Music Makes the People Come Together, Yeah!

I miss live music so much that I haven’t been able to get Madonna’s “Music” out of my head.  It’s a strange song for me to even think about as it was never a favorite of mine; however, the line “Music makes the people together, yeah” goes on in my head on loop.  Music – I need it.  I crave it.  I miss it.  I mourn the current loss of live music.  I have gone through all of the stages of grief over this loss.  My pre-pandemic plan was for a

spectacular best-ever-summer of live music complete with festivals, BONFIRES, camping, barbecues, and such astounding dicking around that my cohorts and I would have been left with wet underpants.

As I write this piece, my SPAC passes got refunded, officially putting an end to that dream.  It was an amazing line-up, and I can only hope that next summer will have one half as good when we are back to whatever normal is.  Please don’t get me wrong, I would love for my pre-pandemic plan to happen, but who knows when that may be and when activities like these start to occur they will do so slowly and it will be scary. All of the feels that we are feeling but haven’t felt before will be hard to process, but I have faith that we will get through it. Whew!  All of this dickery has music as its soundtrack whether it comes from iPods, record players, CDs, radio, or best of all LIVE shows.

In the meantime, it has been swell to see so many artists making the best of things safely and comfortably while everything is remote.

Brian Kane. From the Quarantine Tour with Tony Pallegrino

I asked local 518 musician Brian Kane about being so active belting out tunes for us all to enjoy on social media.  “I do it because I love it.  Also, because I miss the people that come see me play live.  They won’t let us in bars.  Social media has provided a nice venue for us all.”

Well said Brian, and thanks for doing what you do.  Please don’t stop.  Check him out here:

https://www.facebook.com/brian.kane.3344

I can safely say that I have met at least 80% of my current friends by going out to see bands.  One of the magical things about everyone at a show is their common desire to see these f*cking bands in person! Having a little too much of the remedy I was looking for would help my shyness dissipate so that I could chat with the various show-goers more easily.  One of my favorite stories is how my friend Mere and I became friends.  We had both been going to see an amazing musician, Tim Gearan and his band play at a tiny little bar every Monday night for years.  We would chat, dance, hangout outside for outside activities, laugh, and enjoy all the evening had to offer while having an amazing time.  Neither one of us could ever remember the other’s name, nor could we remember the names of countless other people with whom we would share the bar and sidewalk.  Of course we would ask each other now and then; but as time went on, it both didn’t matter and felt weird to keep asking knowing we would forget.  The next day I would yet again find myself wanting to die from being extremely hungover from too late of a night.  I squint to see who is walking in and am stunned to see it was one of the girls I had been whooping it up with the night before.  I couldn’t believe we had been in the same class for maybe two months by then and up until that moment, I only recognized her as the girl who was always late wearing a My Morning Jacket hoodie.  After class, my tired hungover ass mustered up the guts I diIdn’t have without the liquid and shenanigan courage to stop her, “Hey.  Don’t I know you from seeing Tim at Toad?”  She looked dazed and confused.  After what seemed like forever she giggled and said, “Oh yeah!  You do.”  We both had a good chuckle at the realization of our numerous encounters over the years and at having been in the same class together several mornings afterward.  We became instant friends.  Through that friendship, we became fast friends with many of the other accomplices and pals we had been hanging out with on those hazy Monday nights.

Tim Gearan gave us an inside joke nickname of The GGs, which we still very accurately call ourselves today.

Stock Tim Gearan at these fine social media places:

www.facebook.com/timgearanmusic www.instagram.com/timgearan timgearanmusic.com

I cannot wait to get back out to shows.  I cannot wait to run into people whose names I don’t remember but with whom we chat anyway.  I’ve stopped feeling bad about not remembering names, and you should too. Every single person says the same f*cking thing, “I can’t remember a name but I remember a face.”  When we get back out there, let’s all have a great f*cking time!  Don’t let not remembering a name get in the way of what could be an amazing friend.  Don’t be an asshole if someone doesn’t remember your name.  It’ll be a new adventure for us all as we make our way back to the good old days that seem so far away.  Music will bring us together again.  When it does, be kind to each other.