We turn to our artists for wisdom. We generally never absorb these lessons, but I’m surprised at how often people at least claim to care what we think.
I’m no different. “Weather With You” is a song by Crowded House that was introduced to me back when I was in the corporate world, working for Fujitsu. I was having a bad day, was probably in an evil temper, I have no memory as to why. My office-mate Damian said something like “come on, always take the weather with you”. I’d never heard the expression before. And he explained the thought of always bringing the circumstances of a positive attitude with you, and it really says it all that I don’t remember why I was having an awful day, but the concept sticks with me. Damian then introduced me to the song and said something to the effect of how Crowded House had some of the most insightful lyrics of any band he’d ever heard. He handed off his collection of Crowded House to me and my view of them being just another 80’s pop band singing catchy Love songs was swiftly eradicated.
Maybe some people who have something to say actually HAVE something to say. It’s nice when the insight in the lyrics match the insight of the person. There are too many movie starts and musicians that find themselves with a soapbox and then promptly use it to spout idiocy. Public speech, kids : use responsibly.
Last night we played the Extended Play Sessions in their new location. Absolutely incredible show, and I’m definitely going back on my previous entry. I don’t want people to see me at the crowded bar show, I wanted them to see like I was last night. Not that my performance was perfect. In all honesty I got to thinking too much and it was probably one of the worst rob performances of recent memory, but despite that, one of the best shows. Energy was great, the audience was great, the sound was great. And we found ourselves with a soapbox. We tried to use it responsibly.
At the end of a Extended Play Session show there’s a short break and the stage is cleared, reseating the performers for more of an interview setting and Bill Hurley (the host) settles in with a good set of talking points and questions, turning the night from concert to Bill’s ongoing documentary of music. He kicked off with asking us about what it was like to have been doing this for fifteen years, but after a couple of questions about songwriting and performance, he turned more political and he asked us about our role as artists in the current climate, if we felt we had a responsibility to the world… it was a great conversation, and it’s going to take me time to parse.
I think specifically he revisited something he’d mentioned earlier in the night, wondering if we planned to return to places like Mississippi and North Carolina, places where laws are being passed that are trying to formalize legal discrimination under the guise of leveling the playing field for Christians and religious groups who feel that THEY’RE being threatened. I didn’t go too far down that road, in a few short sentences I could’ve probably gotten myself into some pretty hot water, because I feel my opinions on the subject probably would’ve been difficult to explain easily, but any law that strips non-discrimination language out of state hiring practices makes it easy for me…
Rabbit hole – sorry. Anywho, his question was very specifically “with the direction of the country, do you feel like you’re having to avoid certain parts of the country” or something to that effect. Heather gave a fabulous answer : basically that we weren’t going to abandon our fans in places just because we felt their representatives were making poor (or downright evil) decisions. Basically, the idea that our LGBT / LGBT-friendly friends in North Carolina probably need a reminder that it’s not like that everywhere, that like-thinking people exist – and us being supportive to them in that way – as well as showing people who don’t agree with them but who are still brought together by our music that we all have common ground – is a WHOLE lot more valuable than snubbing them. If we were like…. U2 or something… we could certainly hope to do some good by boycotting a state (following the example of other corporate giants like Disney and AMC), but our soapbox isn’t big enough to step up and TELL people what to think, and we’re not big enough for anyone to care about our “or else” – but at our scale we gather people, we talk to people and we connect to people. It’s what we CAN do – so it’s what we WILL do.
I followed up by going after the word “direction” – I expressed that something that was clear to me from wandering, talking to people, watching this amazing nation of ours – that the right-leaning, hate-spewing, racist MONSTER that’s come to capture the popular imagination of what America is is NOT a “direction”, but rather a symptom of a very much opposite direction. It’s the fever as we continue on a path that has slowly broached greater and greater acceptance between races and sexualities, cultures and religions. We Live in a time of populist fear – which is NOT the same as actually Living in fear. And I inadvertently gave myself a pretty awesome sound bite by saying something to the effect that acceptance was the right side of history and that frankly, there’s a whole lot of angst in the nation NOT because racism and hatred are winning, but because they’re destined to lose.
I don’t know, I think I said it really well on tape. There was a lot of cheering. I hope I don’t watch the webcast shaking my head and thinking “oh rob, what an idiot”.
We’ll see.
Well, in any case, we came home, played with the dogs, had further deep and not-so-deep but wonderful conversations with our host and tried to carry on said conversations with his dogs. Drank habanero tequila and generally got very, very, very sleepy, which unfortunately didn’t actually result in SLEEP. I think I was up till 3 or 4… maybe afraid of revisiting the nightmares from the night before (after the SHoB gig I went to bed, fell asleep, and spent the night dreaming about slowly and viciously dismembering a friend) – who knows. But by 9 or so I was awake again, contemplating the drive home.
Today I’m floating in a perfect place of post. Last night’s show was stunning. By no means perfect, but absolutely who and what I want to be. Came home to great tequila thanks to our host, wrestled with wonderful dogs, and went to bed snug and warm. This morning I woke to a rhythmic scraping that meant SNOW – not a sound I was expecting to hear! But looking outside, Sharon, MA had been transformed into an absurdly perfect winter wonderland and those aforementioned dogs were out in the drifts romping joyously. Breakfast was delicious, more playing with the dogs, a slow pack and now a long but straight drive back to Baltimore. If it wasn’t for the fact that my batteries won’t last the whole drive and I forgot to bring a book, it’d be a perfect day.
We passed Mosno in New Haven, CT where he was performing at Yale, and continue our way south. Should be home for a late dinner.
Below – more shots from the Fallout Shelter by Scotten Jones.
