Friday, October 9, 2009

Momentary Prophets

Three days ago, on Tuesday I was walking from class and I heard three guys playing music in the grass. In the middle of campus they were playing an upright bass, an acoustic guitar, and what caught my attention the most was a sitar. The sitar player was wearing a sunflower print vest and they all had varying forms of long hair. I like meeting other long haired fellows. There is a friendly unspoken acknowledgment between dudes with long hair. I asked if they minded me sitting and watching and they replied with a, "Please do." Others soon followed and sat down in the grass. There was a kind energy about the musicians and I was eating it up. They said that they were playing a free show at Jackie O's the next night at 10. They called themselves Momentary Prophets.

I went to the show the next night and the stage was filled with instruments of all kinds. A local musician named Bongo Bob was playing with them at this show. They were from Virginia, but it seemed like they knew many of the local people. A sense of friendship was  held by the band and all of the audience. Everyone seemed so happy to be in each other's company and it was very refreshing and warming to be there. As they played the crowd danced and smiled, soaking in the music and good vibes. The music was great and the singing was beautiful. The musicians switched between instruments all the time and all three sang. They played a cover of Led Zeppelin's "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You," but they sang the words for "Black Dog" to the melody of "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You." That was really cool. They jammed on songs, keeping the groove and feeling alive as the lead singer switched from a 12 string acoustic to the sitar. 

They played for close to 3 hours and took a break halfway. They said, "The way we take breaks is we like to come into the crowd and hug as many people as we can. So everyone should try hug as many people in approximately 5 to 8 1/2 minutes as possible. Happiness. Happy people. Happy times. Moments like these keep my optimism alive. As I talked to the band and the other people in the crowd, it made me think we all need to do this extremely simple, yet crucial task of being kind people.

Here is their page if you want to hear what I'm talking about:  http://www.myspace.com/momentaryprophets

3 comments:

  1. It was a magical night. Don't people like that give you hope for the entire human race?

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  2. Michael! we are coming back on February 19th to play a show at Donkey Coffee! Yay

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