It's Like Being Low

I came face to face with nostalgia last night and I’m not sure what to make of it. I went to see Cracker and they put on a fantastic show, but even though they were promoting a new album it was, to some extent, a greatest hits performance.

That’s to be expected seeing as they began recording back in 1992 and their biggest album, Kerosene Hat, was released in 1993. It was those songs that got the crowd going, and when they started in on Eurotrash Girl everyone picked it up a notch, singing along, hands in the air. I was right there with them, as it’s a song that places me right back in the time that I first heard them.

Of course that seemed to be the case for the whole crowd. A lot of the looked like they hadn’t been to a concert in years and were reliving “the good years,” pumping their beers in the air, while trying not to spill any on their loafers and khakis. Even lead sing David Lowery had to put on his reading glasses to read his playlist off his Mac laptop.

It was an odd experience – I wasn’t drinking, nor, umm, smoking. In fact it was so smoke-free they had to keep pumping out the dry ice to make the lights work. I’ve never been a smoker and shed no tears over smoking bans, but it does seem odd at concerts.

As I watched, I was thinking about university, about earlier times I saw them play and whether I was only ever going to see any current bands in concert. I know I could, I just don’t. Again, it was a fantastic show, but the waves of nostalgia were just too much.