The Aging Punk
For my birthday a couple friends and myself went to the final show for a local punk rock band that has been together for about 10 years (give or take). It was a strange experience. The whole thing brought back a lot of memories of high school. Sneaking out to shows, sneaking into shows, and generally wondering aimlessly around Richmond at all hours of the night. It brought to mind all the shows I’d been to and my friends and I discussed these at length. The environment, as it turns out, remained the same after all these years. The kids at this show were the kids that were the “older kids” when we started going to shows. There were some obvious noobs (newbies, uninitiated) present and of course, as happens every time in Richmond, someone overstepped an unspoken boundary and trouble ensued. In this particular case the pit opened up and some older guys started dancing. The dancing got pretty ridiculous and one guy hit a larger, newer guy (honestly, it didn’t even look like it hurt). Of course, the new guy wants to start shit because he’s mad someone hit him and didn’t immediately apologize and so he goes looking for trouble. He immediately finds it. As he confronts the man who hit him, the man’s four or five friends start to circle in… ah, just like high school shows. Then the bouncers rush in to save the day (and the new guy’s neck). There was no actual fight and the older guys seemed content to let it go. Not so much with the new guy, but he kept his distance. Other than that, the show went off without a hitch.
Despite the show being a total blast and an overall good time, there was an air of nostalgia and a slighter sense of loss. Not only for the passing of one of my favorite bands, but for an era of my life that I just can’t go back to. My friend Chris seemed to share the sentiment. I spent the next few days in a funk sort of caught between where I was, where I am and where I want to be. I think it’s time I work a bit harder and buckle down and do whatever it takes to get through this final year of school and get my degree and get the hell out of this town. Maybe once I achieve some financial security I could do something I have always wanted to do like open a punk rock coffee shop or bar in some place that could use the stimulation.
