Again singing Grunge

I think I have grown up is some ways. And so has some of the people in Jakarta. I'm refereing to those blokes that use to be music suckers in high school who thought the relationships with the opposite sex was a bit overrated and all that matters is
making a band that really says what's in your head and heart... and also rebeling!

This blabbering session is mainly insipred to my visit to a grunge venue I went to on one particular Sunday night.
It was called Grunge Gods from the sequence of Roockapalooza. Thank God there are people that still really like the old music for it's essence. I went there with Vira and Tari. Vira happened to grew up and really like the grunge era, I grew up in it and have a few vocabulary to it. I do happen to really really like this era, the songs has more meaning and memory for me then the other era... well... it's equal to the 80s maybe :P. Tari had to get the Grunge 101 that night.

The place: D'place. Kinda cute name for a place right? It was a small bar, the stage was behind the bar, way up about a meter high. A bit too small for those that perform and to enjoy music. The venue was filled with people that loved grunge. Some people had the time to get out their flannels to top their black shirt. Ahhhh yes... how I loved the grunge era. Nirvana, STP, Pearl Jam are your usual band line up amongst the bands. And more additional groups.

What was actually interesting about this night was how we've already grown up. I tried to picture these people in those adolesent years. Probably still in uniforms or to the least, in college. That night wasn't so different. There was only a thin line between those settled and not. I can see many of these people are unsettled and probably working in the entertainment business but I can see most of them having the obligation of going to the office the next day. This is the generation that once rebeled to the system of fake images and absurd capitalism. And yet now we are living it.

We all can afford that 60000 rupiahs to get in to a gig now. Probably so easily. We can afford that additional beer when we are inside. And most of us are settled and coming back to our suburban house, to our children, and heading to the office with our credited vehicles. A friend said that these people probably are those that couldn't enjoy live grunge in their teenage years, and yet they are fans. Basically they aren't the true grungies, but love the music. And a true grungie person will not attend such gigs because there is no point either than nostalgic. I can't entirely agree with him, but he has a point. It applies to me too. I never had the resources to be in such gigs, and now I do. And yes, it was reminising, but what harm can it do either than reminding us of what we use to believe in and maybe still do?

Well for me, a job already states that I'm settled in someway. But basically, we are no longer the hot fire that once burned. I have to believe some of us are, but how much of us has an alternative life compared to others? In the end, has grunge really have an effect to the generation that once exist? We could actually observe the results today. What has it done to us? Is growing up meaning facing reality? And if we don't have that spirit have we succumbe to reality thus grown up?

Singing along to the songs of rebel, I can only hope that we are all still mad, we are still questioning about our world today, and we are still grungy. The spirit truely counts.

As for me, I'm still with my glasses, my sneakers and my braces... in some ways I still felt like I was in Junior high.