As the weekend came to a sobering and screeching halt, so did the close of Forecastle, and as I was exiting the gates with the close of the Flaming Lips show I was completely drained. Two days of drinking in the sun, surfing through the crowds of thousands of attendees, and neglecting your normal sleeping patterns will often do that to you. Sometimes the break from normality, the break from reality, and an out the window take on life is needed. Sometimes it's praised, but when it's over, what have you gained from it? Besides the sunburned skin, the bruises from pushing your way thru the crowd to catch the first person glimpse of the band you came to see, and the hangover that lingers the next day like the smell of that old deep fried chicken carcass that you tossed in yesterday's kitchen trash bag.
Truthfully, I try to take something away from most every moment outside the house, outside the times when I'm plastered to my computer writing articles for this publication and that, because these are my times to live like the wind. There my times to live like the variable that is ever-changing, like the wind that is often, but not always blown in the same direction. I like to drink a little bit too much, and in most every one of my articles, short stories, and novels that's a dead giveaway, but that release opens me up, and it takes the edge off.
I went into this past weekend expecting to see some great bands, mostly ones that I'd already heard of, but instead, I walked away having seen so much more than that because I decided to check out some new stuff that ran a bit under the radar. It's funny, because so often we're stuck in these places we've already predetermined or mapped out for ourselves, even though we may claim to be so damned open-minded. I'm right there with you. I do the same damn thing, but it was enlightening this past weekend to shake myself out of that daydream stupor and actually live like I thought I already was. It made for a hell of weekend.
Photo courtesy of Damian Gerlach
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