Standing In The Back, Looking Around
I've been inspired to revisit this blog after a ridiculously long absence. I was asked to do a gig at a performance arts evening at my old comprehensive, Charles Darwin School, in honour of the retiring headmaster Rob Higgins. I didn't always have the best time at school but I enjoyed going back and had a great show along with my comedy colleague and occasional friend James McPhun.
Prior to the gig when trying to think of stories to retell, it struck me that there wasn't much I could actually remember from my school days. My dad told me that he had a similar problem with his memory in his youth and had taken to writing a diary. The upshot of this is that I'm going to try and write more. I want to have some sort of account of my life to refer to and look back on the future. Hopefully I'll have enough to say to write a couple of blogs a week.
On Wednesday night, I went to see Jimmy Eat World at The Forum, playing their albums "Clarity" and "Bleed American". They were excellent but about 75 minutes into their two hour set, I found myself flagging. I'm increasingly finding when I go to see live music that my sense of tiredness will override my sense of enjoyment at some stage in proceedings. I started going to gigs in 2004 and am increasingly feeling, seven years on, that I've seen everything I want to see by now. It doesn't hold the same sense of excitement anymore.
In 2005, I saw Jimmy Eat World for the first time at the London Astoria and they blew my 17 year old mind. Now gigs tend to just make me feel old and knackered. To be honest, I'm not sure this is how a 23 year old is supposed to feel. It seems appropriate for a blog partly about memory loss that I have just realised that I expressed similar sentiments before when going to see another of my favourite bands, Jack's Mannequin, in 2009. Perhaps that was the beginning of the end of my fanaticism for live music.
That said, when Jimmy Eat World played "23" the other night, it still sent shivers down my spine. But such moments are few and far between.
Prior to the gig when trying to think of stories to retell, it struck me that there wasn't much I could actually remember from my school days. My dad told me that he had a similar problem with his memory in his youth and had taken to writing a diary. The upshot of this is that I'm going to try and write more. I want to have some sort of account of my life to refer to and look back on the future. Hopefully I'll have enough to say to write a couple of blogs a week.
On Wednesday night, I went to see Jimmy Eat World at The Forum, playing their albums "Clarity" and "Bleed American". They were excellent but about 75 minutes into their two hour set, I found myself flagging. I'm increasingly finding when I go to see live music that my sense of tiredness will override my sense of enjoyment at some stage in proceedings. I started going to gigs in 2004 and am increasingly feeling, seven years on, that I've seen everything I want to see by now. It doesn't hold the same sense of excitement anymore.
In 2005, I saw Jimmy Eat World for the first time at the London Astoria and they blew my 17 year old mind. Now gigs tend to just make me feel old and knackered. To be honest, I'm not sure this is how a 23 year old is supposed to feel. It seems appropriate for a blog partly about memory loss that I have just realised that I expressed similar sentiments before when going to see another of my favourite bands, Jack's Mannequin, in 2009. Perhaps that was the beginning of the end of my fanaticism for live music.
That said, when Jimmy Eat World played "23" the other night, it still sent shivers down my spine. But such moments are few and far between.
Comments
Post a Comment