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Another late first tonight, out on the still-new-in-this-respect hometown to see a show. It’s all too easy to let what I love about live music slip my mind – if I could remember better it wouldn’t ever be so long.

Timing and logistics and finances and lost sleep and the many pressing agenda items that will not get gotten to during those 4-5 hours are not as important as the feeling of being there, caught up in the music, the moment –  as a certain notable Detroit denizen put it far more eloquently than I could hope to.

With a champion space negotiator/personal bouncer of a brother along,  my main pet peeves were rendered non-concerns. Something about towering over 6′ makes the crowd part and the would-be-drink-spillers/toe-smushers tone it down.

The Pines set a beautiful mood, laid down some sweet strong warp, and Mason + his one-man-band of a backup picked up the weft, ran with it up one side and down the other and together those boys didn’t just make music, they made my night. Possibly even changed the course of history! Mine, anyway.

The last few weeks we’ve been learning about what makes sound, why we hear what we hear, the physical acoustics and the pressure and the energy and the particles in motion. All of that was swirling about in my mind but rather than taking away from or intruding upon the experience it all became intertwined, evocative of acoustic concepts in a way no graphing calculator can display.

Most of the music was new to me. The songs I’d heard before took me back, to good times and bad, people I miss and people I was glad to realize tonight I am done with missing, once and for all. Some of those people happen to be me, in my former versions – couldn’t tell you how many there are so that should tell you something.

Music always leads to more music in my life, the way getting some solid sleep hours in can make a baby sleep even more the next time, because once you start getting what you need you just can’t get enough.

On the way home The Larry Arms took over on the car stereo and I thought back to the night they showed me the glory that is sweaterpants. How young and open to experience and ridiculous I was, but something more than that too – excited and bold and unstoppably inquisitive, all the things I truly want to be for as many of my days as possible.

Waking up most days out of the past 20 or so feeling like I’m impossibly behind on everything that’s important has taken its toll, and nudged aside a few things that are essentially more important than the rest, always have been and will be long after the problem sets are in, interviewees interviewed, group work done, leadership skills assessed and reports written.

I can’t change how I’ll wake up feeling but as soon as I wake up it’s up to me. This tongue-out overscheduled responsibility-restricted old-before-my-time schtick is played out.