We Can't Get As High As We Got On That First Night


I turned 21 on Saturday. I spent my birthday in the Northeast with my dad watching Sunderland v.s Tottenham, something that had been planned for ages as he's a massive Sunderland fan and he's successfully dragged me along for the ride over the years. The game ended 1-1, predictably with the disappointment of a last minute Robbie Keane equalizer. Before the game, we had a brief tour of the stadium which at one point involved me standing in Sunderland's dressing room with their manager and captain. As has become the custom over the years in rooms predominantly containing strangers, I said nothing. Anyway, above is a photo of my dad and I sitting in the home dugout at the Stadium of Light. Savour it, pictures of me in suits are fairly thin on the ground.

My mum rang me up later on and asked me if it felt like I was 21. I told her no, which was true, although I didn't particularly want to acknowledge it anyway. The idea that I should be a fully fledged adult now is depressing and I personally feel I have a long way to go. I started to feel it a little when I went to a gig last night however. I went to see Jack's Mannequin (check them out, utterly brilliant pop indie/rock songs) at Kings College. It was their first ever show in the UK and I'd been looking forward to it for ages. The band played for an hour and a half and were technically very good. Their frontman Andrew McMahon is a brilliant songwriter and a superb frontman. Their performance has gotten rave reviews pretty much across the board.
And yet I didn't feel massively into it. I sang along and pumped my fists in the air, but it lacked the magic of the nights I've at gigs in the past. The shows that gave me such a buzz I felt I could have floated home on the feeling. The nights where it was a privilege to be among a group a people who love a band as much as you do. The shows that remind you why you started listening to the music you listen to in the first place. After five years of gig going, I can't seem to capture those feelings anymore. I can't explain it. JM are one of my favourite bands and I know they played well. I've seemingly grown tired of live music. And that makes me feel old.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I'll See You In My Dreams

 Today is the first day of the 2024/25 English football season. It will be the first season that begins without my Dad, who died four months ago on 9 th April at the age of 76. My Dad and I have shared football together for as long as I can remember. I fell in love with football largely because of Eric Cantona, who I remember thinking was the coolest man alive. I dimly remember him returning to action after being suspended for his infamous kung fu kick on a Crystal Palace fan, scoring an equaliser against Liverpool and swinging around the stanchion behind the goal at Old Trafford. All of this subsequently led to me wanting to follow Manchester United. I am surprised in retrospect that this man from Houghton-le-Spring who spent most Saturdays in his youth at Roker Park to watch Sunderland AFC didn’t object more vehemently to this. Perhaps he saw it as a decent excuse to watch higher quality players than he was used to. Dad always wanted to watch good teams playing good football. ...
Read more

February In Film

  The Fabelmans The film follows Sammy Fabelman (Gabriel LaBelle), a young aspiring filmmaker dedicated to his craft who must negotiate the challenges posed by familial strife. Any resemblance to a real director is I presume entirely coincidental. One of my issues with the family early on is that they’re almost insufferably twee and not a great deal of interest seems to happen. The film’s central familial conflict feels somewhat implausible and is centred around Sammy’s mother Mitzi (Michelle Williams). I have enjoyed Williams’ work in the past but found her overwrought, hysterical performance here rather offputting.   Thank goodness then that Uncle Boris (Hirsch) arrives to drop a grenade into proceedings, explaining his own history with film and the arts and underlining Sammy’s forthcoming dilemma. He decides to get to work on his highest scale production to date, a war epic. These are the most joyous shots in the movie, teeming with invention especially in the deploym...
Read more

June In Film

  The Little Mermaid I have not seen the original Little Mermaid for something like 25 years. This probably aided my general enjoyment of yet another Disney remake, as I imagine that more diehard fans of the original would find more to fault here than I did. Having said that, some of the alterations worked for me such as the decision to give Prince Eric more backstory and a new song. Halle Bailey is perfectly cast as Ariel (regardless of what the internet’s worst arseholes will have you believe) and the quality of her singing is a match for the original. The highlight of the entire film is probably the moment when the crescendo of “Part Of Your World” hits, the waves crash against the shore and you’re fleetingly reminded of when Disney could still stir the soul. There’s an enjoyable performance too from Melissa McCartney as Ursula who brings a certain amount of fun to one of the House of Mouse’s greatest pantomime villains. Unfortunately, what these films lose in the transiti...
Read more