if it's too loud you're too young

The Kids are still doing their hair like this?

I usually try to figure out the crowd in line for a show at the two venues within walking distance of where I work based on the gender of the concertgoers and their attire. I forget sometimes that bands like Good Charlotte still exist until I see a line of teenage punkers who consider Green Day old-school lining up at the House of Blues, and it really doesn't seem to matter the jam band or whether or not it's a tribute to the Grateful Dead because the hemp necklaces, long skirts on both the ladies and dudes and the patchwork pants will be out in full force regardless. And then there was that one night where the Hank II/Skynyrd fans converged on to the street at the same time as the audience for "The Color Purple" which was bemusing and thankfully free of any drama.

Sometimes there will be long-haired Scandinavian types in tattered black metal t-shirts wandering down the street in search of food or something interesting to do and I feel bad because all the interesting things in Clevelandia are not within walking distance of aforementioned venues, which might be why a lot of bands I like don't play here anymore. I wouldn't come here either if this was all I knew of the city.

But anyways, I'm leaving work the other night and there's a line of The Kids waiting to go see some band, decked out in millennial splendor of asymmetrical and multiply colored Mad Rad Hair and skinny jeans and black t-shirts with splashy neon graphics. I thought that whole look died out with Myspace but evidently not. I'm probably just out of touch.

My sister texts me that night because she's lost on the way to a show and I give her directions. I've never heard of the band she's going to see, but she likes a lot of that stuff with synths and chimes that's never moved me the way it does her. She doesn't like the stuff I'm into, not being in caterwaul and loud guitars, but we're different people and what moves our souls is going to be different too.

I guess that's really all it comes down to, refined or pedestrian taste be damned. There are some things that will resonate fiercely in one's world that are just not my thing or don't make any sense to me. I may not think it's any good, but that's subjective too. I've liked my own share of dumb stuff too.  I feel like there's so much good stuff to unearth and discover, but for others, maybe the familiar is comforting, be it generic music or formulaic novels, maybe it meets some needs that might be simpler than my own because any analysis otherwise just begins to fall flat with pretension.