Things Fall Back Together, Sometimes
It's tempting to say that everyone has a favorite band - or, if not a favorite, a first love of sorts, whom you'll always remember for really setting you alight as you were first finding your own personality. I'm not sure that everyone *does* actually have such a band, but I certainly do. I saw the Murder City Devils for the first time when I was 15, at Bumbershoot or Folklife, in a room full of kids who were certifiably cooler than I was. They lit the drums on fire; they lit the *drums.* On *FIRE.* So obviously, there was nothing for it but to fall in love with the band (drums! on FIRE!). I've got all the albums; have for years. When they decided to break up in 2001, I was so torn up about it I couldn't even bring myself to try to go to the last show. There's still no band I'd describe as being quite like them, nothing I could point to and say "yes, this is better than MCD," and I doubt there ever will be, at least for me.
Anyways, I just saw them perform a reunion show, a couple of years after their last reunion show. I think a lot of people would be and/or are tempted to complain that having a reunion show every couple of years spoils the effect; that it's sort of selling out for comfort rather than money, and that if MCD wants to play so bad, they should get back together For Real. Record some new stuff. You know what? That'd be nice, but it makes me so happy just to see them once in a blue moon and feel pure, concentrated love for rock and roll and the people who love it that I just don't care; this is enough. It's enough to know they're still out there, that it still means to them something of what it used to, and that all the good parts of some rough times in life don't just vanish into dust once you're past them. Thanks, MCD, for dusting the songs off.
Anyways, I just saw them perform a reunion show, a couple of years after their last reunion show. I think a lot of people would be and/or are tempted to complain that having a reunion show every couple of years spoils the effect; that it's sort of selling out for comfort rather than money, and that if MCD wants to play so bad, they should get back together For Real. Record some new stuff. You know what? That'd be nice, but it makes me so happy just to see them once in a blue moon and feel pure, concentrated love for rock and roll and the people who love it that I just don't care; this is enough. It's enough to know they're still out there, that it still means to them something of what it used to, and that all the good parts of some rough times in life don't just vanish into dust once you're past them. Thanks, MCD, for dusting the songs off.