Let me explain how it came to this.
I cannot possibly express the level of disappointment I felt
when I learned that my beautiful, intelligent, witty, tattooed, gauged-earlobed
daughter was dating a guitar-player. Karma,
I sighed to myself, is one motherfucker.
I didn’t meet the lad for a month or two, until I was bushwhacked at a gig I
was playing myself, at a small local music venue called The Rogue, strumming my
acoustic guitar and warbling tender, antiquated love songs to at least a
half-dozen semi-interested patrons, who fiddled with their change and consumed
well-drinks as quickly as their livers would allow.
“Hi Dad,” my daughter Logan said, coming out of nowhere as I
headed toward the bar for a much-deserved well-drink that I wanted to consume
as quickly as my liver would allow. “This is Ryan…” A thin, hyperkinetic young
man with a smile that took up at least half of his face and a head of unruly
hair thrust out his paw and I shook it. I was sweaty and still a little weepy
from singing an Everly Brothers tune and was caught off-guard. “Hi,” I
muttered, signaling the barkeep.
Ryan proceeded to gush enthusiastically about how much he
enjoyed my warbling, then darted off, presumably moving on to spread a shitload
of positive energy elsewhere. I watched him leave with a suspicious eye, then
turned to my daughter. “Is that him?”
I asked. “The guitar player?”
She nodded and smiled. “Isn’t he a dork?”
I nodded. “Devilishly handsome fellow.” I collected my
drink, drank half and raised an eyebrow. “Was he pulling my chain?”
She shook her head. “No, he’s always like that… Disgusting,
right?”
I nodded again. “Because I’ll kick the hell out of him if he
was pulling my chain,” I added. Logan laughed.
A few months later, Logan gave me a CD put together by her
boyfriend’s band, Bear Ghost. I
smiled indulgently and promised I’d listen when I could, at the same time
throwing out some witty retorts about the perceived value of a band called
“Bear Ghost”.
Then I listened. And I enjoyed. And another few months
later, I was cajoled and shamed into showing up at an all-ages show at a local
music hall to hear the band live. An hour later, I had pushed my way to the
front of the audience through the sea of 16 year-olds and was dancing with my
hands over my head like a chubby, bald dancing bear. I was now officially a
fan. What the hell - how did this happen? I asked myself. I
shrugged to myself in answer and continued dancing like a foolish, retarded
jester.
I saw them at a mall. And I dragged a friend – a musician,
who was even older than me. I saw him smiling and tapping his foot. I nodded to
myself – hooked, I thought. Well done, Bear Ghost.
I saw them at the same music venue again for the release of
their CD “Your Parents are only marginally
disappointed in your musical taste”. I dragged a couple of more oldster-friends
long familiar with the local music scene, from back in the halcyon days of the
90’s. More smiling and toe-tapping. I grinned and sighed to myself. I was
fighting the good fight.
Each show was equally-energetic and equally entertaining.
Bear Ghost actually looked like they loved every minute they got to spend on
stage. And the music was incredibly tight, with them pulling off the intricate
songs from their CD as well as covers by Queen and The Tubes and a song from
“The Jungle Book”. I knew how much hard work it was to sound that tight and to
look like they were having so much fun. “Ryan’s band is really good!” I gushed
to Logan. “I know,” she said.
Equally Energetic, Equally Entertaining
Now, here I was, a fifty-something year-old man, climbing
into my car at 10:30 at night on a Thursday to drive to Scottsdale to see Bear
Ghost at the Rogue, where I had first suspiciously eyed my daughter’s
boyfriend. I stretched my tapping-toe in the car – it would be simply awful to
pull a muscle tapping my toe at my advanced age – and I braced myself for the
throng of smiling, toe-tapping hipsters.
It’s okay, I thought to
myself. One day I’ll be able to say “I
saw them at a mall…”
Find Bear Ghost on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=224162450930758"DoTab" on SoundCloud:
https://soundcloud.com/bearghost/dotab
