2001-02-04 - Almost noon
(This entry was originally scheduled for yesterday, but responding to my hate mail took priority. Just pretend it's yesterday instead of today, or something.)
Ever have trouble coming up with the exact word or phrase for something you�ve just experienced? That�s the problem I�m having right now. Let me describe the scene in some detail and maybe that will shake up my gray matter enough to dislodge the word or words I�m looking for:
It�s Friday night. I go to see the California Guitar Trio, who are touring with Tony Levin (ex of King Crimson, part of Peter Gabriel�s stable of musicians, all-around bass god who�s played with just about everyone ... most of my musician friends are bass players, for some reason, and they all pretty much worship the ground Tony Levin walks on). The crowd is about evenly divided among punks, pro musicians and balding prog-rockers (two people behind me went on for most of the night about how great the remastered CD version of Yessongs was--that should give you the idea), and is almost all guys--I count maybe half a dozen women, all of whom have this bored, hi-I�m-an-ornament look on their faces and are obviously there only out of deference to whomever they�re dating. I think the kids call a gathering with this sort of male-female ratio a "sausage party."
But anyway, the show was great, until the end, when Things Got Weird. I�ve heard "Bohemian Rhapsody" a million times, including cover versions by various bands, and my friends and I were singing along to it on the radio long before Wayne�s World made it cool. But never in my life have I seen a live performance of it where everyone in the audience--and I mean everyone--stands up and sings along. In harmony--with one side of the room singing the "A" part and the other side singing the "B" part. With everyone shooting these self-conscious sidelong glances as each other throughout as if to say, "I�m not the only big geek in this room, am I?"
So, what�s the phrase I�m looking for? Synergy? Mass psychosis? Collective generational embarrassment? You make the call.
***
|
 |