Just a bit of a story about me and my going to see the boys in LA last year. Plus some videos/photos, if you wish to see them.
It's very important to me that I reclaim the music of Underworld as my "own" in terms of being a very important band to me.
In my relationship that recently ended, Underworld had been sort of co-opted in one of those situations where you introduce someone to more of the discography of a band that you feel really strongly about and then they become "Your band".
On September 29th, 2023, I flew to LA to see Underworld live for the first time in nearly 20 years. This was an important concert to me because I wanted for myself and my then-partner to see Underworld live. I had bought us tickets to the concert, a hotel room, and was really looking forward to the trip.
A few days before the trip, she told me that she couldn't go with me because of travel anxiety, which I do understand. However, I would find out later that the reasons for not going with me were much more, let's say, complex.
It definitely hurt that she didn't go with me, but I didn't totally suspect what was happening that caused her to decide to not come with me. It was hard to fly to LA by myself.
Add to that that I had somehow decided that I was going to ask her to marry me at this concert, and, yeah. It was a whole thing.
My good friend, Angus Khan, met up with me to go to the show. We hadn't seen each other in a very long time, so it was quite nice to meet up with him to go to the show.
If Angus hadn't been able to go with me, I would have been at the concert by myself, which would have been a drag. It was a great show (you can see the videos and photos attached to this post), but it had a tinge of melancholy to it to be certain.
The next day I flew back to Albuquerque and that night I found out the dark things that caused for my relationship to end, which definitely put a dark cloud over Underworld's music and that event in particular.
Music is a difficult thing for me on occasions, because I am a musician and have been my entire life. Music is connected to many events in my life, some of them very traumatic.
For instance, I couldn't listen to the music of The Smiths for at least five years after my marriage ended, because of the importance of their music to me and my ex-wife.
On another occasion, Underworld's song, "Sola Sistim", very literally saved my life because I was in a particularly bad work day, having just been yelled at by a client, and out of the blue, this song came onto the internet radio station I was listening to. In that moment, that song definitely pulled me back to reality.
I really didn't want for Underworld's music to be stuck in that limbo -- they were always "my band" and I want to ensure that they remain that, despite their music now being associated with a traumatic event.
Photos/video of the show:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/8QfnHWHAadgfvdKW7