Dear Gen Xer At The Rock Club
REPOST: The Most Shared Article From My Old Medium Account
I was really active on Medium during the pandemic, before officially moving over to Substack in January 2023. I wrote a lot about music, connected with other fans, and discovered many talented writers. For some reason, this humorous article from October 2021 about attending club shows as a midlife Gen Xer was my most clicked and shared article.
I was thinking about it recently because I went to see one of my favorite modern power pop bands in downtown LA. Their van, which was parked in a structure around the corner from the club, got broken into shortly before their set. All of their suitcases and personal items were stolen. It was a good reminder about the hardscrabble life of rock and roll van touring.
For that reason—and because I’m not really active on Medium these days—I wanted to share this article here too.
(Originally posted on Medium on October 27, 2021)
I’m proud of us.
It takes guts to show our weathered faces at a club filled with beautiful twenty-somethings. So what if a few of them giggle and mock our “Lollapalooza 1991” T-shirts and Day-Glo earplugs?
Just sip on your overpriced club soda with a squeeze of lime and let the laughter roll right on by.
You’re a wizened elder.
A scene veteran.
A survivor.
Rise above.
Hear that Sonic Youth song blaring from the PA between bands? You still have the original vinyl. See the guitarist’s semi-ironic Luscious Jackson concert T-shirt? You saw that tour twice. The drummer’s “vintage” sparkle kit? It was made when you were still in high school.
Just fold your arms and watch the show from your spot along the back wall. That band playing their hearts out up on stage knocked themselves out trying to score this opening slot. They want to be seen by this crowd almost as much as you might want to be invisible.
Imagine that’s you and your friends up there bashing it out thirty years ago. Picture your own children (your nephews and nieces, a band of your favorite Starbucks baristas, etc.) sweating bullets under those cockeyed stage lights.
Try to wrap your head around what it’s like to be in a new rock band these days.
As clubs slowly reopen and tours ramp up, new bands will be struggling more than ever. Let’s do something about it.
Chances are you’ve got a little more cash in your pocket now than you did back then—or at least your bar tab probably won’t be quite as astronomical.
If you can afford it, spend $20 on a copy of the opening band’s album or buy a T-shirt. (I totally understand that not everybody can afford it, but a kind word to the band after the show can go a long way too.)
You don’t even have to love their rock—just roll the dice. Your $20 could help put enough gas in their tank to get them to the next town; or allow them to splurge on a motel room for one night, instead of sleeping in the van (again).
Hell, it’s still a cool thing to do even if they blow the money on White Claw and in-app gaming purchases.
Not sure if this qualifies as paying it forward or backward, but I think it’s definitely worth considering.
I know you bought your ticket, but most of that money will probably go to the headliner (or the club). I’m suggesting a step beyond that, a generous act of kindness for some total strangers. (If this is something you already do, you’re my hero. Keep it up. Tell some friends. Let’s make this a thing.)
And who knows? You might absolutely love their album. Maybe that T-shirt will make it into your regular rotation at the YMCA, or when you go vinyl shopping at the Sunday flea market.
All of that’s a bonus because this is really more about rock ‘n roll patronage.
It might be the purest $20 you’ve spent in a long time.
Appreciated all around. One of the beauties of rock growing older is that it's cool to be old at a gig. Or, at least, it's not uncool. Where I live, our local venues couldn't survive without the over-40s (or even over-50s). And you're right, we need to rise above our natural inclination to cynicism - seen it all before, heard it all before - and appreciate what it takes to be in a gigging band. (And it is definitely not getting any easier since you originally wrote this.) I think the most important suggestion here is to offer the kind word; if a band knows that someone in the audience appreciated them enough to tell them in person, that could just carry them through to the next gig. Especially if it comes from someone old and wizened, who avoids telling them "yeah, I saw so-and-so back here in 1985" and says, instead., "you are the most interesting thing I have seen here since 1985" or even "your enthusiasm is contagious, you played to 12 people and you acted like the house was full. Love it." And purchasing their CD or cassette (hey, they're back!) is also a way to put money in their pocket and their music in your collection. Cheers.