Cecilia Castleman
It's Alright
scum stats: one-sided lathe-cut 8-inch record limited to 250 hand-numbered copies
Last Saturday I took five excitable pre-teen girls to the Blue Room in hopes of inspiring them.
My two eldest daughters and three of their friends were all giggling and laughing in the car ride over, going to see Cecilia Castleman for no other real reason besides it was at the Blue Room and an all-ages show and it seemed that they just might like it.
None of us had listened to her prior to that night, but that kinda felt irrelevant. I remember that age, just seeing ANY live music would've captivated and enraptured me in a way that is just impossible now. The promise, the potential...it's intoxicating when you land it and some of us spend the rest of our lives dreaming of recapturing it.
But 9pm start for a headliner can be a reach for the circadian rhythm of a body used to being in bed by that time. My eight-year-old laid on the floor and subsequently requested to be held all before Castleman sang a single note. The four older girls, fifth-graders all of them, held up a little better. I gave them the pep talk that the moment they wanted to leave, we could go. So after 40 minutes or so, they politely told me they were ready to go.
The show was solid, Cecilia has a spectacular voice, it was her birthday, the band was locked in (I guess she usually plays solo?) and just a great example of an artist doing it right. And I think the girls appreciated it, in addition to the free Coca-Cola and Liquid Death I gave them (a ten year old holding a 16 oz. can will never "look" right, it just seems like a beer no matter what) and the game of Truth or Dare they played on the patio where, I shit you not, one of the dares was "say the word 'poop' as loud as you can."
Stopped off at the merch table and I felt it was as good a reason as ever to blow some money on vinyl. So I bought multiple copies of this 8" record and handed them to the girls, a little souvenir from their first-ever show at the Blue Room for the three of them whose last name is not Blackwell. I also let them each pick an LP from the storefront...two copies of "White Stripes Greatest Hits" and one copy of "No Name" if you're curious.
I bought an extra copy of the lathe-cut to give away here. $15 value! In the comments below, post your telling of one of those early (first?) live musical moments. Where you felt riveted. Where it all connected with you. Where the trajectory changed. I'm not sure any of my five young charges had the moment last week, but I could see other folks in the audience, adults, staring in their direction with a look on their face, not longing, but thinking back to that age, to the promise of everything that lay ahead and its ability to blow your worldview wide open. We'll get them there yet. Just get your comment in by midnight on February 6th.
Gotta mention the wild abandon of dancing to a live music in the school gym, grade 10; however, although that had a deep affect on my life, it may not have had much to do with the band. My first great concert was next year, ’81 or ’82, seeing Peter Gabriel open for Bowie in Vancouver. The exhilaration of the stadium, channelled by a great showman, totally dedicated to the music.
When I was 9 or so (about1970) I saw a band at a strip mall. They were playing CCR songs. I was young enough and naive enough that I thought I was seeing the real CCR. Took me a couple of years to figure it out. My next concert was Pink Floyd in 77.
I moved to the city in 2016 when I was 24 in and went to every concert I could manage with a UPS Store wage. One of the first ones I can remember was the Third Man Showcase at Beerland (now the 13th Floor). Being able to see bands I’d been following was an otherworldly experience for me, coming from a town that only had blues cover bands at restaurants and no music venues. Not to mention it was a short walk from my work so there I was in the front getting my ears obliterated by the amps of Spray Paint wearing my dinky UPS Store shirt. The bands that were there were The Craig Brown Band, Guerilla Toss, Yak, Spray Paint, Pill, and Timmy’s Organism among others.
But it was Timmy’s Organism’s performance that night that I always recall as my favorite concert experience. I had very little money and had already drank the one beer I could afford before I moved up to the front to watch these wild looking guys play. On the PA speaker next to me sat a Lone Star beer that had been there for awhile as it was completely warm, nearly hot. In a moment of disregard for anything good or right I commandeered this FREE beer (!) and headbanged through a wash of wild wah infused distortion, just pure energy in that tiny room. In the heat of a wild guitar solo, Timmy Vulgar grabs the can of hot beer, uses it as a slide for the rest of the solo, takes a huge swig and forces it back at me, splashing and spilling it everywhere. He doesn’t skip a beat though he must have been thinking what the fuck why is it hot. Maybe not.
When I began to recount this memory to him last time he played the same venue he abruptly turned from me as if I wasn’t speaking to him, his way of saying shut the fuck up. This made the initial memory richer and funnier to me. All this to say those guys truly fucking rock, best concert experience ever (both times), and fuck you.
I was not exposed to lot of music in my youth as oddly neither of my parents listened to much and certainly never attended concerts. My friend across the street in Detroit had some older hippie brothers so via them I did eventually get exposed to some great 60’s and 70’s music. But I never saw anything live until I was in high school and some friends and I went to see the J. Geils Band at Pine Knob. They weren’t (and aren’t) a personal favorite but the experience was transformative with regard to my appreciation for live music vs. recorded and I was on my way to many more concerts and local bands in small venues. Culminating to some degree in seeing JW III at St. Andrew’s last year. I’ll be seeing him again at the Masonic but I don’t think anything will ever top the St. Andrew’s experience. It was like winning the lottery.
My folks took me to see the Monkees and Herman’s Hermits when I was about 6. Still remember seeing them on a small circular stage. Pretty sure I fell asleep by the end of the show. Took my 3 boys to a classic album live (Zeppelin 2) and the drummer gave them sticks which was pretty cool and acknowledged that they were the youngest in the crowd. First big show for them was Linkin Park/Thirty Seconds to Mars. Something clicked because my middle son, now 21, is taking me to 3 shows this year (missed out on JW in Toronto if you have couple spares for Massey Hall I’d take them)
Cheers