A perfect day. A warm and sunny saturday. Bottle Rocket Blue, this little rock band that I'm in, was asked to play at the Goshen High School prom. Everything about this experience was completely opposite to my own prom (back on a cold rainy day in- eeek, 96!) But anyway, here's a brief run down of the ..../
I spent the morning helping out around the house. I played R.E.M.'s 'Fables of the Reconstruction' on vynyl while washing dishes. After that I had to hear some 'the Bends' by Radiohead because that was the tape I was really into when I went to prom in high school. I started to get really nervous.
When Barry and I got to Valpo to pick up the guys, Todd was there and planning on going. We had only packed the van for four people, not five. So Todd and Troy AND Monroe squished up in the back with all the gear while I did my best to drive safe.
We arrived at the college football hall of fame in downtown south bend right at the beginning of the golden hours. Load in was cool, the sound company guys were there setting up and we just chilled at the hall of fame. A security gaurd barked at Troy and I because we tried to go into the museum part after it closed. It was such a head trip for me to be playing in that building, with the Notre Dame things everywhere and the city of my boyhood on the other side of the glass wall. All these images from my youth surrounded me. I felt like my dreams did not come true, but a better reality had taken it place. Honestly, it was a bittersweet feeling.
Let me explain. As a young boy, I wanted to go to Notre Dame, play foot ball and the pipe organ. Maybe become a priest and have a church in downtown South Bend. Or if not that, fall in love and marry a girl from my elementary school like Megan Carlson while playing her Simon and Garfunkel songs on my guitar in autumn. We'd have moved in to a big 19th century house over looking the river across from Leper park. In this fantasy, I was the conductor of the South Bend symphony. Megan would bring me sack lunches in the middle of rehearsal in the empty Morriss Civic, I'd tell everyone to take five and we'd eat it out front by the fountain with the copper cello statue. I'm rambling, but for years this is what I wanted to do with my life. It almost happened, but it didn't. But you know, our childhood dreams don't every really go away. I think its because they are so powerful when they are new...one's first dreams...believed in so much they might as well have been plans.
So all this was running through my head at sound check. Barry suggested that we get Subway with the sound company. I adamantly said I wanted to go to a place where I could a beer. South Bend is still my hometown at heart, I wanted to sup at a place with local ambiance. The five of us walked to the 'Fiddler's Hearth' a couple block away. We had some great Irish food served by real Irish, as well as a good pint. We talked about the DaVinci code. It was a good meal. It really relaxed me. Infact I felt giddy on the way back. But that was all about to change...
When we got back to the Hall of Fame, there were a lot of Goshen High kids lining up by the door. They looked clean, cool, and popular. My inner nerd alarm was going off after sensing the popular kid pheremones. These were not our fans, we didn't recognize them. Todd freaked a little bit, he said he was going to feel weird around the kids. "Look at me," he said lighting a cigarette, "I haven't shaved in three days, I'm smoking , this says 'raging alcoholic!'" Yet we came with a job to do, and though the white-tuxed youngsters blocked the way to our van where our change of clothes resided, we passed through them and were let in before them. We went into the men's room and changed. Before exiting, Troy lined us up by the mirror, "Damn, we look sexy," he said. We were all in "suits" but tough suits. I had elizabeth's late great grandpa's shoes on over the socks Judith, my 68 yr old carpal-tunnel-left-handed violin student gave me for Christmas in 2001, eventhough she was Jewish. I was wearing the blue janitor pants Zika picked out for me at the vintage shop in Lafayette in 2004. The blue shirt I was wearing was a hand me down from Jeremy our phtographer and friend. My blue tie was my grand father Peck's in the 50s. (He went to Notre Dame in the 40s) I borrowed a blue suit coat from Barry and my sunglasses were purchased at Bargains galore in Demotte for $2.49. I kept the sunglasses on most of the night. I'm not sure why, but they did make me look like Bill Muarry in Broken Flowers or so I thought so I texted Shann and told her.
