It’s hard to believe this song is 15 years old now!
I started listening to some Beat Happening, which lead to Yo La Tengo and now I’m sitting here at the computer playing all my old favorite “hits” from ’92…
it’s a little crazy to think back then a bunch of us would drive the 2.5 hours or so from AC to Hoboken to see them. I can remember making that round trip more than once within the same week (not always to see the Yo La’s, mind you)
or the much shorter drive to Philly.
I can’t even recall how many times we went. there are quite a few memorable shows and some, thanks to my discovery that I like beer a lot (around age 24..yes I’m serious about that!) that are a bit foggy….
Tramp’s with Superdrag, Perfect and Big Star…I think I had my eyes closed the entire Yo La’s set just soaking in the music. and if Jeremy and Matt hadn’t walked on either side of me when we left, I might have just slept on a Manhattan sidewalk.
Maxwell’s where I bought tees from Ira for my nephews. another show there when me, Amy, Jeremy and Adam drove back in the middle of the night and missed the exit off the turnpike to get on the parkway southbound. Adam was on crutches and Amy did an illegal u-turn…shhhhh
the Guinness Fleadh in NYC where me, barely able to speak and stand up (pints of harp and cider), stood, barefoot in the middle of the muddy center of the smaller tents reassuring Ira that the schedule was indeed changed and their set didn’t conflict with Patti Smith’s and they would definitely have time to get off stage and over to the main stage. how i managed to maintain coherency is beyond me
sadly, it’s been ages since I’ve seen a Yo La Tengo show and even sadder is that they’re in town at The Birchmere October 23rd and that is the same exact night that Arlington Independent Media’s 25th Anniversary Gala is happening. which means, there’s no way in hell I can go see Yo La Tengo.
sigh.
I think what I miss most was that those shows always included going with at least a car full of friends, sometimes, like the Troc or TLA in Philly, there could potentially be 2 dozen of us or so smack dab in the middle of the room….my how times have changed.
then there’s the driving the back roads of port republic, nj in the middle of the night heading home from the port house with a trillion stars in the sky listening to songs from fakebook and may I sing with me…windows down waiting for the drums to kick in on “detouring america with horns”
or the time at the watermusic party…
I could go on
and on
and on…
Wow Lauree, even though I wasn’t there at any of these shows you speak of, your words paint poignant pictures in my minds eye. I can see you (and Jeremy and Amy and Adam…and and..) driving down the turnpike at 3 AM. I can see you staring up into the stratosphere upon your arrival to the Port House. I can see you standing in a crowded club space, eyes closed, letting the music take you to an extraordinary place called “living in the moment” that so many of us wish to accomplish yet never achieve.
Without music, these amazing times would not have happened. Without music, these memories would not exist.
Music, the events tethered to the music, and the friends that were with us during those events, are the things that indelibly mark the times of our lives. Without music, we’d be…