What Can't Be Erased

I was reading Magnet magazine, and the rumors apparently are true; the band Grandaddy is breaking up. There will be a release of a final album and then nothing, no more touring, no more shows.

Grandaddy is a band that holds a special place in my heart for a variety of reasons. They sound like nobody else for one - though I have heard comparisons to other bands run rampant (my favorite was "Neil Young meets ELO"). They've always just seemed like guys, like dudes I would hang out with and drink beer, but who happened to make music that at times could kick me right in the heart.

A few years back, I was spreading the Grandaddy love around the workplace. R-Lo took to them immediately. The divine Jenny Miller developed a hankering for them. As I was sharing an office with Hippy Jonny at the time that I was listening to them almost nonstop, he began to let them drift in and I think began to appreciate them as well.

Grandaddy was doing a show in Sacramento, so the lot of us decided on a mini road trip, on what I believe was a Thursday night, to go seem them. It's not necessarily a show that was spectacular in and of itself, but I remember having a great time with these folks that I loved, seeing a band that I was excited about, a band that just got more and more adept with each time I saw them. It was a long, tired drive home with people spread out and passed out in various areas of the Blazer, but it was worth it.

The last time I got to see Grandaddy, they played a great show at the Fillmore. They were on top of their game and just seemed so legitimately excited to be playing at the Fillmore and having all of these people there to see them. Jason, the lead singer, thanked the crowd with that sort of sun-baked, awed gratitude way a number of times, and again, it just felt like a large number of friends gathered together and hanging out at the historic Fillmore. I remember jumping like a loon and shouting out my own hearty "thank you" when they played AM 180. Just all sweetness and well directed excitement that show.

It makes me a little melancholy to know that they're packing it in, another in what seems like a large number of signposts marking the end of eras. Thank you Grandaddy for doing what you did, thank you for all those little gems that found their way inside and bloomed in smiles and joy and excitement of being alive at that particular moment. You will be missed...