There are occasions in life where we are offered the rare opportunity to return back to a certain time in our lives. I suppose for many people this would happen with like, I dunno, high school reunions, or homecoming games I guess.
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But as I essentially remain a punk rocker, those kind of events are not the kind of things I participate in. They're too structured, too
expected. Although I'm 38 years old, I still rail against certain things that smack of convention to me. It's silly I know. But we are who we are, and I still have a punk heart that beats within.
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Last week a band from my "days of yore" played in San Francisco. They're called Radon, and I basically grew up through college with these guys. I was in a band back then as well. We were called Spoke. Spoke and Radon were like brother bands. Based in Gainesville, Florida we as college students didn't have a lot of local music to turn to back then. The town was awash with jam bands and your typical college jangle pop outfits. In the early days not many bands came to play our little sleepy northern Florida town either. In short, we were left to our own devices to make our mark.
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Radon and Spoke started out at the same time respectively and, in some ways, were the first bands that unleashed what is now referred to as "the Gainesville sound". I don't really know what that is, and I feel a bit preposterous by attributing my own personal impact into anything musically, but the truth of it was that we all did something fairly miraculuous. We created a scene.
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Well, that scene grew and since then quite a few "named" bands came out of Gainesville. It is on the map, so to speak, within punk rock circles and by the time we all left the place any punk band touring that was worth its salt would play Gainesville. Radon and Spoke kinda started all of this. It's weird to write that, but I'd hazard to say it's true.
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Incredibly, those days still linger. There are (unbelievably) people out there who still remember the band I was in. We still get played on college radio stations. I've met complete strangers who bought our albums. We did a couple of CDs and a couple of tours, but man, it was all in the name of fun. Guess that somehow just worked.
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Radon however carried on in a fashion. They still play shows every now and then. They released a new album last year. I couldn't believe my ears when I first heard it. It's nothing short of a masterpiece.
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ANYWAY, these guys in Radon were first and foremost my friends. Everyone who lived in Gainesville back then, and were into the punk stuff, were all pretty tight, but the Radon guys were my good, good pals. I've stayed in touch with them through the years. Our lives all mirror each other's in many ways. Basically, we're all getting older and making our way in the world, but that period of 1990 to 1993 was a kind of magic time for us all.
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So, when I got the news that Radon were playing in my own town I was uber-enthusiastic. I knew it would be fun. What I didn't know was how much fun it would turn out to be. It was undeservedly
fantastic. Seeing all of these guys in one place again, and playing the old (and new) tunes was almost too much. Like finding a pair of favorite jeans that you thought you lost years ago only to discover that they still fit and are so darn comfortable. That's how the show was. People came out of the woodwork for this gig. I mean, people from my Gainesville past that live in San Franciso and I didn't even know it were there. One fellow flew up from L.A. Incredible.
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For that brief few hours, it was
our reunion.
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The added bonus on a personal level, was that my knucklehead pals in the band actually let me jump on stage to sing their last song with them. It was something that I used to do with these guys back in the day. I say that "they let me", but in truth I think my insistent drunken heckling made them want to do it if only to shut me up. Either that, or they knew that the sight of a late 30's balding guy in a Hawaiian shirt (refer to photo above for comic reference) sreeching out a song was entertainment for the masses.
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I like to think they made a wise choice, but regardless, it made
my night complete. So anyway, an immense thank you goes out to the Radon fellows. For one night they made it happen. Time travel that is. For a large group of people we were given that chance to recall just how great of a time we had in our youth. And just how great life has become since. We're all able to look back on those days with real fondness, while at the same time, being secure in the knowledge that our lives today are equally as good.
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We had a few beers after the show just catching up and telling tales. We laughed a lot. I felt the glow of friendships forged in the years before, yet still remain sound and true. You gotta hold onto those times because they don't come around as often as we'd all like.
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It was like medicine for the soul.
Radon are:
Brent
Dave
Bill and Mike
I wholeheartedly suggest you buy their latest album:
