June 2025: Live Music and the Past

Watching: The Stranger by the Lake
Reading: revisiting The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Listening to: Paul Simon, The Lawrence Arms, Royal Headache
Working on: cutting and assembling 600 books, drawing a 40 page NewOldRare one-shot, chipping away at a film script, cutting the sleeves off a bunch of shirts

I was going to make a post about risograph printing as I’ve done about 600 zines this month (plus prints), but I forget to take photos while I’m in the lab and it’s not all that interesting to look at anyway.

I try and go see bands regularly, and this month, I went to see The Lawrence Arms at Crossroads in Garwood NJ, and Paul Simon at the Beacon Theatre on the upper west side (among others).

I’m not really a nostalgia person. My artwork might look like it, but my affection for older aesthetics and other times isn’t about living in the past, or thinking the past was better. Are there things I’d like to see come back or wish had never left? Of course, but find me a person who doesn’t have opinions like that. Physical media, cheaper groceries and rent, repairable tech, universal agreement that Nazis are complete pieces of shit – take your fucking pick.

I never saw Paul Simon until this year, but when I was a very little kid, my parents had a recording of his concert in Central Park. I watched this over and over, I was absolutely obsessed. I remember telling my mother that I wanted to play trumpet in his band.

I saw The Lawrence Arms in 2006 at The Arthouse in Melbourne, Australia. I’d been really into their Apathy and Exhaustion album since I heard Navigating the Windward Passage on a free CD I got at Warped Tour in 2002, and it remains one of my favourite records to this day. It’s such a solid release from start to finish, not a single weak track in my humble opinion. I love their other albums too, but that one came into my hands at exactly the right time and it’ll always be special to me, up there with Graceland by Paul Simon, Dear You by Jawbreaker, The Specials’ self titled, The Apology Wars by Blueline Medic, and Give Em Enough Rope by The Clash (to name a few).

I took my boyfriend at the time and it was just one of those concerts you remember. The tiny low-ceilinged venue was perfect, the crowd was totally into it, and the band were incredible. They were so tight and energetic, we knew every song.

I’d been going to The Arthouse since I was about thirteen, they’d do Saturday underage shows from noon to six, then 18+ shows at night. These shows were always full, and one of my fondest memories of being a teenager. Doing this was a very good early cure of being shy: I had no one to go with, and I wanted to go so badly that it overcame any reticence about being alone. I did get to know people and make friends over the years, but it gave me an early social confidence.

Paul Simon retired from touring a few years back – fair enough, he’s in his eighties – and I’d always been sad I’d never gotten to see him. Timing didn’t work out, money didn’t work out, oh well. It happens. Then he released another album, then he announced a limited small venue tour, including playing five nights at The Beacon Theatre in NYC. A friend and I got tickets for (I think) the last night, June 23rd. He’d be playing the entire 33min Seven Psalms album, then a second set. I was curious, cautiously optimistic, and didn’t want to build it up too much.

It was a unique experience. The Beacon Theatre is absolutely gorgeous and seats about 2900 people, and there’s not a bad seat in the house – we were on the top balcony in the cheap section and had a great view and great sound. I don’t know exactly what I expected, but he was happy to be there, chatty and funny. He and his band played the entire Seven Psalms album through non stop (none of your applause breaks, we are GOING FOR IT), took a little intermission, then came back and played for about another hour.

He did some hits of course, and some deep cuts. My personal highlight was The Cool Cool River, and I was pleased he chose The Late Great Johnny Ace too, totally unexpected. All the arrangements were different, he doesn’t have the vocal power he had twenty years ago, but the new arrangements played to his strengths. At no point did I think he wasn’t able to keep up vocally with the music. Sometimes when you see acoustic or stripped back versions, they feel neutered, defanged, limp. Not so at all.

The last song he did with the full band was The Boxer, and then he stayed on alone and did The Sound of Silence. The audience sang the chorus to The Boxer, which was the only time we sang at all.

The Lawrence Arms were different. The guitarist/singer and drummer were on great form, but the bassist/singer was looking and sounding a bit rough. The songs he sung were unintelligible, and he didn’t seem to be doing too well. They did Brickwall Views, which is one of my favourites, and it was a good night. I’m glad I got to see them again, I’m not disappointed at all, it just kind of made me sad too. I could see shadows of all the kids I used to go to shows with in the crowd, every band shirt was familiar. I was literally a different person then – different name, different life, different everything. Sometimes I wonder what my life would have been like if I’d stayed in Melbourne, embedded in that music scene and moving through young adulthood with the solid ground of personal history under my feet. I know I wouldn’t have been happy, I never regretted leaving at nineteen, but I still sometimes wonder.

Hey, The Lawrence Arms have a song about that!