Feb. 27 - Lisztomania in Posso's Prompts

Lisztomania (n:) the need to listen to music all the time; the intense fan frenzy directed toward Hungarian composer Franz Liszt during his performances.

I wish I was as talented at writing and playing music as I am at listening to it nonstop. I am a total junkie and people think that’s not possible, but if you take a survey of concerts I’ve been to in the past couple years; Kacey Musgraves, Robyn, Lana Del Rey, Paramore, Dashboard Confessional, CHVRCHES, Brandi Carlile, Phantogram, Purity Ring, Incubus, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Zac Brown Band, Chris Stapleton, Fleetwood Mac, Justin Timberlake, Foo Fighters, Nothing More, The Avett Brothers, Greta Van Fleet, Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness and that’s just the ones I can name without thinking hard.
I went to blues and jazz festivals with my parents growing up. There was no appreciation for the music for me at the time; it was a way to get out and see people and things that you wouldn’t get to see in a dinky town of two thousand people. Pretty sure I fell in love with the first girl I ever saw braless with nipple bars at Duluth Jazz Festival right in the bay on Lake Superior. First cassette tape I ever owned was No Doubt’s Tragic Kingdom. First CD? Spice Girls’ Spice album. When I was 17 I lied to my parents that I was going to be spending the night at my friend Shannon’s house just so I could go see Red Hot Chili Peppers in Minneapolis for the first time ever, with no supervision, and sleep with my girlfriend. Anyone else’s mom ever microwave your third copy of Limp Bizkit’s Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water after she heard you singing ‘If I say fuck two more times that’s forty six fucks in this fucked up rhyme’ at the top of your lungs in your bedroom? When Incubus’ Alive at Red Rocks DVD came out, I feel asleep to it nightly for close to a year. I started to play piano when I was younger, but imagine a chubby, big tiddied boy teen trying to woo his crushes with robotic like recall of The Pretenders’ I’ll Stand By You? Yeah, that wasn’t going to boost my confidence. I was drunk and listening to a cover band crush Duran Duran and Depeche Mode when I thought about wrapping my car around a tree and ending the struggle I was having. Right now, as I scribble what I’m thinking on the back of a bill envelope so I don’t forget what I want to say, I have Chelsea Cutler playing on the jukebox thinking about better times last year when I was happy.
Hopefully the consequences of my actions in 2018 don’t harm the ideas of all the other concerts, festivals and music gatherings I want to visit and check out this year but if all else fails, I have youtube, apple music and a myriad of electronic devices to drown away the boredom of silence.