Just another middle-aged punk band
In your list of common settings where unrealistic fantasies of punk-rock stardom are likely to be hatched, a church fundraiser typically is close to the bottom (depending on our church).
But there I was, staring longingly at the Silvertone electric guitar (!) with baby amp (!!) and instructional DVD (!!!) up for bidding at our church’s fundraising auction.
And I wasn’t the only one.
“You wanna start a band?” a fellow child of the ’90s quipped to me as we sized up the equipment and imagined our setlist. Green Day, he suggested.
I don’t think he was entirely kidding. I know I wasn’t.
Sure, I have an acoustic guitar at home (which I never play), but an electric guitar takes the fantasy from Loner in a Coffeeshop to God Onstage in an Arena.
Imagine jumping off the stage and crowdsurfing. Imagine destroying a drum set. Imagine losing your voice from shouting into the microphone too long and too loud.
Reality check: About the closest I’ll ever get to that kind of moment is my drive into work this morning. Somehow my playlist got hijacked by Hole’s “Live Through This,” an album I don’t think I’ve listened to or even thought about since 1998.
Back in the ’90s, Courtney Love was overshadowed by her more accomplished husband, and this album was impossible to experience except in the context of that husband’s suicide four days before the album’s release. But taken on its own merits 21 years later, it’s enough to make an aging wannabe rethink his decision not to bid on that electric guitar and baby amp and instructional DVD.
Time to surf Craigslist? I got some credit.
