Not Quite Wallowing

I didn’t go to Austin. Funny enough, when they announced these ACL gigs, I shook my head and figured they’d end up canceled. Then I thought that they’d *have* to do other gigs. I mean, they were playing a festival two weekends in a row. Wouldn’t there be more shows announced??

Well, I was wrong on both counts! They didn’t cancel, and haven’t been more gigs outside of ACL and the taping they did earlier in the week. I have no idea what that band has been doing. Here I sit, at home, working on blogging as well as taking on a brand new office position with a non-profit near and dear to my heart (my community band), and wishing I could have been in Austin…kind of. Then I remember Covid-19, and think “Ah, maybe next year.” The last thing I need is to go to a gig and come home with a virus as a souvenir of my adventures, right?

Never fear, I haven’t spent too much time feeling sorry for myself or wallowing in my Cheerios (I don’t even LIKE Cheerios or cold cereal of any kind, so there’s that!), but like everyone else on the planet – I wish we would get back to a real sort of normal. Instead, normal seems to be more along the lines of “Let’s just forget about Covid and do our own thing anyway”. Probably not the best plan for most people, but it is what I see and even experience where I live. We’ve just sort of gone on with life, anyway.

Meanwhile, there’s Austin. My plan of action, as it typically is whenever the band is in the US and I’m at home, is to sort of listen with one ear, so to speak. I’m busier than normal since I’m working and doing a lot of catch-up, but I’ve tried to check in at least once a day just to see what’s going on. Somehow, I missed that SiriusXM was going to be replaying the band’s set from Sunday. Imagine my delight as I turned on my car yesterday afternoon to hear Ordinary World. It was obvious that it wasn’t the studio version, so I looked down to see it was from ACL. The day had been a very busy one for me, and I swear it wasn’t until I sat down in my car to go pick up my youngest from school that I’d even taken a cleansing breath. Not only did I breathe, but I smiled from ear to ear as I drove to the middle school.

The band sounded great to me. I didn’t get to hear their entire set, but I was lucky enough to tune in time to hear Simon ask if anyone was hungry, naturally! I obviously haven’t seen the band in a very long time, because even Hungry Like the Wolf sounded new and made me wish I was able to go to a show again.

It’s been a long pandemic, am I right??

-R