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Last night I went to see the Canadian band Arcade Fire in concert. Oh, Canada! Do you ever have some wonderful, talented musicians! It was not only an interesting show full of great musicianship, it was a rare joyous show. I'd just heard the singer Lorde say in an interview that she found it was easy to be cool singing the blues in songs about pain, and that she's proud to sing those. But she said she's found it's harder to be cool and not feel like a fool as an adult showing your joy in concert in public.
What Lorde said made me really appreciate the joy Arcade Fire showed unabashedly up there on stage. As someone with PTSD, it was really all the more uplifting to have a band reaffirm my faith in the fact that for all of the traumatic and stressful challenges of life that there are to overcome, there's still joy.
Just wanted to celebrate that with my Canadians friends and thank you for sharing these artists with us down here in the States. I haven't smiled that much in one evening in a long time.
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I haven't written in my diary on my computer since May because I thought that my computer was dying. I got away from writing but my computer is hanging in there. I think that I will start writing in it again. It's so therapeutic.
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First, I hope everyone is doing well, and continuing to fight that good fight! Keep up the great work on yourselves; I'm rooting for all of you!So, I started doing therapy at the beginning of the year, when I was in my most depressed state, but with my therapist, I made big changes and steps in the right direction. But, over a month ago, she couldn't take my insurance anymore, and I had to stop...
i have some great memories of their shows.
Well you sent me on a search and wow. The words to the songs are on serious topics but the music in contrast is uplifting if not defiant to the words. May be worth a trigger warning if one goes to find them. I am glad you enjoyed the show.
J.
Murder, mayhem and despair are far cooler in every fashion season I've reviewed.
I have a few hundred rare and live Hip songs on my Youtube channel.
Last night Arcade Fire ended their show with an old hit, "Wake Up," which has a good theme for PTSD recovery for me. There's lots of chanting in their songs, so the audience ends up singing along like the fans do at a soccer match, which I like.
Years ago, David Bowie, who I like and also got to see live once (his song "Heroes" got me through writing my dissertation), sang "Wake Up" with Arcade Fire. I didn't know they had any connection when I was at the show last night, but I did turn to a friend in the seat next to me and say, "oh, Bowie would love this band's music!" Turns out he did.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6c9Ejfu-iU
silver & mojo, I never heard a song before by the Tragically Hip, so thanks for that link. Great band name, huh? Mojo, thanks a million for that link to that Hip mix. I'm playing it right now, and loving it. Another instantly favorite band! I checked but they're not on tour right now, so I'll have to be patient. I like the lyrics of "Courage" that go "There's no simple Explanation For anything important Any of us do." Now that's a mouthful, and yet you can dance to it.
As far as other Canadian artists, I saw Neil Young once and he's a mad scientist/genius/preacher/exorcist/poet all in one on stage up there when he's with Crazy Horse. It's a wonderful thing to behold, yet hard to describe.
Last summer I saw Rush, and was pleasantly surprised. They're kind of heavy, being a prog rock band, and they're as old as I am. Their audience, though, was mostly 30 year old bookish FAMILIES who brought their kids, really gentle folks who were very nice to me. They took me in and explained lots of background to the songs as the band played them. Very sweet experience.
I ended up reading 3 books by Neil Peart, the Rush band member who writes their lyrics. Inspiring guy who's been through a lot, so he has good insights on music but on life, too.
My biggest regret as to Canadian artists is that somehow inexplicably I never saw Leonard Cohen before he died. He's a spiritual inspiration through this PTSD recovery journey. Smart, deep, but funny and classy all at once.
So since I missed seeing Cohen, I made a point of seeing Canadian Bruce Cockburn when he came to my town. He's a spiritual inspiration for me, too. I sat on the front row when I saw him in concert and sang along with his songs by heart.
Thanks for being witnesses to my concert joy last night, and for adding to it so much with your own joys! I live for this stuff, it's good. Makes me smile ear to ear and just glad to be alive, ya know? And for me that's a lot to be grateful for.
The singer Gord Downie has terminal brain cancer. That he even had enough to do one more go speaks to how Canadians and the Hip have co-existed since the late 80's. I always say, they took the reins from Rush, who took the reins from Neil Young as Canada's greatest rock bands. Crazy Horse is amazing! And the first cassette tape I ever bought with my own money was Rush `A farewell to kings'. heheh. All combined, I've listened to a million hours of the three bands.
It's good to hear your rock n roll music life had a firm Rush foundation. :-) Last year I used their song "Bravado" for a sermon I delivered as a guest in Boston, believe it or not. And yeah, Crazy Horse is like some force of nature.