A few years ago, he formed a band and they got an album out. Just a few months ago they got their second out. Cool. It's a great band. Indie-tronica is a great way to describe their style. A few months ago he emails me to tell me they're going on tour and would like a place to crash in SF and could they sleep on our floors/couches/etc. That ended up being last night. 5 of them. They were all really nice and fun to talk with. Tonight, at their show I got to catch up with Kael and his wife, Heather, a bit more and their friend John. All, really impressive people. Kael works for his brother's company writing music for TV commercials and other stuff (if you have an AppleTV and you listen to the startup music, that's his, or the power-on sound of several Palm phones). His band actually gets a lot of fans because of one car commercial he did.
People on the internet go looking for it, find out he wrote it and has this band that he writes the songs for. I overheard some fans tonight coming to them and telling them they found the band through that commercial. Awesome. He is allowed to make it available but not to sell it. (John says it's kinda frustrating that Kael writes all this great music, but they can't use it in their band :-)
Heather just finished her first year at UCLA's medical school. Their friend John, is a new English Professor at Yale. Crazy. Buncha smart people. All on breaks from jobs/school to do this tour with their band. With them is Kurt and Sebastian.
I feel all weird tonight, like I had an amazing time, but not excited amazing, just uber satisfied amazing. Maybe I liked the attention, or because of the novelty of being out late at a rock show (a small one, but cooler for it), or that I felt cool being in some small club in the Mission listening to a bunch of cool bands and having an inside connection with one of them. Maybe it's just a bit of hero worship and admiration. Maybe I feel just a little bit cooler because I'm hanging out with REALLY cool people. One fan was getting autographs of everyone in the band on the CD he bought tonight and he tries to hand it to me to get me to sign it. "Oh, wait, YOU haven't signed it yet!" Funny, a bit awkward, but funny.
As I drove home, all I could think about was how great a time I had and how lucky I am to have what I have and know what I know. Holy crap lucky. Blessed, fortunate, whatver. I couldn't stop thinking about Emily and Grace and Leif.
I was also reminded of how slow I am, socially. Trying to say what I meant and be entertainingly conversant. Like the awkward statements I make, or comments that don't add to the conversation and probably drag it into the many awkward silences that abound around me. I did make some friends tonight but I lack the resources and strategies to maintain them and feel bad about it.
What was fun was helping them load their equipment into the van while another band was still playing and the show was still going. I was going in and out of this small club and while others were showing ID's or whatever to get past the doorman, we make eye-contact, give each other the little nod and I just walk past. Yeah, that's how important I was tonight. (So stupid, I know, why does this stuff go through my head??)
In our small conversations we nabbed when we could, I'm not sure how much they learned about me. I'm guessing our little family looked like the perfect, quaint little nuclear family. Emily even made them all waffles and banana bread muffins (which they all commented to me tonight how great they were) after I left for dental school on my bicycle. Grace was the ultimate little girl and in love with all of them and cried and screamed when she had to say good-bye. Leif was just his charmingly cute and shy self. They don't get to see our depth, what makes me look at my life and feel like it is fantastically awesome. And I'm okay with that. I'm judgmental of other people who seem shallow or superficial (whatever they are doing good or bad) and I realize I don't think less of them, so why should I care if others see me the same way and probably don't think less of me?
I got to see them at an exciting moment in their lives, and it was fun to be a part of it. I highly recommend checking them out. They are Faded Paper Figures. The other really awesome band I saw tonight is We Landed on the Moon. "Boats" is a great song.
Grace and I like watching FPF's music video but I think the robot weirds her out:-)
1 comment:
Good story. I really enjoyed reading this and yes, a little jealously came over me because that sounds really fun. You should have signed that guy's cd anyway.
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