Monday, November 26, 2012

An Evening Out with an Old Friend


***I like to apologize for the lack of photos. I don't know how to upload more at this time. Having some technical difficulties.****
 
Here's my story:
 
I am getting to realize that things are just going to come with age. We all inevitably start becoming more and more like our parents and the memories of our unabashed youth start to trickle away. We get to the crossroads of barely remembering who we once were and we start focusing on our life now and where we want to go.  Maybe it’s part of being responsible or maybe it’s just part of being a father now, I don’t know, but what I do know is that I’m being called “sir” more often than I’m able to say it.
 
I now find myself eating vegetables, not because I have to but because I want to and ramen noodles are no longer a staple of my diet. My fridge is full of healthy, low-fat and organic items. I have even put down my bottles of Coors Light, Budweiser and Miller and have filled my fridge with Dogfish IPAs,  Sierra Nevadas and Old Chubb Scottish Ales. I drink wine now, not wine coolers and I no longer mix soda in my whisky.

I say all of this because I recently went to my first concert in a long time. I went to see a musician I grew up with and have always been a huge fan of. I’m talking about the one and only Eddie Vedder. Yes that Eddie Vedder, the lead singer of Pearl Jam, one of the biggest bands during the grudge explosion. Now if you told me 15 years ago that Eddie Vedder would be putting on a show that features him playing a ukulele or that I would be all hyped up to go to a concert to watch a guy play a ukulele, I would have never believed you. But there I was sitting at the Music Hall in Fair Park listening to him strum one and enjoying every minute of it.

The once brash, vocal, animalistic performer that climbed stages, hung from rafters, and spoke for  America’s youth was sitting before me with an plethora of various stringed instruments that even included a mandolin playing songs that my father would even enjoy. I enjoyed it. I left Music Hall thinking about how my life had changed since I first heard Vedder’s voice over the radio and to this performance. His voice is still strong and ever present but has grown older, more controlled and honestly better. I hope I could say the same for my life.

He seemed to choose his song list wisely and gave a little bit of everything, some Elderly Women, Crazy Mary, and songs from Into the Wild soundtrack and one of my favorite recent releases, Just Breathe. I do admit that I am not one of the die-hard junkies that know all the words to all the songs, follow their web page or anything. To me, they have just been one of the constants. They have always been good music for kicking back, around the light of a wintered fire with a drink, trying to make sense of the day having Yellowledbetter playing in the background. At the gym, lifting weights with Corduroy blasting at high octaves. Or tucking my kids in at night with Black and Of He Goes. I can’t help but always think of my loving wife when songs like Come Back and Just Breathe are playing.

Eddie Vedder has been around for a long time. I like to think of him as being a good friend. One you don’t always talk to or keep up with but when you need them, you know they are always up for lifting your spirits. I have changed and my tastes in food, drink, friends and music changed with it. I’m just fortunate to have had Eddie growing up with me. Till next time my friend.

 If you have a chance to go where he’s performing it’s a really good show. All in all he played 32 songs, used 19 instruments and a kick drum, and he’s banter with the crowd allowed you a glimpse into him as a person.