I had the pleasure of seeing Van Halen LIVE at the Pepsi Center here in Denver, Colorado. Friday night, February 1, 2008. This followed weeks of mounting expectation, pumped up even higher by my "parties on the pass" during which time I'd park the truck on some back road in the mountains the night before skiing, crank up the truck stereo and play Van Halen bootleg CDs while having a cigar and drinking copious amounts of tequila. The CDs were the time machine portal, the tequila pushing me through it to a different place and time. I could swear I stood before the stage with the boys in Osaka, Dallas, Charlotte or Pasadena.
What word's can describe the events and emotions of that night? None can do it adequately. All I can do is capture small bits of the experience in the form of haiku, very simple three line Japanese poetry (5-7-5 syllables).
Rock on!
Bar room party rocks!
Loud band plays for beers and babes
Look, it's Van Halen!
The loud throbbing beat
Plays to our primal instincts
The cave man exposed
Musical whirlpool
Drawn in by the guitar riffs
He's lost all control
Eddie's fingers fly
Throws mind-melting guitar riffs
Crowd catches on fire
The first guitar riffs
Amplifiers charge the air
Sparks the crowds thunder
Music fills his head
Breath smells of strong tequila
Dances in the aisle
Play their siren song
He's the band's willing captive
Wants a life sentence
Electric guitar
Eddie's hand is just a blur
Charges up the crowd
It's pure ecstasy
A drug taken through the ears
Needs another hit
Loud infectious beat
Their music sets him on fire
Liquor fuels the flame
Eddies guitar wails
Strikes an emotional chord
Brings hot tears of joy
Concert has long ended
But the music has not stopped
Playing in his head
Walter's inferno
Intense heat, blinding white light
Flickers out and dies
The bright lights came on
But he saw only darkness
Van Halen was gone
Soars with the music
But it ends and lights come on
He falls back to Earth
No comments:
Post a Comment