Jr. Youth

There is a scene in Children of Men when a bomb explodes outside a cafe.  The noise from the explosion is so loud that the films audio track becomes a ringing sound.  Julian (played by the great Julianne Moore) then says, "Y'know that ringing in your ears?  That 'eeeeeeeeeee'? That's the sound of the ear cells dying, like their swan song.  Once it's gone you'll never hear that frequency again.  Enjoy it while it lasts." 

 Well, I have been experiencing my ear cells swan song the past few weeks.  It all started a couple weeks ago at the Capitol Hill Block Party.  

After watching sets from Pela, The Thermals, The Gossip and Truckasauras from a comfortable distance I was determined to get as close as possible to the stage to witness the legendary Sonic Youth.  I don't know what I was thinking.  I've seen SY before and they were extremely loud but I was too excited.  I was more concerned with seeing Thurston, Kim and company up close than I was for the health of my ears.  My friend and I made it as close as one could get without being smashed up against the stage.  

To give you an image the stage was on the east side of the Broadway and Pike intersection with the crowds lined up in that relatively narrow corridor.  This set up allowed for the music and the reverb to be extra loud, just bouncing around all over us.  SY played a fairly long set, it's hard to be completely familiar with a group who has over 15 albums but I managed to recognize two or three songs through the noise.  The concert was pure rock and roll spectacle ending with Thurston and Lee smashing their guitars into one another like swords.  I couldn't ask for more, except maybe earplugs.

I got home pretty late (early) and had to get up at 6 for a church meeting.  When I woke up my entire head was buzzing.  I poured myself a bowl of Crispix and sat down for breakfast.  I was only able to make it through two or three spoonfuls before I had to quit.  The crunching noise I was making was too loud and was hurting my ears.  I realized that I had a problem.  I hoped that I would regain my hearing by the next day but no dice.  In fact it wasn't until about five days later that I began to notice my hearing improve.  

Well, the next Saturday another 90s gem, Dinosaur Jr. was playing a free show at the Space Needle.  I was very excited to see DJ and was hoping that my ears would be up for more loud noise.  I have been listening to DJ since my brother Adam introduced me to them in '94.  We had a copy of Where You Been that we wore out while listening to it all summer.  Again, as with Sonic Youth, I was fully aware that this was going to be an exceptionally loud show but I neglected to bring ear plugs (where do you get those anyway?).  When we arrived at the Space Needle I instinctively made my way to the front of the stage like a mouse to cheese on a trap.  It only took about two minutes into the opener, "Bulbs of Passion", before I realized that we needed to move far away or I could cause some permanent damage to my ears.  We went to the back of the lawn and watched the rest of the show at a reasonable distance and you know what... It was just fine, I guess I need to remember that there can be too much of a good thing.  The bad news is that as I write this my ears still hurt and I received a text message from my friend telling me that his ears still don't feel the same as before. 

As I was watching the show and they were playing some of the songs that I remember listening to as a kid I looked up and saw the Space Needle. I thought to myself that if 26 year old Ben were able visit 12 year old Ben and tell him that he would eventually be living in Seattle, going to UW, be at a Dinosaur Jr. concert in the shadow of the Space Needle, and married to a super cool girl, 12 year old Ben would faint with joy.