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10/06/2002 Entry: "face that screams"
Jesse Michaels, Common Rider.Promise Ring makes me happy.
Common Rider was anticipated by everyone. Most of the crowd was in pre-school when Jesse Michaels played in Operation Ivy. So we all waited, looking up to him, surprised at how much he looked like a California surfer.
A little research shows that Jesse didn't play guitar in his former band, yet why did he look so damned awkward up there, dancing around like he wasn't sure if he meant it. I hoped for him, that he would turn around, show that frenetic energy that came through in every Operation Ivy song. It ended, but not before they played Classics of Love, a truly great song that begins with Jesse singing so fast and clear, but it was lost in undermixed vocals and muddy guitars.
And anticipation is just brutal. We carry these thoughts, these scenarios about the greatness that is to come, but no one deserves them. How do you even go out on stage after being in a band that played so few shows, yet is simply legendary? What kind of courage does it take to not ride that fame, but to go a different way, to vanish for a decade before being heard again? I feel critical, but grateful for the chance to see him, and to have some kind of connection to one of the greatest bands I've known, broken up and gone before I ever knew them.
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