Loneliness may be the most distressing of all human emotions.
Whilst others can also be distressful, there’s something exceptionally painful in the emotion of believing that you’re lacking the ‘correct’ amount of meaningful relationships in your life, or the feeling that relationships you’ve built are slowly eroding.
Perhaps a result of the busy schedules we lead, or technologies ability to ‘find us’ 24 hours a day, many of us find ourselves running faster in an attempt to keep up; multitasking our lives away chasing ever expanding ‘to do’ lists.
Perhaps the Christmas period intensifies our need for multitasking; we rush from place to place, flash visiting loved ones, liking and commenting rather than connecting, texting rather than talking. We’re busy yet we feel alone, conscious that we are rushing the things we should be taking time over, whilst committing to tasks which don’t bring us long-term happiness. Hendrix was right, loneliness can be such a drag.
For me, live music has often provided a rest bite from this sense of aloneness. Standing beside people I don’t know, but singing together with them, does something much more valuable and affecting than the music alone. It brings connection. And connection brings hope.
Local punk heroes ‘Crashed Out’ play, as they always do, with the heart and spirit of a band who believe in every word they sing and every note they play. They’re true punks that way. Perhaps more importantly though is that they believe in the communal power of music.
Intense with their beliefs, Crashed encourage their crowd to join in with their performance; to sing, to chant, to come closer to the stage, to make room for each other. Much more than just wanting their audience to watch their performance, they want their audience to connect with them, and with each other. Themes of unity, collectiveness and awakening shape what is an intense and incredibly uplifting show.
Music was my favourite Christmas present this year. I’d encourage you to put down your to-do list for a while and listen to a band trying to make a difference.
