Themes, Mattys and That Guy

"If you had to pick one song as your theme song, what would it be?"

Our tile-topped table was covered with a Saturday afternoon's worth of stuff. Two purses lay kitty-cornered, an umbrella perched by the bright flowers-and-stripes handbag. Three small plastic cups with straws - two now empty, the third half full with raspberry smoothie. A fourth, larger cup contained a few remaining sips of iced tea, but the ice was slowly melting, creating a paler shade of the previously amber liquid. Six or seven empty brown packets of Sugar in the Raw lay in a haphazard pile nearby. Each was torn open lengthwise, and one now stood upright like a skewed tent.

Two stacks of paper across the table - each composed of notebook paper stapled into groups of five or six pages. The pile on the left had gradually grown smaller than its counterpart on the right - Michelle had been productive during this foray into Cambridge.

My notebook waited in front of me, about four lines of a story written and subsequently crossed out in blue ink. I was also working through the afternoon, in my own creatively diligent manner.

"The theme from 'Knight Rider!'" Tom exclaimed. He smirked and chewed on a wad of paper that had, in its previous incantation, served as his straw wrapper. He twirled his straw, creating an iced tea whirlpool that picked up sugar granules off the bottom of his cup. "David Hasselhoff! Yah!"

He began to hum the theme, bobbing his head for emphasis, while Michelle and I turned to gawk at each other. Sure, the potential for random replies was high with Tom, but Hasselhoff? We waited a beat before laughter set in.

"Okaaaaay, 'Knight Rider' for Tom," Michelle said mid-snicker. She turned to me. "And yours?"

I pondered, while Tom suggested that I continue the Hasselhoff theme with "Baywatch." The idea was shot down immediately. "Oh! There's a Matt song, but I can't remember the name of it."

"Great! That song by that guy!" Tom cackled. "I LOVE that one!" I reached to my right and slapped the back of his head while Michelle continued to laugh.

"It has this one line. Don't even THINK about it" - that was for Tom, as he'd opened his mouth to heckle more - "about shedding the comfort fiction provides. And it is otherwise fabulous. So that's mine. You?"

She smiled. "A Better Son/Daughter," she said proudly. I nodded my head in approval as Tom looked confused.

"Whose song is that?"

"Wait for it," I said, already turned to my black bag. I pulled out a long yellow strip of paper and held it in front of him. "Rilo Kiley. As in, band being seen next month!"

Tom looked at the ticket and smiled. "Ah yes. Rilo Kiley. Not that you're excited or anything."

"Nope, not at all," I deadpanned, placing the ticket safely back in its place.

He turned to look at the saucer-like paper lanters suspended from track lighting. They glowed yellow against the bold orange wall. He looked at me out of the corner of his eye and smirked. "Yeah, but Hasselhoff's better."

***

That Guy was sitting directly in front of us. Matt had been mocking him all evening long.

"Hey, party of one. Shut up," he said as he tuned his guitar. That Guy - or Gavin, as he'd introduced himself to the audience - laughed uproariously and slapped his own knee. Granted, I was laughing too - at him - but my position as Girl Behind That Guy made me feel almost guilty by association. Who brought the obnoxious drunk guy? Not me, I wanted to call out.

I felt old in this crowd. Four years had passed since the last time I sat in a college space for an acoustic Matt performance - back when I was a student. Yet here we were, back at a small liberal arts college. A night of unplugged music. Special guest Matt Nathanson, relatively unknown singer-songwriter-quipster. Full circle, with the exception of realizing just how far removed from the college days we'd grown.

Michelle tapped my arm and leaned over to whisper. "I wouldn't want to be a student now. Would you?" I shook my head.

Matt, however, showed consistency. Still witty and quick with the comment or comeback. He was prefacing "Bent," explaining that the woman about whom the song was written had only recently learned that she was the source material. "So this is about a woman who's not very happy with me right now," he said. A girl in the front row let out the expected, "Awwww."

"Nah, it's alright. Fuck it," he shot back with a quick shrug. I burst into laughter.

A few songs later, he found himself fielding an outpouring of requests. He paused to hear the calls before tuning up again. "Here we go," he said.

Michelle turned to look at me with surprise when I gasped. "This is it!" I hissed. "That song! My theme!" I hadn't expected to actually hear it, but I sang along to "I shed what escape my fiction provided."*

------------------
Anyway. To those readers still in college or younger, please do me a favor. If you don't know REM - Michael Stipe and company - LISTEN TO "LOSING MY RELIGION." Matt ended his regular set with a cover of the song and I realized, with the appropriate amount of shock, that some - and by some I mean a good portion - seemed as if they'd never heard the song before. As if they thought it was a MN original. I understand that the younger folk may not know music I grew up with, but REM?!? Wow.

Matt debuted "What You Need," a work-in-progress that I'm already really enjoying. I love when musicians are brave enough to test unfinished material - all the more so when it's already good. It's fun to be able to follow the song's growth. Thanks to the wonder of tapers, it's already available for listening pleasure. Download here and listen to it imagining Matt stomping the ground and really wailing upon the "Shut up" lyrics. Also imagine me listening with a dropped jaw.

Matt also teased "Such Great Heights." My Postal Service-loving self was appropriately pleased.

And finally. M, T and I enjoyed Buddha's Delight - the original restaurant in an elevated new location - and sat by windows overlooking the Gaiety. Blue scaffolding was in place along the side of the building, with windows boarded up. The far side of the building had already been torn apart, with jagged edges visible along the side. Tom told us that the view on that side of the building reveals a glimpse into the building, as the structure stands cut open, passersby able to stare right into the heart of the building.

I took a picture of the Washington Street view, but did not venture over to the side T described. If the building still stands next time I'm in town, perhaps I'll take a look. But I'm not sure about whether or not I actually want to see it.

Let's give it up for progress! Bah.

*"All Been Said Before," from "Not Colored Too Perfect"
I am held together by clothes pins and tension, a wealth of
odds and ends
I'm dazzling like the neon street signs hiccuping off and on
again all night long
I've got magazine friends and enough jealousy to lose them
But I know this has all been said before
I shed what escape my fiction provided
I lived a lifetime inside of my shelter and thought it about time
to see outside it
And I believed it was easy, stupidly thought I could just get up
and walk away
I've got illness hugging me like skin and I'll shed it clean until I
can taste the oxygen.