the specials in the 21st C

a couple, few, months ago i read that the great ska band The Specials were coming to the Fox Theater in oakland.  i really, really wanted to go.  The specials have a very special place in my, and anna's, hearts since we were wee little kittens.  i even mentioned the upcoming concert to a few friends who said, that's cool, rich, but. . .

but a few weeks ago anna & i were watching the rock&roll hall of fame ceremony on TV.  now, i love live music performances.  most of my youtube watching is live music.  something magic about a group of strangers dancing, singing, clapping & being in a sequence of time & rhythm.  my descriptions of live performances can get to mystical proportions.  i think that maybe there is hope for the human being if strangers can act as one in peace & 4/4 time.  there is no larger communal embrace than getting lost in the music & the crowd.

still, during the broadcast anna got on her phone & said, there are still tix to see The Specials in oakland.  wanna go?  do i wanna go?  does the pope wear a roman hat?  fuck yeah!  i must confess that the Fox Theater has become our favorite music venue.  it is gorgeous inside.  located in downtown oakland on telegraph ave the Fox Theater was an old movie house that fell into disrepair.  it was lovingly restored to its kinda sorta moorish design in 2009.  anna & i saw The Shins a month after the venue was reopened.

i've written about the Fox Theater before so no need to get into the nitty-gritty.  anna & i saw Beirut in march at the Fox.  that was a lovely show.  but The Specials are something special.  formed in 1979 they, & other like bands, kick-started the second wave of ska music.  only this particular wave held a pretty deep social conscious.  these ska bands wrote songs about economic desperation & inequality, social inequity, & political stupidity.  it is my humble opinion that The Specials are the very best of the best.

rather than dig into the personnel & personality of the band, which are all too easily google-able in our rapidly increasing digital age, i will say that The Specials songs about social injustice & wealth inequality & anti-war & anti-nukes speak so strongly of our present age.  have any of these songs aged?  no.  but for one or two.  the later tune 'free nelson mandela' is no longer relevant because mandela did get free, but the great man was also elected president of south africa.

but as anna said, you go to concerts to be with your tribe.  our tribe likes pork pie hats, checkerboard designs, punk leathers, shoes like vans & chuck taylors.  what's old is new again.  many members of the audience also, like me, had grey or silvery hair.  the average age was 50.  but many of these older folks brought their teenage kids.  & these kids were dressed like their parents.  oh man, when i looked to the floor i saw a mosh pit the comprised 50 somethings & teenage somethings.  how's that for equity?


downtown oakland is so cool even Lorca has a place to call his own.

& that's the thing about growing old in the 21st C.  the latter 20th C is so easily available via digital media.  old TV shows, old music, old anything is easily get-able via electronic access.  wanna see & hear jimi hendrix live?  no problem.  curious how people lived in the 1970s.  type in '70s TV commercials' in youtube & you may not get a terribly accurate way of life in the '70s but you will get more than a flavor of how people lived, & what their aspirations were, by watching the advertising media of its time.  at no time was faulkner's dictum 'the past is never dead.  it not even passed' as relevant as in our digital age.

The Specials message is so today.  & all days.  when they performed their masterpiece 'ghost town' i nearly wept.  the band was that good.

even with social messages The Specials kept a danceable beat.  i've been to a very many bay area concerts.  most bay area audiences are pretty mellow.  but as i said a little earlier there was a mosh pit.  when the band performed 'A Message to You Rudy' the venue launched into low earth orbit.  when you listen/see The Specials it is hard to sit still.  this was one of the best concerts i've been to.  i shit you not.  this is a band performing at the first intensity.

would it be that the social justice messages are lost in the beat?  perhaps, that is the problem with art with messages.  people can lose the cause even as they appreciate the art.  still, singer terry hall concluded the band's performance with these words, LOVE LOVE LOVE.  hard to miss that.