So tired, tired of waiting, tired of waiting for you." – Ray Davies
"The waiting is the hardest part." – Tom Petty
Just let me know the outcome so that I can go deal. Is that too much to ask?
These times are a reminder of how much we hate uncertainty. We are hard-wired to know things, and we have such an aversion to uncertainty that sometimes we would even accept a known outcome, even if it isn't to our liking, just to make the uncertainty stop. It is our self-preservation instinct kicking in.
At the core, we are uncertain about ourselves. To put it more poetically, we are mysteries to ourselves. And if we are mysteries to ourselves, who are other people? Who knows what they’ll do? They may cough on me, and I’ll get sick and die.
But in that uncertainty lies our uniqueness and freedom. We are all individuals – no two alike. If I could totally understand myself, or understand you, I would be able to predict how I would act or how you would act. I can’t though because we can't be reduced to an assembly of known attributes from a pick list that if arranged in a certain way will produce a certain result.
What does this have to do with local bands? Local bands are the leaders in uncertainty. Just ask them. But deep down there is a drive to make great music and for that music to be great there has to be mystery. There has to be uncertainty. To make music that is predictable is to fail. The minute a listener hits the stop button and says, “I know where this is going,” the party is over.
We learn that lesson listening to hours and hours of music. It is the mystery that calls us to listen over and over again. "Are those songs autobiographical? What pedal did he use? How did Paul write "Here, There and Everywhere?'" Once a band’s mystery has been solved, it is off to the next.
The beauty is in the surprise. The unexpected glimpse into the soul of another person through a speaker. A glimpse that reveals a little, but also reveals that there is more to be known. How is that even possible with a few chords and a minor pentatonic scale?
Anyone that tells you that he has it all figured out is in a band that sucks. He may make a ton of money, but his band still sucks.
Every band is a local band. You can't be unique unless you have an address, sweat through your shirt, and choose what kind of beer to drink at practice. And every band has flaws. (When was the last time you listened to side two of Yellow Submarine?) When there is freedom, there are choices. And where there are choices there are mistakes, faults, and failures, but we still get to make those choices in a democracy.
It is in the local bands, and in our local bands of people that surround us, that we encounter the uncertainty, the faults, and the flaws that accompany our freedom - even if it is painful sometimes. The other option is to trade in our uniqueness and freedom for the certainty and predictability of commercial radio and corporate rock bands.
As for me, I'm going to keep rocking, and I'm going to double down and support the other local bands who are rocking for freedom, rocking for individuality, rocking for democracy.