On going out and slight returns
I went out...finally!
One evening last weekend I went out to meet a few local people. As a solo mum to a young child, evenings out happen very rarely for me at the moment! But this time, the stars aligned on getting the chance to have a chat and drinks with potential new friends. The freedom felt amazing! I was also nervous and very aware of my physical appearance (I’m tall and a lot of the places round here seem to have exceptionally low ceilings!) But I achieved it. I went out again. Just for a couple of hours.
I also managed to catch two sets of live music in two days. One just happened to be in the corner of a pub, a bearded man with a guitar singing cover songs as people danced and sang along. I was mesmerised by this scene - so vividly different from my usual early nights. I’d actually forgotten this is what Saturday nights can look like!
The second musical interlude was the Bluetones Acoustic gig. This included two members of the original band playing songs and answering questions one afternoon at Artisan Tap in Stoke. I’ve always liked the Bluetones, one of the indie bands of the 90s who never got as famous as some but had several nice tunes. Hearing these sung acoustically, I was struck by how beautiful the sound was and how interesting the lyrics were. There is something about hearing these words written years ago, with the benefit of experience making them feel all the more meaningful.
In this small venue with lots of people standing, I took a photo but then put my phone away. I wanted to be there, in the room, listening to people singing and playing live in front of me. At one point a song went wrong and it just added to the atmosphere. Things weren’t perfect because live and spontaneous things generally aren’t. We were part of an experience that only existed for this hour in the room that day.
These small steps make me keen to go out more, perhaps re-discovering some of my old hobbies like listening to live music. It feels like we might be at a point of reviving things that can feel oddly nostalgic: meeting up and talking, live singers, watching things outside of screens. What a timely revival!