"Hope I Die Before I Get Old!"

      I imagine that strangers harass Roger Daltry on a daily basis with this line and it must take a bit of restraint on his part not to haul out and punch someone.  He was in town recently singing the rock opera "Tommy" and it got me to thinking about when rock musicians make that final decision to stop touring. I didn't have a driving desire to see Roger  this time although I remember a very fine Clash/Who concert in Philadelphia in the early 80's when I thought the Who were ready to retire and it was going to be my last chance to see these rock legends. I guess I was wrong about it being their last concert but after watching their Super Bowl performance a couple of years ago, I think I made the right decision to stop at the 80's. I did get a chance to see Wanda Jackson recently when she opened for Adele, though. Wanda is older than Roger and even though she admitted to having a "senior moment" when she couldn't remember what song she was about to sing, she was strutting around like  it was 1957 or something. Maybe recording a song with Jack White and touring with Adele has kept her feeling spry. Miss Wanda was inspirational.
     X was coming to town this month and I was really conflicted about going to see them. They are my absolute favorite punk band from the 80's and I couldn't decide whether to keep them in a time capsule in my mind or hear them again. The geezer 60's rocker image has been around awhile but I just wasn't sure how aging punk rockers held up. The list of aging musicians is long, but I hadn't revisited any that I had seen in the 80's yet. X was the first. I almost didn't go at all because none of my whack ol' lady friends liked X as much as I had. 2 hours before the doors opened my not so old but possibly slightly whack friend Michelle decided she could leave her 4 kids at home with her husband and venture out. 

   Instead of an opening band, they started the night with a documentary film about X. Now I am not sure that a music venue with a limited number of chairs is the best place to show a movie to a bunch of 40-ish year olds but the diehard fans stood the whole time. We needed to sit for a spell and watched half of the movie from the balcony (a favorite spot for WOL). The ratio of youngins' to WOL was the inverse of Soundset and except for the 40-ish year old couple wildly making out at the bar, I would say we all acted our age. 

     The band took to the stage with little fanfare, said hello, told us all they were going to play the whole "Los Angeles" album from start to finish and jumped right in. Billy Zoom used all the same moves he had 29 year ago. He stood perfectly still with a glazed look on his face and smiled. That was his schtick and he was sticking to it. When they launched into "Nausea" I wasn't sure how that song was going to hold up..."Today you're gonna be sick so sick. You'll prop your forehead on the sink. Say oh Christ oh Jesus  Christ. My head's gonna break like a bank." Instead of singing the "Christ oh Jesus Christ,"part Exene sang "Oh no, Oh no, Oh no" and it just didn't pack the same wallop. 
  We stayed until the last encore, Billy Zoom took some photos of the audience and we all went home. I don't know what I expected- more flailing less contentment?  There were a few people getting tossed around in a makeshift mosh pit and one angry, drunk dude who kept hitting on all the women in the front row and then flipping them off after they moved away from him. 
  "This must be the new world.."