Re: Understanding Lifehouse

["Schrade, Scott" <sschrade@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> To say that Pete was just an over ambitious thinker or a nut is a cop 
> out.  He was onto something and it shows up in the music.  There was 
> the fantasy vs. reality thing, but what was it that he saw so clearly 
> that no one else seemed to be able to see? (Rhetorical Question.)


Gosh, that's a toughie.  You're right.  Pete must've saw something.  Or
else why would he put so much time & effort into it, right?

But, for the life of me, I haven't been able to figure it out either.
I mean, we all know the basic storyline of LIFEHOUSE (uninteresting as
it may be).  That's not the problem.

And the problem isn't the confusing part of the story dealing with the
band & audience in some sort of vibrational mind/music-meld, with groups
of people disappearing, etc.  It's fiction.  OK.  We accept that.

The problem is that somewhere along the line Pete decided that the con-
cept of the audience/artist meld was somehow *feasible* & could be carried
out in real life.  Or at least some aspects of it could.

God bless him for trying, I guess.  Nothing wrong with experimentation.
But Pete's experiment failed miserably, I'm afraid (I'm strictly talking
about the Young Vic audience/artist meld thingy here - I don't need to
be reminded that plenty of good tunes came out of the project, etc., etc.).

A big reason for the failure was what Jon pointed out; Pete saw something
but wasn't able to communicate that something to anyone else.  He was 
putting his faith in something, but what?

But I must disagree, Jon.  I think "over ambitious" is the perfect adjective
to describe the whole deal.  He tried to overstep the bounds of a rock
concert.  Really, he tried to turn it into something more than it already
was.

Noble, yes.  Realistic, no.  Maybe Pete's mistake was taking the naturally
occurring magic (!) of a rock show & trying to push into a higher something.
Call it spiritual, call it mystical, call it energy, call it having a blast,
call it anything.  Pete tried to push for more, something bigger.  <insert
"Here For More" & "Faith In Something Bigger" joke here>

So, what did we, & Pete, learn?  Perhaps that some things are just what 
they are.  And no more.  A rock concert is just that.  A rock concert.
Hugely entertaining, both physically & spiritually, but nothing more. Per-
haps it's because of the inescapable nagging realization that all concerts
end, all bands quit playing, & we all have to eventually go home that
nothing more can become of it.

Hard to escape *that* little dose of reality.  Even with a buzz on.


- SCHRADE in Akron