Science of Crushes. Pt 2.

I saw Dan Deacon, Tom Tom Club and Devo at McCarren Pool last night. All three were great. Devo was especially interesting... in part because they are old. It is always a bit weird to see aging musicians get back on stage and watch them do what they've been doing for 20 plus years. But the Devo has aged particularly well. Once they were a bunch of New Wave nerds. Now they are new wave nerds with guts and grey hair. But they are still nerds still doing what they do and doing it hard. There is no chitter chatter bullshit in their set. They just play from one song to another, bring all the energy and style they had in 1984. It's not like they've been frozen in time but it is also not as if they are just going through the motions. They believed in what they were doing back then and it is still true now. They are just, well, Devo.

But none of that relates to the topic heading, does it?

I have this stupid thing I do in my head at concerts (or dance clubs or whatever). I dance (or I do something which I interpret as dancing). I am relative unselfconscious about it. But I do these weird scans of the crowd around me. What am I doing? I'm checking girls out. Because I still live in the fantasy world were I will make I contact with a woman and something magical will happen.

We'll lock eyes, smile at each other and go back to dancing. From song to song, we will cautiously check each other out and gravitate towards each other. Eventually we will find ourselves dancing side by side. By the time the encore hits, we are screaming the words to the song in each other's face. When the concert is over, we will be out of breath, sweaty and just happy. There will be an awkward moment of realization that we shared a "moment" but haven't even said a word. There will be a stumbling over words. "Wow." "Yeah... wow." "Um, hey." "Yeah, um, hi." She will sweep sweaty hair off her face. "I'm Chris." "I'm [fill in name]." "You want to grab a drink?"

Has this ever happened to me? No. Have I ever even approached a woman at concert? No. But I still have that fantasy. And I find myself scanning the masses, finding one woman, and then repeatedly turning back to her hoping she looks at me. And I can't tell if it is a romantic ideal or just pathetic.