Talk On Indolence

“Now I've grown too aware of my mortality
To let go and forget about dying
Long enough to drop the hammer down
And let the indolence go wild and flying through.”
Avett Brothers

Last night I went to an Avett Brothers concert at the Star Plaza. Beforehand, I met Robert Blaszkiewicz at the Old Chicago Pizza and Pasta place next door. Robert first turned me on to the Avett Brothers by including “Talk On Indolence” on the Christmas CD of his 20 favorite songs of 2010. While I was at the bar, a guy interjected, “Mr. Lane?” It turned out to be Jeff Kessner, who played soccer with Phil more than 25 years ago and attended parties at our house on Maple Place.

The warm-up group was the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, old Hippie Seventies Bluegrass Rockers most famous for the song “Mr. Bojangles.” They joked about being on a tour bus with Willie nelson and visiting John Mellencamp’s hometown of Seymour, Indiana, in connection with Farm Aid. The lead singer reminded me of the ageless Jackson Browne. Their violin player was outasight, as was the drummer/harmonica player, and the band got a standing ovation after their hour set.

In the lobby during intermission was former student and head of security Stevie Kokos, a Shavings subscriber, who like many folks was more familiar with the Nitty gritty Dirt Band than the main act. Softball battery mate and concert producer Omar Farag, whom I’d called to plug the show, greeted me heartily accompanied by Miller Beach mainstay Joe Petras, who 40 years ago first turned me on to the importance of Gary’s history. I told Robert and Jeff that Omar had put on a festival during the early Nineties at the lake County Fairgrounds featuring Poi Dog Pondering, the Jayhawks, and WILCO. Amazed, both of them said that they had gone and it was one of the best concerts ever.

The Avett Brothers, who are playing to a sold out Aragon Ballroom audience tonight, were fantastic, often bouncing up and down like yo-yos while singing and playing guitar and banjo. They did “Head Full of Doubt/ Road Full of Promise” about halfway through the show with Scott Avett on keyboards, bringing down the house, and mixed in numerous melodious a capello numbers, including “Murder in the City,” before ending with “Talk On Indolence.” I was in the seventh row, but nearly everyone was standing so about halfway through I went near the back and found a seat with an excellent view. Robert and his friends had front row balcony seats, and I was tempted to join them.

A storm was brewing on the way home, the wind knocking my Corolla around on 80/94. Back home while having a Leinie nightcap, our lights flickered several times. Had we been at the old homestead on Maple Place, we’d still be without power, I’m sure. Put on Robert’s “Top 20 2010” CD, which starts out with “A More Perfect Union” by Titus Andronicus.” In a recent NY Times Sunday magazine article about school experiences Titus guitarist Amy Klein about an eight year-old overcoming stage fright: “I volunteer as a guitar teacher and a band coach at the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls. It’s totally punk. Many of the girls have no prior musical experience — and that’s the point: We present them with a challenge and encourage them to grow. I was coaching a band of 8-year-olds. On the day of the concert, the lead singer was suddenly overcome by stage fright. “I don’t want to do this anymore,” she whispered. I told her that she would be amazing and that her bandmates needed her right now. About a minute before the performance, I finally asked, “What would make you feel safe right now?” She responded, “If you held my hand.” I stood in the wings with my arm outstretched, the singer holding on. When it was time for the chorus, she chimed in, at first shyly, then louder. By the end of the chorus, she had let go of my hand. She ran out to the center of the stage, and an enormous cheer swept through the crowd. Hundreds of hands clapped to the beat. Fists were raised. Eyes teared up. A huge smile broke out on the singer’s face. She had grasped what it is to feel powerful.”

Today I checked out “55/55,” a so-called comedy about Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) a young cancer victim. Seth Rogen played the guy’s buddy and Anna Kendrick his therapist. Trying to get his buddy and himself laid, he suggests that the two pick-ups go back Adam’s apartment and smoke some medical marijuana. “Game on,” one of them replies. When he first saw her, his reaction was something like, “Is this a Joke? Am I your first client?” Actually he was her third, and she was really fetching. In one scene she gives him a ride home, but her car is so full of fast food wrappings and other junk he makes her stop the car by a dumpster and starts throwing things away. At one point she stops him, saying, “That’s my dinner.” Anjelica Huston is great as Adam’s mom.