journal reflection
Caught in a North by North East downpore of artists, i found myself frontrow at the Grand Analogue concert at the Reverb. The venue alone brought back some nostalgic memories of working at concerts for promoting giant R.E.M.G founded by Jonathan Ramos. And though, i have beared witness to many concerts at the venue like murs, jedi mind trixs and others, I was dually impressed by the Peg City band.
I personally i admit that i have heard of the group, but never once took the time to check out their myspace page. I know, it’s horrible, but being at the show inspired my mind. The lyrical content of front rapper impressed me, especially because earlier that day, i was speaking to a street artist J.C. about the lack on content in art these days. I particularily enjoyed the fact that he was rapping about things that many would consider to be the content of an underground backpacker. Which leads me to the question, could artists like grand analog find true success, in terms of generating wealth from the music that he is creating? are the people ready to be challenged? I think so and the fact taht there are more hip-hop groups coming up and out of the woodworks, there is no saying where the trend will go, let alone the quality of the work.
The song that stuck out for me the most throughout the show was “Ill Walk Alone”.. with a chorus that says “when you loose your mind, it’s just the right time/when you loose your mind, pick it up, start it over again”. Unforuntately, I couldnt find a good youtube video to accompany this post, but I think that this is an interesting line because, mental sanity is something that we all deal with on a daily basis and for creative people, this probably comes to you more than one time in a day. But in this society, mental stability relates to many things everything from the respect you get from peers to the way that you are treated by the government and other institutions. Although, it is often clear to see the signs of ones mind being lost, but when it comes to the arts, there is a very thin line between the genious and the insane because they run in parallel. And there have been a slew of artists, that have actually created their best works when they have come close to loosing their mind, throughout early centuries, to the guy next door who not only has the mind of an engineer but also a maniac. so when you loose your mind, could it really be the right time?
then, on the way out of the concert hall, my counsin (who attended the event with me) stumble across a punk rock band, performing outside of ali baba’s queen west. Although, i was not thrashing out like some of the kids around, who looked like they were loosing their minds, i was also impressed by the talent that was taking over toronto.
Leave a Reply