So Far Away

Wednesday, October 7, 2020

Twenty-five years and eleven days ago, I went to my first music concert. A senior in high school, I was 17 and it was VAN HALEN with Sammy Hagar on the Balance tour at the Pyramid in Memphis on September 26, 1995.

I remember VH's opening act, a band that has all but been lost to music history, playing its And Fools Shine On.

VH's set list that night was the same that friends heard reverberating regularly in my black 1979 Ford F-250 truck:

  1. Right Now
  2. Big Fat Money
  3. Why Can't This Be Love
  4. Top Of The World
  5. Not Enough
  6. The Seventh Seal
  7. Amsterdam
  8. Mine All Mine
  9. Can't Stop Loving You
  10. Feelin
  11. I Can't Drive 55
  12. Eagles Fly
  13. Ain't Talkin Bout Love
  14. You Really Got Me
  15. Jump
  16. There's Only One Way To Rock
  17. Dreams
  18. Don't Tell Me (What Love Can Do)
  19. Panama

When I remember 1995, the memories aren't so old as the Google search would show. Life felt very real, not the jagged artifacts that JPEGs left behind. I can visualize all the old faces and places as if it was yesterday, even my expert-level ninjutsu with plastic and paper at Piggly Wiggly!

It was 9,173 days ago since I saw Van Halen live and there has been so much that has happened in that span. At 17, the world just begins to open up. There were other concerts, of course, but you don't forget your first time. I even wore its black concert t-shirt with an assemble that included black Levi's and black cowboy boots for my high school year's computer club photo. Now, THAT is what a president looks like!

What a different age computers were back then!

For as much as I try to elude medias, I couldn't avoid learning about Eddie Van Halen's death yesterday at the age of 65. Sure, when it comes to grunge / alternative music from the 90s, those favorites always had a short shelf life, whether it was Nirvana's Kurt Cobain, Alice in Chains' Layne Staley or Stone Temple Pilots' Scott Weiland. Yet, my arena rock guys were larger than life, impervious to time.

People, places, things, and ideas—all of those nouns feel in the moment that they'll last forever.