I just finished watching the film, ‘Almost Famous’. I’m sure most of you have seen it, but if you haven’t here’s the gist of it. A very smart kid growing up in a strict home discovers rock’n’roll in the early 1970’s and dreams of being a journalist. He reads Creem Magazine like it’s his Bible and comes to meet one his heroes and editor of Creem at the time, Lester Bangs. Eventually, he ends up following the band Stillwater while on tour to write a piece on them for Rolling Stone. Craziness ensues. Great movie. Go pick it up in some bargin bin next time you’re out on the town. 

 Now that we are all caught up, everytime I watch this film I get a soft, fuzzy feeling for rock’n’roll. Like it has never been spoiled by a corporate machine and there’s still some magic left. That the truly good bands will make it because they’re good. It really explores why musicians and fans do what they do. If we look at music in general from a logical stand point, it’s completely ridiculous. We, the fans, pay hard earned money for other humans to dance and make noise that’s pleasing to us, and not even on our own terms. The musician chooses what noise they will make, where they will make it and who makes it with them. Then we soak it up. We’ll buy tickets, T-shirts, records, buttons, etc. just for the name on them. Why would we do this? It’s not like they work on a farm and give us food for our money. We do it because there is something about this sound they can make. As Jason Lee’s character puts it, “It’s about the buzz, man.”

 This weekend I was very buzzed. Not only did I get to go see The Dead Weather preform at The Fillmore and hang out all day with The Eeks on Sunday, but on Saturday One of my songs was featured on ‘BP Fallon’s Wang Dang Doodle’. I won’t bore you with the details (if you really want to know read my personal blog here), but it’s a pretty big deal to me. Indeed, this weekend I got a small glimpse of the rock’n’roll circus and I loved every peek.

 Now the price I had to pay for this weekend of rock? I borrowed money from the last people I should borrow money from. For the next month I will be doing slave labour paying off my debt. It was an absolute last resort but it was incredibly worth it. Which is exactly what I’m trying to get across here. For anything else, I would have just forgotten about it and moved on. But this is music. This is the chance to be around people I can relate to. This is what I want to do with the rest of my life. Some people have their kids or spouse, some people their prized garden or a sports car, but I have music and that’s it.

 I’m addicted to music. I have been known to buy a record with my last dollar instead of food. When I had a job I would buy $200 in records a week on what I called my “Record Store Tour”. I see concerts as a gathering of people who do the same thing. People who understand. It’s like sneaking out of an AA meeting to have a drink. I’m also a musician, in case you somehow didn’t pick up on that before. So going to a show is like research. Like a film maker watches movies to learn or a painter hangs around museums. Plus you meet people. People who might end up liking your music. You even meet people who might get you shows of your own. It’s a wonderful thing.

 The point is, records and concerts are very important to me. When people ask me why I buy so many records or why I feel it’s so important to go to shows, it’s almost impossible to explain (hence the long article about nothing). I tried to explain to my friend one time about how serious I am about my own music. I said, “Music is it for me dude. I don’t have any other real skills. If I don’t do music, I’m going to be working dead end jobs until I shoot myself, alone in the bedroom of whatever shack I call my home. Music is all I’ve got and I’m gonna give it everything I have.”. And that’s what I’ll do.