STEPPING OUT OF THE COMFORT ZONE II
/It was twenty years ago today...
So a man walks into bar and gets nostalgic about the future.
The location for this exercise in time travel is Saint Rocke in Hermosa Beach. He’s there to see John Surge & The Haymakers open for Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers.
Haymakers and Peacemakers all in one place... that alone makes for an interesting night.
Clyne—dubbed the Springsteen of the Southwest—was celebrating the 20th anniversary of the release of his first album, The Refreshments' Fizzy Fuzzy Big & Buzzy, by playing it in its entirety.
Roger Clyne—Twenty years ago... Memories are made of this.
Watching an album played in concert recalls the Laurie Anderson refrain: “This is the time and this is the record of the time.” Clyne jokingly addressed this when he said the moment had come to "flip the record over."
The crowd certainly knows the album. They know the songs by heart. One woman is rocking to the music, arms raised over her head, singing along with her eyes closed, a big smile on her face. She might have been 16 when the record first came out. Is she being transported to her past? Is she recalling days of her youth, a first or lost love, times spent in her room listening to her favorite cassette? Is she back to a simpler time when life was just a party, before she discovered, as we all do, that parties weren’t meant to last? (Just ask Prince. His silence speaks volumes, doesn’t it?)
While watching this woman, the man gets a vision of the future. In twenty years, the man will be either:
a) A cover model for Today’s Seniors magazine
b) No more
c) A spirit of energy and light, free from all concept of time and space
d) None of the above
He pictures his music-loving daughter 20 years on. Maybe she’ll find herself in a club similar to Saint Rocke. Maybe it’s The Maine on stage, playing their album Pioneer in its entirety. She’ll be with her old friends, taking selfies with God knows what kind of new-fangled contraption, singing along with the band. She’ll remember the songs, the feelings invoked, the moments of her youth. She’ll just never be 16 again.
Remember the Maine: Memories in the works. "Inside of You" live in LA from the Pioneer tour.
This is the record. And this is the record of the time.
HUGO RICARDO
Hugo is a contributing writer to the ConceptuaLine blog and an accomplished copywriter in both English and Spanish. Catch him on Friday nights supporting Lancer football.
