It’s a time of intense personal reflection for me.
There are times in life when you are busy just ‘doing’. You’ve got things to do, and you do them, and you wake up the next day and do it again. Then there are times when there’s a shake up, a shut down, a finish line. That’s where I am. I’m at a multi-pronged fork in the road, and now it’s time to think.
As I walk into Harvard and Stone by myself, I realize that it’s been a long time since I’ve gone to a show alone. Most of my shows in San Francisco, San Antonio, and Austin I went to alone; it’s a completely different experience that shaped me as a writer. You observe on a different level, to fill your time. On the other hand, the camaraderie from being surrounded by friends who are into the same music as me here in LA has given me a different layer of experience. But sometimes you need to just zone out on the music alone, and Spindrift was the perfect band for that.
I had interviewed Spindrift earlier this summer, and was glad to see them again. I caught part of the tinny mic-ed washboard action of RT and the 44s first, and then listened to Daniel Ash DJ between sets as I sipped on my drink. Elvis faded into BRMC; later Elvis faded into QOTSA…this is perfect. I stood there and let my mind wander, people watching in this Hollywood hipster environment. I’ve ended up at this spot quite a bit over my stay here somehow, and it always seems like everyone knows each other here.
It was around midnight when Spindrift took the stage. This show was a kick off for their soon to begin tour with The Black Angels. There’s not much more I can write about them that I already haven’t; when people ask me about them I say ‘psychedelic spaghetti western music’ which is always met with an odd facial expression…but those of us who know get it. I watched people dance in the front, stumble as they made their way around, and swoon to the music. As I thought about the tone and mood of their music, I envisioned myself setting out on that drive back to Texas. How the city will give away to the desert, which will give away to the West Texas plains and, ultimately, the Texas Hill Country. How it will feel to live in small town Texas again, a place that feels so familiar yet alien to me that it makes my head spin. And as the guitars in front of me twanged and the tambourine rattled, it all became very, very real.
Related Posts
