Life is a mix tape

I can’t say I am surprised that music played a part in my trip to Seattle but I would have never guessed how significant it would be. Days before the trip I was browsing a friend’s bookshelf, as I will do if you have a shelf full of books, and I removed one and said I was borrowing it, she removed another and told me to take it as well. The book was Rob Sheffield’s Love is a Mix Tape, I was unaware that I had just met my travel companion for my trip. This book went everywhere with me, safely riding along in my jacket pocket. I read it at meals, at night before bed, while sitting in the park, reading Sheffield tell the stories of his life through the mix tapes that accompanied them. Walking another strange city solo, lost in thought, there was a low volume hum in the back of my head, songs playing, I hummed along to TV on the Radio, Helio Sequence, Temper Trap, Postal Service, and so on, my mind producing a natural mix tape soundtrack to my travels.

Brett Denner was performing at the Moore Theater, right next door to my hotel, the night I arrived. Unfamiliar with his music, other than something I read briefly about his new album, I decided I was going. I bought my ticket just minutes before the start of the show and found myself in the seventh row. The show quickly became one of the best shows I’ve been to in awhile, not because the music was exceptional but because of the experience. I had no expectations, no preconceived notions, I wasn’t waiting for my favorite song, and I wasn’t looking around wondering how these people could be into MY favorite band. The atmosphere was fun, Brett, a goofy redhead with moves like a hula girl, looked to be having a truly great time on stage and the crowd was as well. The energy was infectious and I was there until the final encore song came to an end and the band left the stage.

It felt like a sign when outside the Experience Music Project it read, Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses now open, just weeks before I had read a great article celebrating 20 years of Nirvana. The exhibit, covered in huge prints of show photos, fans at the stage singing along with Kurt, took me right back to my teenage years at similar shows. Hendrix occupied the room next to Nirvana, and while looking at both their original handwritten lyrics right there in front of me, all of Hendrix’s on hotel stationary, I couldn’t help but feel a connection. I sit here in my hotel room writing these words, picturing him sitting there in his, writing the words that would change a generation.

They say Seattle is the home of grunge, a city that birthed a new genre, changing the face of music forever, it now seems clear that this trip would be so influenced by music. Sheffield said love is a mix tape, that may be true, but after this trip I think life is a mix tape, so find your soundtrack.