What do you do if your nephew invites you to go see a band you have never heard of in a small club in the downtown part of the city you find yourself in? Well, if you have been following this blog, you would know that the answer to that question is, go. I don’t know what I am about to see. It could be great, or it could be a disaster, but either way it will be an adventure.
So I went down to the Larimer Lounge in Downtown Denver with my brother and his son to see a Canadian singer named Ekkstacy. We actually listened to his music on the way down so I could see what I was getting myself into. It was mellow with a little bit of an emo vibe to it. The music wasn’t what I usually listen to, but I liked it enough that I thought it was worth the price of admission.
What I saw brought me back to my college days. The performance had a lot more energy to it than the tracks we listened to while driving down to the show. The show happened in a cinder block room with poor acoustics, and filled with a younger crowd that knew the words to the songs, and jumped around while loosing themselves to the music. There were pits that formed for these short songs that burst into the room and left before they overstayed their welcome. In other words, I found myself at a punk rock show.
It wasn’t something that I had been to in quite a long time, and I did not rush into the madness like I would have in my youth, but it was fun to be back at a show like this. I do not go to many shows anymore, partly because I live in a country where bands don’t come through as much, and partly because the bands I would love to see cost way too much anymore. So it was fun to go and see a show in the raw and be exposed to a new band that I probably would have never listened to if it wasn’t for my nephew. Oddly enough, the scene had not changed that much since my time as a college student when I would go see bands like this more often.
So the next time somebody suggests you go out and try something new that might take you to a place where you have not been for a long time, say yes. It might transport you back to a time you had forgotten about, and present you with a new experience that you will never forget about.
John Collings 