Day 24 – A song you have danced to with your best friend.

Are these prompts getting sillier or is it me?

Anyway, my best friend and I have known each other for twenty years or so, since we were mere babes. That’s about twenty years of dance music to choose from since, in our early twenties, we were known to cut a rug or twelve. I can’t even remember a specific song we’ve danced to, so I’m going to pick the last song I clearly remember.

A few years back, one of my all-time favorite bands and a band I never got to see back in the day had a show right here in Los Angeles. All of my friends immediately got tickets. Some even came in from far away to go see this show. That’s how important it was to us.

You see, most of us grew up in different places. Male was in Philadelphia, my best friend was in Boston, I was in Detroit, and others were here in Los Angeles, yet we all discovered this band around the same time and formed an attachment. We led parallel lives even though we didn’t know each other yet.

Some many years later, we all met through common interests including this band. Some many years after that, we were all ancient thirty-somethings who broke out our dusty combat boots and leathers to go see Goldenvoice’s 30th anniversary punk rock show. It was truly legendary.

The Dickies were, well, The Dickies. East Bay Ray from the Dead Kennedys made an appearance during the Vandals set. There was a special surprise performance by Keith Morris-era Black Flag with Chuck Dukowski and Bill from the Descendents on drums. They played the entire Nervous Breakdown EP and it was absolutely glorious. It was one of those moments in your life that you will always remember.

But, even more than getting to see Keith Morris perform Black Flag songs, which he hadn’t done since before I got into punk, the highlight of the show was getting to see a band I waited more than twenty years to see, The Descendents.

We were all transported back to the era when we didn’t know each other and we were living our parallel lives in different parts of the country, and we old-ass punk rockers pogoed like crazy. Here they are playing my favorite Descendents song live right in front of me.

I’m in there somewhere actin’ a fool. I think I started crying tears of joy when they played this song.