Wine, Women, and Song...ish.

Dear Avid Reader,

Where Did It Start, We Used To Be Friends

I just went to a concert this last weekend. It was not dangerous. I was disappointed.

I arrived early. My fellow early concert-goers were all teenagers save for two moms. I realized at that moment I would never go to a concert ever again.

And I Hope That You Listen, All I'm Trying To Say Is

But as the night went on, more and more drinking-aged folks began to trickle in. I was happy that I was simply lame for showing up early and not some creepy old dude at a concert. Why lame is better than creepy I'm not sure, it just is.

But in the middle of the night I realized how much concerts had changed in the last fifteen years. At least rock concerts have changed. I have no idea what happens at other genres. You'll have to check a classical fan's blog.

And I Don't Wanna Fight Anymore

Nothing crazy was going to happen at the concert. You could tell. No fighting. No one would be too drunk. No one brought a knife, a gun, or a knife-gun. The concert was populated with high-schoolers, their moms, and reasonably drinking adults. There was hardly three smokers in the bunch. In fact I smelled pizza the entire night. Not marijuana, not cigarettes...pepperoni Za.

That's right. They served pizza at a rock concert.

The whole thing felt like it took place in a mall. It was sanitized, child-proofed, warning-labeled rock and roll. What the heck happened?

I Don't Want To Point The Finger, I Just Know I Don't Like It

If rock is music geared toward teens, and those teens are being raised by helicopter parents, then it makes sense that the rock venues would change in order to accommodate the changing customer. If the customer wants the safest rock concert they can get, someone will provide that concert. But I wonder if this is a symptom of a larger truth about America.

I Really Want To Be Your Friend Forever

Do we want safe everything? Do we want to eliminate all risk? America is often compared to Rome and we generally blame the fall of Rome on overindulgence (and a crumbling infrastructer and increassingly ineffective leadership). Overindulgence is pictured as lustful, greedy, cutthroat, amoral, desensitized, even violent. But maybe Rome fell because they became to docile, complacent. Maybe when the enemies arrived at the gate, the Romans weren't ready to fight anymore. Maybe wealth didn't turn them into overstimulated, devil-may-care heathens, it turned them into very safe, very pleasant comsumer-pacifists.

And it made their concerts kind of sucky.

The Next Post Promises To Be Better,

James