“So what do you spend money on?” – The girl who attended
Kesha & The Creepies on the “Fuck The World” tour with me in Atlantic City
last night. (Ma, if you are reading this, don’t get your hopes up, she is just
a friend.)
The question was prompted by her asking me “what was my
dream car?". I didn’t have an answer. She asked if I dreamt of houses and I said
not really. The answer to the aforementioned question is that I spend my money
on making memories. I do that through spending money on travelling, stemming
from my love of history, and entertainment taking the form of pro wrestling and
music.
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| The picture that made me fall in love with Ke$ha |
After each pro wrestling show, my brother and I will try to
come up with what history making angle we had just witnessed. These run the
gambit from the silly to the influential. My brother loves bringing up such
angles as the Birth of “Dashing” Cody Rhodes on a random Smackdown! in
Manchester, NH or the breakup of the APA on the Smackdown after Wrestlemania XX
at the TDGarden. Sometimes, we travel to a show expecting history to be made like
at Wrestlemania XXVIII (Miami) where it happened in a curious way when Daniel
Bryan lost in 18 seconds to Sheamus. A seemingly insignificant angle like the
breakup of APA led to Bradshaw reinventing himself as JBL and going on to be
the longest reigning world champion in about a decade. I can say I was there
for that. The fans’ reaction to Daniel Bryan’s loss to Wrestlemania XXVIII set
off a chain reaction of events that has profoundly changed the landscape of pro
wrestling forever. I can say I was there for that. That’s the nature of pro
wrestling. It is open-ended and continuous. Almost every show has import on the
next show meaning I am almost guaranteed to be witnessing history every time I
attend a pro wrestling card. Concerts are the complete opposite of this.
The inherent nature of concerts is they are static,
reactionary events. You are not witnessing history being made so much as bearing
witness to a snapshot of time. Due to my taste in music, this tends to be a
window into the past. I love telling my Dad what KISS or Alice Cooper did that
night and then for his retort to be “been there and saw it in 1976”. Even when
I saw Ke$ha three times prior to last night, what was I really witnessing was
just an image of 2012 through her beautifully sleazy lens of reality. None of this had any impact on the future. I don’t
take pride in saying I was there in May of 2013 when Motley Crue played on Lake
Winnepausakee where Vince Neil was dumbstruck that the crowd was not cheering
for hot girls. It is a great, funny memory, but it was not significant history.
Last night, I witnessed history being made in Atlantic City.
In the modern musical landscape, change is most affected
through the recording of music (the single/album) and not live performances. The
release of an album heralds the direction of the artist and sets the tone for
the ensuing tour. The concert is an audiovisual representation of the album something
that is already recorded in the past. Therefore, without an incredible effort,
a concert is backwards-looking, a reaction to what already exists. There are
singular exceptions I have witnessed. Such as 2013 Ke$ha’s reimagining of “Take
it off” as a grimy, sleaze rock song or Robert Plant’s fascination with World
Music. In the case of the former, it was an interesting treat for live fans,
something special for us, but not forward-looking. In the case of the latter,
it is self-indulgent at worst and promoting underappreciated music at best, but
it is not changing the legacy of Robert Plant or the musical world. Last night, Kesha & The Creepies did not
just shift the paradigm, they shattered it.
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| A Portent Of What Was To Come |
They broke free of the fetters of the album-tour model to
deliver a night completely devoted to Kesha, the passionate artist and defiant
human being. The concert is the tool being used to assert her independence and
reshaping of her life, not the album. Perhaps this is due to legal reasons, but
whatever the reason, it created a night of breath-taking beauty, unbridled
passion and loud defiance. It signals her reclaiming her dignity and control of
her destiny. As she declared last night (paraphrasing based off memory), “I am
finally putting on the show, I have always wanted to put on for you guys.” The
show was an expression of her individuality.
There were no keyboards. No autotune. No Dollar Sign. But don’t
worry there was still plenty of glitter! Kesha’s natural, raw, powerful and
soulful voice filled the carpeted casino ballroom. Such a strange venue for
a personal revolution, but this was a strange concert. Its versatility of how she
covered her own songs in the form of rock, country, dance, punk and glam into
one cohesive concert worked because of her emotional investment in each song. It
featured covers of disparate artists such as Iggy Pop and Dolly Parton. Not
just evidence of the breadth of influences, but the breadth of who she is as a
person.
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| You didn't think a picture like this was going to be forgotten. I am still Superstar Sleeze. |
It is so easy for people to dismiss Kesha out of hand
superficially as a “dirty, trashy, vapid party girl”. Taking the time to listen
to her music, you will realize she is a nuanced, complex person that checks all
pretensions at the door. That her brash, irreverent party music is a statement on
embracing the human condition and the happiness you will find in that
whole-hearted embrace. You can see the
sneer and the bite of Iggy Pop in her songs. There is also the sensitivity of
Dolly Parton in wanting to affect positive change through her music. At the end
of the day, Kesha’s music is the music of wish fulfillment. David Lee Roth has
described that as the most powerful form of music. Kesha is the girl who lived
her dreams only to see them transform into a nightmare. If there is one thing
we know about Kesha, the girl who broke into Prince’s house to drop off a demo,
is that she will never give up. This concert was a statement of defiance that
her ideals of humanity would carry her through the day.
I have never met Kesha. I did give it a pretty good shot
last night with the afterparty security, probably not as good as she would have
done, but I did give it the old college try. I think there is no public figure
that better represents my worldview than Kesha. She is my spirit animal. So on
an oddly personal note, the concert was a relief. When I saw her in 2013 in
Connecticut, she had lost quite a bit of weight and something seemed off. Then
I saw the Timber music video at the end of 2013 and she seemed dangerously
skinny. It was not a shock when she checked into rehab for body weight issues.
To see her smiling and healthy on stage was just awesome and overwhelming. There
were many times I was tearing up watching the concert.
I love concerts. I do not think concerts should adopt this
model at all. I think that would be completely wrong for the audience they are
intended to serve. Concerts should reflect the album and the songs the fans
want to hear. The unusual context of this concert necessitated this, Kesha
demanded it, and the fans understood. They had the unique chance due to the
circumstances to create a show not tethered to the past, but a declaration of
independence for the future. Kesha with the loud cry of “I Shall Be Released” fired
the final salvo of a 90 minute transcendent expression of human emotion.
I can say I was there for that.
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| Atlantic City Declaration of Independence |
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