time keeps on slipping into the future

Post 33 of 90.

I realized today that the 25th was the 12th anniversary of a gig I played with my old rock band back in my daze in Bloomington. This performance was hands-down the absolute peak of my guitar playing prior to Guitar Craft.

I've not come close since then to the sort of energy and intensity that defined that gig. I've become a much better guitarist in a lot of ways since that time, but I also often feel like I somehow lost the "mojo" I had then.

Then again, I was a 25 year old post-college slacker kid with time to burn on practicing five to seven hours every day--not necessarily good, efficient practice, but enough to cause me to jump levels now and then. I also wore the guitar way too low and wired in some nasty habits I've since had to struggle to overcome. In retrospect, it's a minor miracle I didn't develop an overuse injury from the pressure I put on my left hand and wrist from trying to fret notes in that low position.

What's funny is that I still wore the guitar a lot higher than S, the bass player, wanted me to. He started the band and had big ideas of being the next Metallica, so he was always trying to make me wear it down by knees, because he thought it of key importance that we had to look like a regulation metal band. It didn't seem to matter to him that I couldn't play in that position, and I didn't put up with it for long. Even at that age, good sense prevailed now and then in my life.

The night before our gig, he played the same venue with another band that at last fulfilled his desire to be textbook late-80s metal. Ironically, he was also the only member who couldn't seem to bang his head in time with the rest of the band. His efforts to draw attention to himself on stage were conspicuous. They mostly stayed "in formation," even the scream-singing frontman, while he leapt about and weaved in and around the other musicians.

The nail that sticks out will be hammered down, especially in the scene surrounding that band, and they eventually ousted him. I met a few of them, and they struck me as being a nasty and petty lot--one of them openly sneered as he shook my hand--exactly the potentially damaging sort of people I've long since learned to avoid like bubonic plague (or maybe ebola or some other ghastly pestilence).

As a side note, this was one of those dopey pay-to-play "battle of the bands" things--the band made up of employees of the venue won the contest, of course. Coincidence? I doubt it.

The last contact any of us had with him was circa 1998 when we got back together at the drummer's house in Bloomington to party and have some fun playing together. DM called him, and after a short, aimless conversation S hung up the phone and went back to watching television preachers.

I sent email to DM today to remind him of the anniversary, and he in turn reminded me that it has been appr. 17 years since his girlfriend at the time brought him over to my dorm room at IU to meet me during my freshman year.

It all seems like yesterday to me, of course. I sometimes feel like I've come unstuck in time.

There's also a barrista I'm friendly with who is 20 years old, married with a kid, and I realized today that she was 3-8 years old during this period that seems like yesterday to me.

Absolutely bizarre.

She also talks about how she feels let down by "Generation X" and how she had looked up to us but we let her down, and so on. I countered that maybe we weren't worthy of being looked up to.

As evidence, I quoted a key phrase from the (alleged) Voice of My Generation: "Oh, well, whatever, never mind..." Remember that? That was us (supposedly). Not an encouraging bit of verbiage to hear from a generation you somehow wish to look up to, eh?

I've noticed before with some acquaintances in their early 50s who went to college together that they remember their college years in the early 70s like it just happened, and that it was still their frame of reference.

But then I'm also finding it strange how some acquintances in their early 20s are listening to music ranging in age from 30 to 40 years right alongside current music.

Then again, I guess it's not strange from the standpoint that it happens usually to be the best music those previous eras produced, the stuff that has lasted.