At some point, I think we all have deep thoughts about what our legacy will be to the people we love, the people we help (or hurt) and the people we work with.
I don’t know what the guy I worked with at Target in late 1998—the one with the metal bar installed through his upper left eyebrow—did with the rest of his life, but he will forever be remembered by me for one thing… (Okay, two things. That eyebrow ring was weird) His love of the band Eve 6.
“I’m their biggest fan,” I remember him saying.
“I like that line ‘or am I origami,'” I replied.
“It’s all brilliant,” he pushed on. “That guy is a genius.”
I think I had to stock shelves or help a customer find dog food, because the conversation didn’t go much farther than that, and I was careful to never mention the band around him again, because let’s be honest, I knew that The Verve Pipe was way better and would have a much longer career.
Remembering this exchange sent me down a rabbit hole of research today, as I began looking up all my favorite bands from the days of flannel shirts and denim shorts I called college.
It is a slightly more noble expression of nostalgia to look up old bands on the internet than to look up old girlfriends, but it is no less depressing.
Your favorite bands may not get divorced multiple times, or become Donald Trump supporters, but they gain weight, make poor social media choices and if their lucky, play to middling crowds at county fairs.
The unlucky ones end up in purgatory (I assume) after overdoses or suicide, or they might just play solo shows at local bars after “creative differences” drove them from the rest of their bandmates, which is probably it’s own kind of purgatory.
Eve 6 and The Verve Pipe are still kicking it as bands, and I appreciate that. A slew of other favorites were much more of a mixed bag.
Ugly Kid Joe, Brother Cane, Candlebox and The Nixons. One of my mixtapes from 1998 can still be heard touring the Midwest in various forms.
All are one hit away from rewriting their legacy, and getting back onto those shelves at Target.
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Photo credit: Foter.com
