My source for some definitive

So this past week I went to go see some old friends. Truth be told, we hadn’t visited face-to-face in about eight years. But there was a time, ages ago, when we spent almost every day together. I’d listen intently, absorbing each word and meditating on its meaning. And the car trips, oh heavens, they were fun. Still, somehow we drifted apart. Sure, we’d run into each other from time to time – often on accident. Yet each meeting was like slipping on a favorite sweater for the first time of the season: warm, comfortable, soothingly familiar.

[Crap quality, I know. iPhone cameras suck at concerts.]

Gosh, it was nice seeing the Indigo Girls again. At times they might seem like a cliché, the lesbian band we all at least flirted with at some point in our lives. Knowing all the words to “Closer to Fine” is pretty much a requisite to earning your toaster oven. But there is a reason they’ve endured. Their voices, those harmonies, that music. Granted, over the years my tastes have changed. But as they played I could still sing along to almost every song. The whole crowd could. Some songs brought me back immediately to a certain time and place: alone in my bedroom, together in my dorm room. Some music, you never outgrow. You might not listen that much anymore, but it will always be part of your soundtrack. So when you hear it again, even years later, you have to listen.

“Closer to Fine,” circa 1989

ZOMG, basically everything – hair, jeans, Dave, VINYL RECORDS!

“Power of Two,” 20 years later

Considerably less hairspray, thankfully.

Two other interesting tidbits about my show: 1) I was surprised by the number of husbands (no, not really butch lesbians, I double checked) that came with their wives. Guess even L.U.G.s like to get nostalgic. And 2) I realized during the show that while my younger self preferred Emily’s sweet soprano, the older me now gravitates towards Amy’s darker alto. Who knows, maybe in another 20 years I’ll flip flop again.