I'm Not Sure This Was the Intended Reaction

On something of a whim, a couple of friends and I went to see a concert on Sunday night. It's been a (very) long time since I've been to a live performance by a rock and roll band. It was a lot of fun, but it also made me feel very, very old.

Here's the thing. Recognize this guy?

No? Ok, how about now?

Let's try another one. Who are these guys?

Maybe this will help...

Those whose age and musical tastes were similar to mine should now recognize the first guy as Colin Hay, founder and lead singer of Men at Work, and the trio as The Violent Femmes. 

Now for the real test: In what years were the two songs in the videos released? If you're like me, you know it was the early eighties but you'd have to look up the actual dates. I'll save you the trouble. "Who Can It Be Now" came out in 1981 when, if my math is correct, I was in the seventh grade. "Add It Up" came two years later. So we're talking thirty -- almost thirty-five -- years ago.

And three decades after those songs were in continual rotation on KROQ, Colin Hay and The Violent Femmes were opening for the Barenaked Ladies in part, if the stage patter is to be believed, because the headliners had been inspired by the others as they were growing up.* 

Now you might think that seeing the bands of your youth play their songs might make you feel young again -- and based on how some of the folks in the crowd reacted, some clearly had that reaction** -- but I found it to be almost the opposite. Looking at the crowd, I was clearly at about the median age, and the standard deviation couldn't have been very high. I'd bet 90% of the people there were between forty and fifty-five, and at least a few of them were wearing the t-shirts they bought when they first saw the bands play thirty years ago. Concert crowds are supposed to be full of teenagers, not old people. 

And when, about halfway through the final act, the openers came back out for a collective rendition of that Men at Work hit, and the crowd reacted like it was still number one on the pop charts, it just made me feel... well, every single one of those thirty-odd years.

But maybe it's just me. After all, a co-worker's heading off to see Aerosmith soon, and Steven Tyler recently turned 67. 


* Interestingly, both Hay and The Violent Femmes were hawking new albums in conjunction with the tour, but their sets were predominantly focused on their old hits. They clearly knew their audience. 
** There was one woman in particular who spent the whole concert, and particularly the set by the Violent Femmes, bouncing and dancing like she was in junior high. But as she and her husband stood chatting during the breaks, it became pretty obvious that junior high was a very long time ago.