Run! The Hippies are coming!

This blog thing is harder than I originally thought. Blame Comcast and college football blogs for my lack of posting. The Comcast IT department uses the same restrictions that Communist China puts on its firewalls. It is what it is. Anyway about a month or so ago I went to see Bob Weir and Ratdog with Keller Williams at Chastain.

I know I just lost half of the people that are reading this, so we’re down to three. Without having to dive into a musical history lesson Bob Weir = like 1/6 Grateful Dead, and Keller Williams is not the realtor. They are a brand of what many term Counter-Culture music or as I like to call it Hippie music. Not too many of my friends like this type of music, other than Huskette (the girl formally known as Waugh Happened) I can only think of two others and my brother.

These bands typically play concerts that center around the music rather than the spectacle of the band itself. In other words their main goal is to entertain the crowd with their music, not antics. The dead is obviously one of the forefathers for hippie bands, so I thought it would be cool to see one of the original members live. At the concert I realized why I like these bands more than others is not just because of the music, but also because of the people that come. I intend to dissect the different kinds of people that I saw and further the stereotypes people have. Let's play…

The first group I will analyze is the hippies of the dirty, old type.

These fellows are the types that were at Haight-Ashbury when things were real. These hippies were the first ones to make the jump from pot to acid and haven’t recovered since. The kind of people that call themselves earth children and things of that nature. While certain bums can look like old hippies it is important to note that old hippies are not bums. They are either roadies who sleep in cars or slummy hotels on the road or are versions of older townies that tend to congregate in small, funny, smelling structures usually found in transitional neighborhoods. These guys are usually entertaining to watch and generally harmless.

The next group of older hippies is the type that is productive and gives back to society in whatever it is they might do. These are the people that were really into the music when they were younger and still listen to it on the way to work via an 8-speaker stereo system. Everyone knows this group they are universally known as yuppies. They mean no harm but are easily identifiable and usually are fun to point out. Full disclosure, I plan on being a yuppie and it neither saddens nor excites me.

Younger hippies are in it for several reasons: they want to find themselves, they are rebelling against their parents, or they legitimately like the music. Central to all of these reasons and the biggest help to accomplishing said reasons are drugs, mainly the psychedelic variety. Some of these youngsters are only in it for a place to go and do as much as possible to destroy as many brain cells as quickly as they can. There isn’t really anything wrong with this group they usually grow out of it. What sucks is when you run into them at a show and they can’t move or are freaking out. While it can be fun to watch you never want to deal with someone who has the artificial strength of ten men. At a festival earlier this year there had been a kid who had apparently gotten some bad acid. As the story goes he was butt naked, busy throwing his own poop on peoples RV’s and tents. He also was shredding people’s tents and using his finger nails to leave scratches on cars and diesel pushers. This would be a crazy enough story if it had been after a night full of drugs and drinking, but it occurred at 3 in the afternoon just solidifying my point a lot of these kids just get into the music to get totally f-ed up.

Now I’m going to point out one action that a sub-section of the “hippie” group does do that sticks with me and that I sincerely disprove of. This is bringing children to shows. The venue does make a difference, as I could see it being ok if there was a concert in the park during the day that might have a family feel to it. What’s not ok is this:

That is a baby in that stroller that was only 10 months old at the time this picture was taken. While I commend the father’s dedication to his child to at least have him in a stroller, it made me sick to watch this guy’s actions. He smoked numerous bowls and even walked away from the kid a couple of times. The child’s mother (at least I assume who it was) showed up at the beginning of Keller Williams show and immediately left to I guess go back to the front.

The guy told me they were from Johnson City, TN which leads me to believe they were following the band around the southeast. As I mentioned before good for you if you/ your girlfriend/ your buddies want to follow the band, but why would you take your baby with you. It seems at some point basic human responsibility would say I have to put this child’s interest in front of my own. Raising a child and touring around with the band are not conducive to one another. I’m no developmental psychologist, but it seems to me that children need some type of structure in their early years to be able grow into a healthy (mentally and physically) adults. Sad to say this is not the first time I’ve seen babies at a show. This is truly the one thing that really pisses me off. I know I sound a bit like a hypocrite after my initial argument defending the roadies, but so be it.

I don’t consider myself a hippie per say, but rather a fan of hippie music. I like the concerts because they are fun and you never really know what to expect I think this a reason that I love jam music. No song will ever be the same unless it's played from an album, there is so much experimentation and the artists really change the song depending on however they feel at any given show. Take the Allman Brother’s song “Whipping Post” I was at a concert where they played the song for over 30 minutes, if you listen to another version it could be 10 minutes or even an hour if they were into it. Part of the experimentation element comes from having different quests play with the band. I can’t really think of another genre of music where the front man for another band could show up on stage and start playing with whatever band you are there to see. I think it has something to do with the respect that all of the artists have for each other. Part of this comes from the different covers of other artist’s songs that jam bands play. A song that you have listened to for years will sound completely different when another band plays it only increasing the awesomeness of said song. I could go on and on about all the reasons these are just a few. To get down to it the real reason I like jam music so much is because…I can noodle like nobody’s business ( that’s dancing for you hippie haters).