Mid-afternoon on Saturday I got a text from a friend in “the Biz” that wristbands for Pilgrimage Festival down in Franklin(Hallmark-movie-town 30 minutes south of Nashville) were waiting for Megan and myself at the box office. After calling around to see if any of our usual sitters had last minute availability and briefly entertaining the idea of taking Cordelia, we decided this was just going to be a solo mission for me. As our tickets did not include a parking pass, this was fine by me. I hopped on my motorcycle and made good time down to The Park at Harlinsdale Farm, getting a wave into the VIP lot from a friendly attendant where I was able to park at the very front. If you have the option of riding a motorcycle or a scooter to an event where parking typically sucks, I highly recommend it.
The last time I saw Kings of Leon was at Coachella in 2011 and as I was on acid I don’t remember a whole hell of a-lot about that show. I don’t remember a-lot of shows from that era. Fortunately I make playlists from the setlist of my favorite shows and they trigger playback of little vignettes. It’s something that’s been handy, especially as I’ve gotten older and concert memories tend to get fuzzier faster. Always a surprise to me how engrossing live music is when you’re watching and then how quickly it fades away. That’s what makes going to concert so special I suppose. You truly do “just have to be there man”.
So even if you’ve seen a band a number of times before, go see them again. Kings of Leon has been one of my favorite bands since hearing “Molly’s Chambers” on the radio my junior year of high school, which was 22 years ago. Very few things that appealed to me 22 years ago still do. The beauty of anything that holds up overtime(especially music) is that every time you re-engage with whatever it is, a song, film, book, painting, car(!), it’s both a completely new experience and a trip down memory lane. It’s a pure collision of past and present. New memories are minted, breathing new life into the old ones, sometimes bringing unavoidable perspective with them. 14 years since the last time I saw Kings of Leon and a-lot of life lived in that span of time. I’m fundamentally a different person now. Yet when they took the stage and launched into the first song, I was right back to junior year, just a fan ready to go along for the ride.
If you’re thinking about maybe going to see that band you love, but haven’t seen in a while, do it. Enjoy the setlist from last night’s show.
-AM
