Por Vida

When you think about it, there isn’t much that I actually want out of life. I’m not really into fame and fortune. Sure, I wish that my dream of being a basketball player hadn’t been cut short by the fact that I’m slow and can’t jump and I wouldn’t mind being independently wealthy but none of that drives my daily existence. I’m just happy learning new things, getting to write a story every once in a while, and experiencing transcendent moments. Those times when you realize that even though life can be tough and annoying and unfair as hell it is still much better than the alternative. That’s what I live for, that split second when you realize that this is not what the world is but what it should be.

I doubt that most people would ever expect to experience such a moment at Davey’s Uptown. In fact, most people wouldn’t step near Davey’s, which in even the best of terms is a dive roadhouse bar located across the street from an adult bookstore. But it is the best place in this town to see live music and on Friday and Saturday night Alejandro Escovedo returned to the stage after a three year absence and proved to everyone there what music can really accomplish.

I know his name might not be familiar but his story is one of legend. Alejandro started out in the San Francisco punk scene and he has the honor of being part of the last band to open for the Sex Pistols (the first time around. The show where Johnny Rotten sat on the stage, looked at the crowd and said “Have you ever felt like you’ve been cheated?” and walked off stage, breaking up the band.) From there he played in various rock bands and became a legend in Austin. During the nineties he began to blend differing musical styles together, using steel guitar and violins and cellos all in the same song. Those albums, the best of which is Gravity, are some of my favorites.

That was the story I knew two years ago. Then, one night, while sitting at a bar getting as drunk as I humanly could as a result of an email I had received that afternoon, I ended up talking to a random guy about music and started talking about Alejandro. Who he informed me had recently collapsed after a concert, that he was still hospitalized and that they were trying to raise funds for his medical bills. That news made my little problems pale in comparison and the next day I sent in my contribution and hoped that one day I’d get to see Alejandro play one more time.

It took two years but there I was, standing in front of the stage. Alejandro brought his orchestra with him (including violin, cello, keyboards, and John Dee Graham on guitar) and the room was packed with people shouting “Welcome Back” as he took the stage. He looked thin and frail. Or at least he did until he played that first note and sang his first line. It was a rejuvenation, all of his health issues, all financial worries just faded away. This was his stage and this was his time. It was the absolute best that I’ve ever heard him sound. If you haven’t heard the songs it is tough to describe but imagine violins soaring into a punk rock song. Or a cello filling in the notes between a ballad. But even that pales to the emotion that came from the stage and the crowd. When he covered “All the Young Dudes” and yelled to the crowd to sing along with “I’ve waited a couple of years for this/” You knew that everyone in the room was of the same mind.

At the end of the day, I’m just a music fan. A guy who probably spends too much on CDs and goes to shows of bands he doesn’t really like just because he happened to buy one of their CDs ten years ago. But I wouldn’t change it for the world because being that fan presents me with the moments that I had this weekend. Of being able to watch someone overcome incredible obstacles to do what he wants to do more than anything in the world and do it better than he ever has before. There is a power in that moment. You feel alive, you feel invigorated and you feel that it is your duty to do what you love for the rest of your life. And I have a feeling that the people who saw Journey last night didn’t leave with the same thought in their soul.