Pink plus or minus.

PUSA Fest = Time Machine

It’s hard to decide which is more surreal.

Going back 17 years in a time machine.

Or going back 17 years in a time machine with your 8 year old son.

Last night, we rocked out at the Showbox in downtown Seattle. Though it was an all ages benefit concert for Children’s Hospital, doors didn’t open till 8pm and there were two acts opening for the headliner. But the headliner was totally worth it – Presidents of the United States of America (PUSA).

This is where the time machine comes into the picture. Before the show, a line had formed that circled three blocks around the entrance. Most of the people in the line were in their mid- late 30s. Many of them brought their kids. Just like us. Well, we only brought one of them. Who on his own has become a pretty hardcore PUSA fan.

Doors opened at 8, show started around 9 and we made it through the first act…mediocre at best…by 9:45. The second act, was a huge improvement…but we didn’t know just how special it would be until he sang his hit…

Maybe Black Mesa.

Probably only the geekiest of those reading this will know what that is, but quick primer for the rest of you…it’s the song that plays at the end of Portal…a video game that requires strategy and puzzle solving skills. Julius has loved it ever since it surprised him the day he finished the game about 6 months ago.

Anyway..back to the time machine.

When the Presidents took the stage, something in me (and everyone else there, it seems) compelled me to start jumping up and down. It wasn’t long before the crowd surfing and mosh pit (where Joni got clocked in the mouth) ensued. And maybe it’s just me, but I still look around and see the people my age as my age…not in our “late 30s” like we are. So as I stood there sweating, jumping, rocking, it felt like 1994 all over again.

Getting lost in the moment, I’d occasionally be pulled back to reality with the side check to see Julius headbanging and singing along to Dune Buggy or Peaches, or the biggest crowd pleaser, Lump.

And then I”d start just rocking again. It was the strangest feeling. As if nothing had changed. I was 20 and wasn’t thinking much past the after-show party. Everyone around me even looked the same…after all, we all aged together.

But I was rocking with 20 me and future me at the same time.

In the sweat and craziness of it all, there was a brief moment when I heard the voice in my head saying “you look like a fool.” But then I realized something. I realized that after all these years, it’s still OK to have fun. With reckless abandon. Fun is good at any age. It’s when you start forgetting to have fun that you actually start getting old. And not “this is supposed to be fun” fun. I mean actual, I don’t care that I look like an idiot jumping up and down in a sea of 40 year olds, fun. I don’t care what anyone thinks, fun. I don’t care if I’m cool or lame, fun. I’m just gonna have fun, fun.

That’s the joy and innocence of youth. And seeing it in front of me in my own child, as I was reliving my own youth was a healthy reminder that it’s something that needs to stay front and center in life no matter what. Not life for the sake of fun, but fun, for the sake of life.

Rock on, time machine. Rock on.