Yesterday The Boy and I saw the play Rock of Ages, courtesy of his parents (thanks guys!). For those who don't know, Rock of Ages is a musical about two crazy kids in the '80s who fall in love - and the songs are actual rock songs from that period. Really, the plot is just a thin excuse for a bunch of actors to dress up in flamboyant clothes and sing Styx and Bon Jovi songs...not that there's anything wrong with that!
Our seats were freaking fabulous - the very front row of the balcony, where we had an unobstructed view of everything that was going on. It was neat seeing live performances of songs I remembered from my younger days, and I loved the costumes - they really got that 80s aesthetic down pat (except for the girls' hair - it needed to be BIGGER and CRUNCHIER dammit! Don't they manufacture AquaNet anymore?). You know what's trippy, though? Realizing that most of the actors in the production were probably too young to remember the songs (if they'd ever heard them at all!). To these kids, being in the play was probably like learning a hilarious-sounding foreign language. Whereas to me, those outfits and songs were just...high school.
Truth be told, although the music from Rock of Ages holds a certain inevitable nostalgia for me, I was never a huge fan of the genre(s).* And so I was both surprised and deeply, deeply humiliated when the actors started singing "We Built This City" by [Jefferson?] Starship and I got goosebumps. YEAH THAT'S RIGHT I GOT CHILLS FROM THE OPENING LINES OF ONE OF ROCK'S CHEESIEST ANTHEMS.
I just...I don't even know what to do with that. It calls my entire perception of myself into question. I may have to take a pilgrimage to Tibet to do some soul-searching.
*If someone did a play featuring Depeche Mode, The Cure, Erasure, and The Human League, on the other hand...
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