a hot nite living in the '80s

i just got back from a nostalgia tour of 1980s bands.  b, c & i headed over to The Venue at the Thunder Valley Casino in lincoln for the show.  this is an outdoor stadium & in this horrible heat it was nearly unbearable.  the heat, fucking horrible.  i mean really really really terrible.  it was around 107 F at 6 pm when the show started.  it only started to feel a bit comfortable at 10 when the show ended.

but even with the heat the concert was great.  a long line up of 1980s era bands, like flock of seagulls, missing persons, wang chung et al., performed their hits.  b & c are our oldest friends.  i've known them for well over 40 years.  & we came of age in the 1980s.  sure nostalgia can be a bitch but man is it fun to see/here live music & who doesn't feel sad & stoked about their youth.  

even more so, i love people watching especially during live music performances.  we lose ourselves at concerts.  we sing aloud to the songs, we dance in the aisles [except for me cuz i look like a boneless chicken left in the wind whenever i try to dance], we allow ourselves to move out of our ordinary experiences to be with the crowd who are all singing along.  

& after these last two pandemic years going to see live music is magic.  yes, the bands onstage last had a hit 40 years ago.  when i was a younger dude i might have made fun of my older self going to see legacy acts.  but, i am at the age where i say fuck it.  music is ageless.  it is timeless.  if it makes you groove & makes you happy then it is good.

like i said, we are suffering a massive heatwave.  tomorrow is expected to be even hotter.  i sweated so much that when i stood up my butt was soaking wet.  or so it felt.  i wasn't alone in that feeling.  & but so what.  again, what makes us human is what makes the world beautiful.  oh, most of the audience was older dudes & dudettes like me, b & c.  but there were much younger people in the audience.  one of the most endearing sights tonight was watching a father dance with his young daughter & son.  they really grooved during flock of seagull's set.  & i wonder if there might be a subculture of 1980s kids of high school age in a similar spirit of the rockabilly scene when i was in high school.  

then again, perhaps not.  but i do wonder if these first two decades of the 21st C will produce its own legacy bands.  each decade of the 20th C was utterly unique with their own fashions & sounds.  the 21st C all blend together.  at least it does for this old dude.  but the MCs of tonight's concert would keep the energy going between sets by saying, 'who here graduated high school in the '80s?'  all the while videos of duran duran were playing.  i wonder if 30 years from now a MC would say, 'who here graduated high school in 2010?'  all the while a youtube or tik tok video was playing. 

perhaps i'm just being a cranky old man.  today's kids are alright & will also have their own nostalgia.  so get off my lawn!  & turn up that song 'to live & die in l.a.' by wang chung!