Back in the early 90’s, Sean & I were roommates and we lived in a house with my brother in the Alki beach section of West Seattle.
The only thing separating our house from the water was Alki Avenue.
We’d wake up every morning (or afternoon in Sean’s case), pull the curtain back on the sliding glass door in the living room, and have an amazing view of the Olympic mountains and Puget Sound.
On sunny days you could see for miles, and even on days with lousy weather it was still cool to live right on the water.
But eventually, once something becomes an everyday observation or circumstance, you might tend to overlook it.
After a while, there were days when I woke up, went outside, and didn’t really value or acknowledge the amazing surroundings I was fortunate to live in.
And that brings me to the present day.
Occasionally I get so caught up in the day to day grind of the work that revolves around a tour that I can forget to appreciate what an amazing band I work for.
So it helps sometimes to head out in the crowd and watch other people appreciate them, which is what I did in Colorado Springs.
Watching reactions and hearing comments from fans can be really entertaining.
Standing behind two middle aged men who were enthusiastically high fiving during and after songs was pretty cool, but even better was when one turned to the other after Dam That Riverand said, “That was F@*^ing awesome!”
But he wasn’t done. He dug into his toolbox of curse words and found another half dozen to throw out before screaming “AWESOME!!” again.
I moved to the other side of the hall and caught another exchange, which wasn’t funny, but it was definitely accurate.
A guy turned to his buddy after We Die Youngand said, “It’s amazing how one guitar can sound so heavy”.
I agree.
Every night I watch at least part of the show, so I see the headbanging and the fist pumping and the screaming.
But it’s a nice change of pace to go out in the middle of it and listen to what people actually say, and be in the middle of the madness.
I’ve gotten out of the habit of doing it on a regular basis, and that needs to change.
I miss the view from Alki Beach.
And one day this will be all over too, and I’ll miss this experience even more.
So it’s good to occasionally be reminded of how lucky I am, and to enjoy it while I can.