Growing For Gold

Last Friday, the AP art staff held their end o' summer party (frequently rendered on flyers as ApARTy). Yeah, it was a grey and rainy day, but the food was fabulous, the cornhole games were spirited and the banter outside the corridors of the AP Skyscraper was positively chummy, as opposed to "Pettigrew! That should have been to design three days ago! WTF!"

One of these moments involved a chat with a staffer (who shall remain nameless) about feeling on the outskirts of rock history. Said staffer was saying their significant other has seen all sorts of great moments in rock, from U2 and Springsteen's requisite jumps to arenas to other events people would covet. The staffer added, "I never saw anything like that. I've just seen Agnostic Front 50 times, or so."

Personally, I think seeing AF that many times says something about their appeal, as well as someone's loyalty toward the band. But at the end of the conversation, I realize that the important thing is context. I know if Springsteen or U2 were playing across the street, I'd probably stay home to catch a rerun of Burn Notice on USA. Is missing something you don't care about that is defined by others as "essential," really a loss? Okay, so I never made it to Seattle at the height of grunge. Does that make the Lake Of Dracula gig I saw (total attendance: 14) that less significant? Yes, I saw the legendary Red Hot Chili Peppers/Smashing Pumpkins/Pearl Jam tour. (It was pretty good, actually.) But I would have much rather been at the Loop/Godflesh/World Domination Enterprises show at London's Astoria that year. Think of it in terms of the used CD store: You might get, say, four bucks trade-in value for the last P-jam disc. But the guy at the store will give you 50 cents for a CD of World Domination's debut album Let's Play Domination. That disc is something I, personally, would skip a mortgage payment to own. (BTW, I do have 12 copies of it on vinyl.)

The whole basis of punk/new wave/alternative rock culture was to create something new that meant something to people who didn't want to be defined by horrible trends in '70s American FM radio. As much as I love Radiohead's ability to make Shoreline Ampitheater feel like a 1100-capacity club during their Amnesiac tour, I'm still going to reminisce about seeing Skull Kontrol with 35 people I never cared about. And there ain't nothing Anthony DeCurtis, Edna Gunderson or Neil Strausswill ever say or write to change that. So the next time you're in somebody's basement watching some band with a handful of folks you don't know, you might be making history; namely your own.

Actually, this is all foreshadowing for my 77th birthday tomorrow. I'll get back to you in a few days once I recover.