Rock Music, Kindness, and Leaving An Impression

This post is about a band.  And while music plays a huge part in my writing process, it isn't really related to that side of things.  So it won't hurt my feelings if you don't want to read this.

Last night I went to a 3 Doors Down concert at the Evergreen State Fair in Monroe, WA.  Big deal for me.  Because they are my favorite band.  Yes, this means they have shoved the Goo Goo Dolls out of my #1 spot, because while Goo Goo Dolls have awesome, fantastic older stuff that I will love and cherish forever, they are starting to sound older and more tired to me.  In the meantime, I think 3 Doors Down keeps getting better and better.

Me and my husband at the concert!

Anyway, back to last night, 3DD played all their greatest hits, old and new.  I sang along to every single song and pretty much nothing could wipe the smile from my face.

I was very observant during this concert.  I like to see how a band works with the crowd, how they interact, what they will say on stage.  I was a bit surprised by how things went last night.

Brad Arnold

Brad Arnold is the lead singer for the group.  He hails from Mississippi, and his southern accent shines through his singing live.  But he has a great amount of southern politeness on stage.  After every single song he would say "Thank you so much, my friends."  After literally every single song.  He didn't really say anything else between.

Then they played their latest hit "One Light."  This is a song about changing the world for the better, about being the one light to shine for everyone else.  After this song, he elaborated on the lyrics, talking about how we can be the change in the world.  He also said how this is his favorite song they've ever written, even though it wasn't their biggest song, not by a long shot.  He had everyone raise a hand in the air, with one finger up, and had each person shout "I can be one light!"  It was very affective.

I kept observing him as the concert continued, and realized Brad didn't have a single visible tattoo on either of his arms (he does have one though).  Not that this is a reflection on his personality, or that I'm saying I look down on those with them (at all), but for a guy who has been in a rock band for 15+ years, I found it very impressive.

Even more impressive, none of them used a single curse word then entire night.  I went to a Theory of a Deadman concert last year and I couldn't begin to count the number of F*bombs that were used that night.  I appreciated how clean the entire show was.  I would have felt perfectly comfortable bringing my 5 year old.

But the thing that got to me most last night was when they played the song "It's Not My Time."  This has been my favorite song of theirs for a long time so I was stoked when it was the third song they played.  But sitting two rows in front of me was this woman.  I noticed her when she sat down.  She looked to be around 50 or so.  She had very little hair on her head, and what hair she did have was fuzzy and downy looking.  You could tell it was just starting to grow back in.

When they started playing this song, she stood up with a poster, raised above her head.  On that poster were the words "It's Not My Time" and the O in the word not was a breast cancer symbol.

Justin Biltonen

As soon as I read this, I got chills and tears welled in my eyes.  They didn't leave my eyes throughout the entire song.  This woman stood through most of the song with this poster raised above her head.  She pumped her fist in the air about half way through, and to my surprise, Justin Biltonen, the bands bassist, pumped his fist back in the air back at her, multiple times throughout the song.

When the show ended (sadly, everyone wanted them to go on longer), everyone started filing out of the stands.  I was walking down right behind this woman with her poster.  It took some courage, but I let her know how much I appreciated her that night.  She then said she was hoping to get the poster signed by the guys in the band.  I watched her ask someone working the show, and was sad when the woman basically was told no.

I went and got in line to get a t-shirt but my husband pointed back to the stage when I was finished.  Justin,
who had responded to this woman during the song, had come back out to talk with her and sign her poster.  I walked back over in that direction and got teary eyed again when I saw them in a big embrace that lasted quite a long time.  When she was finished, he then stayed to sign stuff and take pictures with anyone for at least 30 minutes.

Me, Justin, my 15 year old sis-in-law, Kassie

People notice kindness.  Sometimes your actions speak even louder than your music.

They don't care about singing about being rock stars, getting drunk, sleeping with women, or any of that fake crap.

These guys are real.  They are genuine.

And this is why I love 3 Doors Down.

 

THE HUMAN: A Playlist Analysis

For many writers, music plays a big part of their process.  For me it is a HUGE part.  I'm not kidding when I say that I create a playlist before I write a single word of a book.  Music gets me to the mental space I need to be to write faster than anything else in this world.

So I thought it might be interesting to share THE HUMAN's playlist and give you a bit of an analysis of why each song was included.

*Note: this is a bit spoilery so if you haven't read THE BANE yet, you might want to stop reading here.*

This song so well captures Eve and everything she has gone through and is going through.  

"Cause it's the end and I'm not afraid to die.

Who will tell the story of your life?"

If THE HUMAN had a theme song it would have to be this one.  Eve goes through a lot of inner turmoil throughout this book.  There is so much going on (and so much not going on...) and she just isn't sure how to handle it all.  I could seriously paste the lyrics to this entire song because of how perfectly it captures things.

"I dare you to cross the line again, Cause deep down inside, There's something that waits to be Broken Inside." 

"The thinning line between, You and my sanity, Is quickly fading. Takes just a breeze to cause a storm."

I think all I have to say about this one is "Avian and Eve."

Eve made a choice.  But that doesn't mean things are perfect...

Two words: The Underground. 

"I want to go there. 

This time I'm not scared. 

Now I am unbreakable, it's unmistakable 

No one can touch me Nothing can stop me."

Eve made a choice, and now she has to live with the consequences.  

I think I listened to this song about twenty times when writing and rewriting chapter five.

Love hurts.

If you don't listen to any of these other songs, listen to this one.  I seriously can't say how much I LOVE Redlight King lately.  

There is a threshold to be crossed at the end of this book.  Eve's been beaten down and just about every bad thing that could happen to her has happened.  But...

"I'm gonna' make a comeback!"

There are of course a bunch of other songs in THE HUMAN'S playlist, but these are the most significant.

Rock on readers.