I knew this one kid from open mics,at the end of the night all the music folk would hang out on the back patio of this dive bar, drink beers, smoke cigarettes, sneak puffs off of one hitters.
Anyways, someone yelled at this guy from across the patio.
“hey Matt, gonna break out your guitar?”
He was holding a beer and then he made a perplexed face.
“nobody wants to hear that shit”
Like , beyond self deprecating, it was like he knew what he had,like he knew his level and his place. He laughed about it.
He was not putting himself down to fish for compliments from strangers, I’ve seen that trick before… He was really just saying ” I’m not going to annoy these people’s ears”.
So then why? Why did this kid show up to open mics? Why did he get on stage? Why did he subject himself to the pressure of standing and showing the room what he had?
I had so many questions. But I really liked his demeanor in that one moment.
The anti ego.
Musicians are ego maniacs, a generalization but pretty accurate. (In my experience)
I guess Love.
I guess that young guy would go out every week and do his thing because he loved it. There’s something in there.
Play for you.
You don’t have to be heard and you best not let yourself become addicted to the feeling of being above everyone else…
I’m not going to drink today.
dawn 