It's been exactly a week since I found myself immersed in a 4-day music festival featuring bands I know and love. I could have stayed longer... the weather was perfect, the site was great, the company delightful. I was in my element. But all good things (and luckily bad things too) must come to an end, so I have decided to write about it and share my perspective on it... or some of it at least. It's as much for me, to come back to it and read it and remember it, as it is for you out there in blog-land.
DEAD-ERCISE
Just a note about this... If you want to lose a few pounds, I recommend a four-day weekend of seeing music on lovely mountainside spot. With all the walking and dancing and the terrible and expensive food, this could really be a great weight-loss program for Deadheads. Think about it. I suppose you'd have to cut out the beer to really make all that calorie burning pay off, but I'll tell you with the water park and all that shlepping, it was quite the workout each day.
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| Well, at least this guy is sleeping with his dog. |
CONCERT ETIQUETTE
Okay, I don't want to get preachy or judgy here... but obviously just by saying that it's clear I'm about to do both.
PETS: Don't bring them. If you can figure out how to come to a show like this, then you can figure out what to do with your dog. (Or cat, tho I've never seen a cat in someone's car.) There's no way this is ever okay for your dog, living in your car while you are at the show, then being walked in the hot parking lot, and then getting back in the car.
KIDS: Yea, I brought my kids to a concert here and there when they were growing up. But not a 4-day festival. Kids need their routine, their food, their beds, toys, structure. But okay. If you do bring your kids... take care of them. Nothing ruins my great mood more than this sentence, "She's lost her kid, someone help her."
What can I say. I love my kids more than I love the music. Maybe that's why my first festival was after my youngest son went to college.
Okay, I'm off my high horse. I won't even mention bathroom etiquette, talking during songs, or cigarettes...
Let's talk about why we even GO to the festival in the first place....
THE MUSIC and trying not to be OCD* about it.
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| Bobby |
I love the music I love... well who doesn't? I love being right up front, getting swept away by exciting new music. I like it really loud. I like the music to take me to new heights. I like to hear a singer sing a phrase I've heard all my life and letting me hear it like I've never heard it before. I get very excited watching two guitar players trade off the lead in a song seamlessly. Three guitar players? Even better. Love watching a jam among players who know each other so well that they intuit where they're going and miraculously a new song unfolds from what sounded like chaos a moment ago. Delicious harmonies bringing new understanding to a song I thought I totally knew... but now wait a sec... what are they doing here... singing it in a minor key??? WHAT??? And I feel tears in my eyes that I don't even understand.
I know people can relate to this, even if you don't like the same music I like. The problem is at a festival like the Peach, there are bands playing at all times on three stages. Starting at about 1:00 in the afternoon. And those stages aren't near each other. So that's a lot of running back and forth (HEY! They're the guys from moe. Come on!)
or it's a moment of clarity where I say to myself...
"Juliet... you spend your life running around getting from place to place. The people with you don't care that much. They would be happy to just hang out. Slow down and relax."
So I did exactly that. I didn't go see Cabinet a second time, or run from stage to stage, or clamber to the front for Government Mule. And it was all okay. I had a great time hanging out with my friends Iris and Rob, and my husband Michael, on the lawn. I took pictures, created some jewelry, and even sold one of my bracelets (for $10 and a Rice Krispies Treat). Later we packed up and moved up nice and close and I got back to my slight obsession with the music.
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| Pretty fancy display... |
I realized that this festival was not just about the music, though the music was fantastic. It was about riding a ski lift to the top of the mountain just to ride it back down and take pictures and have a few laughs. It was about sleeping late. It was about relaxing with my husband and my friends. It was about having a beer in the parking lot and letting things go one last time before my work becomes so intense that I might forget how to do this for a while.
So, now what? I found out Cabinet was playing tonight right nearby... But it was my mom's birthday so we all went out to dinner to celebrate. I'll be scouring the paper, the internet and my email to see when the next music fix will be. While I'm writing this I've been listening to Ratdog's set from Friday night at the Peach. And I've uploaded all my photos so I can attach a link to this blog in case the ones I've included here aren't enough. As I conclude this lengthy blog I know that it means it's time to go back to reality.
Except Bobby just started playing Loose Lucy...
So, reality? Maybe tomorrow.
Thank you. For a real good time.
This is the link to my Picasa photo album if you want to see more.
I think.
https://plus.google.com/photos/101888049983386479881/albums/5914968144397249537?banner=pwa
*OCD : meaning: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, meaning... needing to hear all the music and not miss a note, at the expense of socializing with friend and relaxing in the sun.
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