Smile - A.F.I.

I came out of practice yesterday, and heard this band raging full on a few blocks away from my house, running through Won't Get Fooled Again by The Who, which is a pretty ballsy tune to cover. Then right after that they launched into Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love by Van Halen. I walked the 2 blocks from my house to where the band was rocking out at, and I sat down on a low brick wall, directly across the street from the house they were playing in. They really sounded good, giving it their all, with lots of shout outs to 'Come on', 'Let me hear ya!', 'Turn it up!' and so on. They announced that they were about to play their last song, and as the perfect Classic Rock trifecta, they closed with Rock And Roll All Nite by KISS. I was a happy camper indeed. The front door of the house opened up, and this motley group of 30-40 year old gentlemen came outside to have a smoke and they saw me sitting on the wall checking them out. 'Were you listening to us? Did you like it?' they asked. Yeah, I told them, you're pretty good. We made introductions and I asked them if they played gigs anywhere and whatnot. 'Naaah', one of them told me, 'we do it just for fun'. I thought that was a really cool reason to be in a band, and I hung out with them for a bit before I excused myself from their little get together.

As I was walking away from those guys, heading back to mi casa, I heard this Indie Pop warbling coming from a house about 5 houses down from where the Classic Rock band was holding court. They sounded like The Kills, The Dead Weather, The Black Keys, that kind of lame, nerdy stuff, and they were playing in a garage with the door wide open, not very loudly, of course, and a few of their friends were just hanging around checking them out and bobbing their heads to the music accordingly. Once they were finished with their song, they noticed me standing there on the sidewalk checking them out, and the guitarist/vocalist  asked me if I liked what I heard. I lied and said that I did, and that they were pretty good, yada yada yada, and I asked for the name of their band. I swear, every individual band member shouted out a different name, and them and their friends all had a good laugh about it, and someone, the bass player I think, said, 'We're just messing around and having fun.' And that's when it hit me. The Message. I was kind of getting mired down in the machinery and drudgery of The Bands, Band Stuff, whatever, as of late, and I had forgotten that playing music is supposed to be about having fun. That was the message the universe was dramatically reminding me of Saturday night, and for that I am Thankful, because, when it stops being fun, when it starts to feel like a job you don't like doing, then it's time to change things up. It's time to leave. After the Dr.'s on Thurs., and after hearing the message someone was trying to tell me, I'm definitely reevaluating things and getting my priorities straight. I want Music to be Fun again, and it's going to be. Or else. I have got to make that happen again. Or else.