Music for Pleasure

I've been told that I have fashioned my own "happy place."

That hadn't occurred to me, per se. But of course after years of living, I'm clever enough to try to create a life that gives me pleasure in as many ways as possible.

Today's mental inventory shows a thin slice of that.

I have a colorful apartment with a bathroom that has one large window I keep open six months a year. Unless I'm in the shower, that window is big enough to afford me a slice-of-the-sky view where I can feel the vagaries of the outside air. On a southern cliche of a perfect August evening in Richmond, I can admire the length of cloudless blue sky while savoring the washed-clean post-rain breeze.

Granted, it's no outdoor shower, but it's pretty wonderful.

Or I can go to see something unlikely that's landed in Richmond, something like the documentary, "The Damned: Don't You Wish That We Were Dead?" being presented by the James River Film Society.

I'll even go early enough to get to choose which of the Visual Arts Center's folding chairs I want to sit in, a right I feel I have earned since I bought my ticket for this film on May 20th. Yes, two and a half months ago.

I blame Holmes.

He's the friend who'd been terribly surprised to learn that I didn't know the Damned or its best-known guitarist, Captain Sensible. So he did what any good record-collector of a friend would do and pulled out records by both to play for me, right there and then.

He was right. I did like these guys, despite that they'd had little effect on me in my youth.

Walking in to see the movie, I was surprised to be greeted by multi-media, a "wall of the damned," so to speak. One wall was covered with Damned paraphernalia. Posters, pictures, album covers lined the wall and I watched as people had photos of themselves taken in front of certain posters.

Looking around at the crowd, I was reminded of my one and only Tulsa Drone show six years and one day ago. I have friends who met that night and are now married. But what I recall from that evening was the crowd, an older hipster crowd I wasn't used to seeing at Gallery 5.

A friend had informed me that it was the "older hipster crowd," the ones who used to go to a lot of shows but were now raising families. Similar crowd tonight.

First, of course, there was Damned trivia, but it quickly became clear that multiple people not only knew the answers, but were able to shout it out simultaneously. Prizes like SxSW posters from the movie's premiere and, even more fabulous, Captain Sensible bobbleheads were awarded diplomatically.

Then it was time for the film, a terrific mix of vintage footage, more recent shows and all kinds of interesting talking heads, including band members. It made a strong case for the Damned having been every bit as influential (not to mention lasting far longer) than other punk icons such as the Sex Pistols or the Clash.

Disaffected British youth in the '70s, that's all any of them were. But man, the Damned just had so much more talent. Theirs was a black comedy take on punk, blending vaudeville and psychedelia into one big party.

The drollest comment was when someone said, "There was no commercial application for their music." They were singing street songs, songs about the punk scene, but with Captain Sensible's sense of absurdist humor (and talent, occasionally playing guitar with a beer can instead of his fingers) and Dave Vanian's pre-Goth voice and look. Say what?

"They were clowns who could deliver," someone says of them. What else do you need? Never mind the bollocks, where's the Damned?

Tonight's crowd was fully engaged with the film, talking when something onscreen jogged a thought, singing along to some of the concert footage, watching mesmerized.

As is to be expected, the film had more than its fair share of bad British teeth. And with so many British accents spoken, there were times I was wishing for subtitles to fully understand these blokes. Lemmy of Motorhead, forget it. That's English?

Not so the legendary Chrissie Hynde (who was around in the band's early days but they never called her back) who was fully intelligible and still damn fine looking.

An uber fan who'd seen the band 582 times (he kept a log, natch) compared missing a Damned gig to losing the lottery. That's rough. Bitterness over success' elusiveness permeated several key people's interviews.

Talking about the shift away from bloated '70s music, one band member said, "You wanna drive somone from the '70s crazy? Put on the Damned."

Okay, so I walked into this film having heard a limited bit by the band and knowing little beyond that a music friend had told me it was someone I'd appreciate.

Now I'm marveling that this was the first British punk band to put out a record and an album and the first to tour the U.S. That they were carving out such a distinctive niche in punk. That just as significantly, they're mostly still together after countless reinventions some 39 years later.

Organizer Jeff finished the evening by sharing that the Damned plan to tour for their 40th anniversary next year. He's putting up a petition to get them to play Richmond. Where do I go to sign? I'm happy to buy my ticket 2 1/2 months in advance again.

Because clearly the Damned were my kind of band as I only recently found out. "What does it do for you at this age?" the filmmaker asks of band members.

Same thing it does for fans at this age. Everything you let it.

That's how you stay in your happy place.