As I rounded out my 20s & six months into my 30s I’ve come to realize – I’m just not cool. I don’t even think “cool” is what people say any longer to describe someone who is cool. Now I can’t say for sure if I was ever cool, but I can confidently say I was able to fake it for quite some time, but now, I had to pull out my Direct TV channel index just to figure out where MTV was the other day (note: its not in the same block that CNN or MSNBC are in).
Moreover, the place I have always known myself hip-deficient is music. I was always under the thinking that Aerosmith was legit & Will Smith was the badest emcee on the planet. This is something I have never tried to fake – look my parents aren’t music buffs – riding with my Dad we jammed out to NPR and with Mom, she was and still is stuck with the hippie grooves she smoked to in her high school days. If you want to talk Rolling Stones or Rod Stewart then maybe I can hold a little bit of water in that conversation.
Knowing this, its no surprise that I haven’t been to or even considered the weekday-concert. It’s a “school-night” after all & I have important things to do…make a healthy dinner & see read some book someone told me was important to read. I know people do it though – and the numbers of cool kids playing this game are staggering. Over the past month I have either heard of, seen pictures from, been invited to or just saw advertisements for over a dozen shows that interested me. Not one was on a Friday or Saturday night; Sunday is a school night, hell I’ve even left three-day weekend festivals early to get my week planned out. I recently was blaming this on being in Dallas vs. NYC or LA, but after closer inspection, I realized the mid-week show is everywhere & everyone is doing it.
Look, I desperately want to be cool - and there isn’t anything more cool than crumbling to peer pressure; this is how you earn a cool rep. I took up an offer from a few of my boys to go & see TV On The Radio…on a Tuesday…meet up at 9pm. Believe me, just buying the tickets I felt like I belong on the Hot Accessory List for Fall in Us Weekly. We hit up the show, and I was just blown away – place was packed to the brim with hipsters; the outdoor patio looked like an anti-smoking ad gone wrong, with dozens of t-shirt & scarved girls puffing on their cigarettes, bearded guys wearing their skinny jeans & having a cold Amstel. I half expected to be the oldest person there, but negative, this place was stocked with people who actually have to wake up before the sun does, and who constantly were checking their phones to see if the sitter had called.
I fit in nicely; during the break between bands I had intelligent conversation – Obama this, mortgages that, 401k here, etc and then downbeat happened. The theatre went nuts, as did I, and all I cared about was dancing, singing, wondering why there was a flute player & why he played on his knees, why wasn’t I born a black musician from Brooklyn; you know, I lived a little bit & stopped worrying about everything. I wasn’t going to drink – ok I should have a beer – hell we drank a few beers. It was greatness & everyone there was totally enjoying that moment & not worrying about the ones that awaited them back at home. I was cool – I was at a weekday-concert & a damn popular one too. During the group’s most famous song, eleven people in our section pulled out their iPhones to record it…I’m not that cool yet but I’m getting there.
Look for next week’s follow up – My Weekday Hangover.
