubber Bowl – where btw they set off tear gas to control fence jumpers…) to now, my music career where I spend a few nights a week heading to downtown music venues and festivals across the country to discover and curate the best new emerging artists for you. A covid hard stop in March 2020 was an unexpected halt to my work, my love, my passion.
I am seriously mourning the loss of live music in my life right now as I know many of you are too. I count on my music community like others might count on their golf outings, yoga retreats, work seminars and travel adventures. These nuggets of recreational gold - our hobbies, interests, pursuits, whimsies, tinkerings, diversions, distractions and past times are the enjoyable stuff of which life experience is made. They make us happy. They make us whole. But for the unforeseeable future, my recreation is not available to me. So I will find other ways to get the music to my ears, my heart, my body, my soul. And I’ll try to do the same for you.
Live music is different than earbud or headphone listening, a wonderful but solitary scenario. Live music is with others and the energy it brings runs across three dimensions: 1) artist to fan, 2) fan to artist, 3) fan to fan. Live music outdoors adds a fourth dimension: nature. Adding wind, sunshine, cool breezes, heat, rain, shade and sunsets to a nighttime city skyline, walking on foot for 10 hours… The combination is extra-sensory with much more than the basic five – creating elements of memory, love, youth, breath, pulse, adventure. It’s the closest feeling to my childhood days at my YMCA summer camp on Lake Erie – a summer of tent living, canoe trip overnights paddling tippy boats filled with supplies, days of lake baths, curly beach hair, sunburns, blue jean cut offs, Dr. Scholls, lanyard friendship bracelets. My fest moments bring back that feeling of carefree wild abandon… Who cares if I’m wet, who cares if my boots get ruined, who cares that I don’t have dry clothes to go home in, who cares if a storm is brewing overhead… even down to the smell of my suntan lotion, bandanna in my hair, filthy dust covered feet threw me back to 1967. Sitting on grass, laying back and listening to the music and looking at the clouds, no plan to move until I wanted to, and following my own methodically organized schedule of bands to scout, I was one with the music and the crowd and the scene, and that liberating feeling is very difficult to find in a grownup life.
The culmination that day was their song, “Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked” and it was caught on video (link below.) I remember during it all laughing out loud thinking what would my adult friends think if they could see me now? Surely I’d gone mad? No not at all. I simply let go. I took a moment. I left my worries and reconnected with that little girl for a little bit. And it was one of the most memorable life experiences – small and incidental – a monumental summer music festival moment I’ll never forget.
Cage the Elephant / Lollapalooza 2011
click to watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Soj6rqFpDbA
And one more thing I forgot to mention. Even I pack light for a music fest. Small backpack of stuff and water bottle strap are it for me. But I’m a mom and my stuff is my superpower. As the band slid across the slippery stage, bellowing into their mics, I was (mom) scared to death they’d be electrocuted. I started to (mom) worry about their expensive equipment, amps, guitars, they (mom) need to take care of that stuff! As the sky turned black and the rain started pummeling us, I dug in my backpack for my (mom) zip lock baggie that I bring to protect my phone from rain and with it came my (mom) multi-purpose trash bag I use for a blanket and muddy shoes… In a flash mobbed nanosecond I was the center of a feeding frenzy of teens begging me for a corner of the bag, a tidbit of plastic to cover their phones which were now soaked in pockets and halter tops and socks – ruined unless a (mom) came to the rescue. And so I did.
This week’s playlist is all live cuts to salute all of you fest fanatics out there. I’m with you and [hope to] stand by you in fields of gold very soon. This week’s playlist was co-curated with one of my music superfan buddies Kris Langager. He’s 20 years my junior so he chose the new artists and I chose the vintage tracks. To get the full experience of this playlist, lay back and close your eyes to listen; let your senses bring that feeling back again.
DEAR FEST FANATIC: You’ve Been Valslisted
In music,
Val