Redtree Times

Another cold, cold morning. Though it doesn’t reach the -18° of a week or so back, the breeze takes the wind chill down to somewhere around -10.

And this morning, the thrill and excitement of severe weather eludes me. It feels like a trudge walking to the studio and after taking care of the herd of cats that live around and with us now, I sit down with my first cup of coffee and begin looking for something that will take away my chill and glum.

One of the first things I come across is a video of a huge group of musicians in a stadium somewhere in Europe playing Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit. It is raucous and exuberant. You can see the joy in the musicians faces as they play, as though being in and part of such a sonic event is a form of bliss.

Nirvana, I guess.

And it makes me feel better this morning.

The group is the Rockin’ 1000 from Cesena, Italy. It was formed in 2015 as crowdsourced effort to attract Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters to perform in their city. They eventually put together a show and have done several in the years since. I didn’t look up any stats or facts but it looks like they have about 200 or so each of drummers, guitarists and bass players and four or five hundred vocalists.

It’s quite a mob.

Below is the performance I first saw this morning from Cesena in 2016. Watching it, I realized that though it was only a little over five years ago, it was a completely different world at that moment.

At least, on its face. The divisions that rend us apart were there but still pushed down. Covid and a jump in authoritarian political activity and violence have altered us in many ways. We look at every situation and person through different lenses now.

It made me somewhat nostalgic for 2016, wishing that I could magically go back and somehow improbably alter the future that was to come.

But I can’t. You deal with what is in front of you. And this morning, thankfully, what is in front of me is a video of a 1000 joyful musicians.

Glumness gone.

Nirvana.