Jake came, some of the Goshen scene kids came and I began to feel welcome. My wife and Madra came together. Steph and Zika arrived. They were very amused with our liason lady from the school. She kept refering to the girls as "the ladies with the band." Elizabeth looked great with her pouffy, pink skirt, black camisole and "the black hat." I will never tire to seeing girls in pink and black. She was my date and she looked great and I wanted to be with her and around her. She was happy with me. This was an improvement on my first prom. (Which happened right across the street. I walked over there myself just before the girls arrived. I went into the Century Center and pondered the last 10 years
9:00 rolled around and we took to the stage. Daylight savings time is so bizzare. at 9pm, the sun had not completely set. BRB HQ is on central time, but if we were on eastern, my circadian rhythm would be so off! There wasn't anyone on our dance floor when we started "Dive Bar Girl", people seemed not to know what to do. I started to sweat. But a few of our hardcore fans came through and by the end of the song, the floor was filling. When we started the second song (Franz Ferdinand's "Take me out." It got shoulder to shoulder. Then I started to feel like a guitar player. Yet, I wondered, as I saw a lot of new Goshen faces, "Are some of these people here because we're a decent band or is it that this is such a popular song?" I'm sure it was a little of both. Madra said that doing that song second was a "bold move." But it was worth it, I thought. We soon went into Weezer's "Surfwax America." Playing made me feel cool. I've always wanted to cover something from the blue album. The whole first set was a blast, it went by too fast. But we had to stop so the king and queen could be crowned.
I forgot to mention that there was two seprate rooms. The bump and grind DJ was upstairs in a banquet hall.
I had to smile, becuase a contingent of our fans didn't care who was crowned. A troupe of Goshen girls was hanging out on our floor. I started to talk to them and before long I had the white guitar in hand, unplugged and sang them a song, impromptu, about a Judith my violin student and dream in which Judith and I drag raced. After I put the guitar away, our sound guy put some music on the PA, dancing ensued with them, Jake, Daniel, a few Goshen guys whom I've met but don't remember names, Troy and Steff, elizabeth it was a lot of fun.
After about an hour break, we started up again. We debuted a little Klezmer?Surf jam. We did an oldies medley with the Twist/Hounddog/Good Golly Miss Molly/Shake Rattle and Roll. We also played Last Night by the Strokes. Once again the floor was packed. I took the sunglasses off. Since I know what crowns look like I could see the king and queen were dancing with us. This made me feel vindicated. The DJ and his assistant were looking down on us during our set up, scoffing quietly. According to the kids, more people were with us than upstairs.
When it was all done, I wasn't as tired as I was expecting myself to be. The best feeling was knowing we didn't give them a lame prom. I've met so many people after high school who in one way or another have described how dramatic, awkward, or dissapointing their proms were. It felt like redemption.
Everyone went back towards Valpo or DeMotte except Elizabeth and I. We drove to the south side looking for a cheap motel. (Also something that didn't happen at my first prom, ha!)
(After prom '96 was at the YMCA and the highlight for me was doing Karaoke to the Beatles' "When I saw her standing there" to impress Shannon Geyer, except there were three black guys on the mic with me. One was Rico Swanson and they were doign little free style raps while I sung the hook. That made me feel cool. I remember seeing Shannon's face. She was way at the back of the room and with her date, but you could see wonder and inquiry in her bright blue eyes.)
We stopped by the South Bend motel, but no one answered the door bell. So we drove down the the Drake motel. (Not the Drake Hotel, that's the most legendary hotel in Chicago) The Drake was a place we passed every monring on the way to school. When I was very young and we didn't live in South Bend, we knew we were getting close to Grandma's house when we passed the motel with the Big Duck shaped sign. The duck is gone, alas but the room was nice. Old, but nice. I've always wanted to stay there.E and I were hungry, so we drove over to the Steak n Shake I used to work at when I got out of high school. It felt weird, like time traveling. Nothing about it had changed. It smelled the same, sounded the same, had the same quality of light. At 2 AM it wasn't reassuring, it was disquieting.
The next morning was glorious and we went to Church with Grandma A. and Jon and Hollie (my brother and his wife)at St. Paul's Episcopal in Mishiwaka. My home away from home church. And I got to admit, I got a lot more out of the liturgy without two preschool children crawling all over me.