So, last week I went to The Lawrence Arms' show benefiting the 2 girls who were robbed and brutally beaten, near death, in Wicker park. Neither one will probably ever be like she was once was as they have limited brain activity, despite starting to recover.
So yeah, The Blind Staggers, Dead To Me, and The Lawrence Arms all agreed to play for free and help raise some cash and Subterranean in Chicago. It was a Wednesday night and despite being during the week, and the show starting at 9pm, the tickets sold out within a week of going on sale. Honestly, I am not surprised, great bands, great cause and overall an awesome thing.
The show was great, The Lawrence Arms continue to be rad guys when I get the chance to talk to them, their music just gets better and better and they continue to solidify themselves as one of, if not are, my favorite band(s).
The whole reason for the show was that Brendan Kelly, bassist/co-singer/co-lyricist for The Lawrence Arms was angry that something like this attack, which was planned out, could happen in his neighborhood and that someone would decide to stake out the street, looking for drunk people to rob and nearly kill just for the contents of their purse. Yeah, I know this happens everyday, all over the place, and on Brendan's blog he addressed the trash talkers etc, so I am not going to talk about that here. No, I am talking about the fact that something terrible happened, a person realized that it could have just as easily been them, or any of us, walking home with friends after a night of drinking in a neighborhood bar, and decided to do something to help. This is the best part of the show. Not that it was an amazing night, which it was, but the reason behind it. It is a fact that people seem to forget about all of the time lately, that we are all in this together.
Just this morning, I was talking about how I hate that it has come down to the fact that people are almost afraid to help people, afraid to speak up. No one seems to offer to open a door, help with something heavy, lend a hand, because, you never know if that person is going to try to "get" you afterwards or rob you or something. People seem to be afraid to even just speak up about things that they can actually impact. Its like people who bitch about the government but don't vote, complain about where they live, but don't try to clean up after themselves. It is this self-centered mentality that seems to be everywhere, I am guilty of it. You are too. You can not sit there and deny that you are not. We all are. More than half of the people I told about the show did not even know about the girls and how they were attacked. The reasons ranged from "I don't watch the news" to "I only listen to NPR" to "If it is on the liberal news networks, I don't watch it."
The story made national news. One of the girl's parents flew all the way from Ireland to be here with their daughter.
This brings me full circle. The "punk" community (i am not here to try and disseminate the various sub-genres and what not, it is all punk really) seems to me to be, and has always been, about things like this. It seems that a bunch of 20 and 30 somethings can come out full force and jam into a small club and sweat and stand shoulder to shoulder together all to see great live music, have fun and support a good cause is an amazing thing. It is a great evener music is. It seems to balance the scales. Everyone there was singing along, moving around, enjoying themselves regardless of who they are or where they are from. Sure, every show has its negative person here and there, but overall, punk shows seem to a pretty communal event. I am not saying hippies and shit like that, but I am saying that for the most part, we all have the same goal and are not trying to ruin it for anyone else. Most music does this to most people, but I think that we all need to stop thinking me me me and help an old lady with something in her car, open a door for someone at work just stop bitching about what is wrong and try to do something about it and inspire others.
I have been a really negative person lately, I am going to start trying to turn that around into something positive.
It always makes me really happy when music moves someone like this, especially considering it was at a benefit show.
ReplyDeleteIronically, I had a similar conversation with a cab driver yesterday that was so enlightening, because it confirmed that there are more and more people who think taking others into consideration isn't something hippies do. His thoughts were almost word for word what you wrote, viva la Revolution!
I've always been quite proud to be part of the punk scene, because it originated from people who didn't fit in, but still totally supported things in their community. In my hometown, whenever there is a family who's home burns down, or someone gets cancer, or loses their job, a punk band is always the first to step up and make the effort to ease the burden for these people. It's a community effort, but it begins with people who are usually typecast as losers or f-ups.
I like this post a lot. You should write more like it, it's an uplifting and inspiring read.