This morning I found out that there was a tribute to Adam Schlesinger last night, featuring both big names, Courtney Love and Chris Carrabba, and personal favourites like Ben Kweller, Justin Pierre, and Matt Caws. I was surprised that I hadn't heard about this, but I don't know that I would have paid for a livestream anyways. This reminded me how bummed I was to hear that he had died early in the pandemic and led to reflect on the year and a bit that we've been living through COVID.
Schlesinger's death was a weird one for me. I think it's totally normal for you to feel sad when a person you respect and admire dies, but it almost felt like I made too much of a big deal about it to myself, compulsively reading stories about him and the experiences of those close to him. I think that was probably the result of the stress and fear of COVID coming out of me in strange ways. I never really reacted strongly to any of the horror stories around public health or long-term care in Quebec, but then latched onto Schlesinger's death like crazy. In hindsight, those two things are probably related, right?
Sidenote: I can't remember if I said this during my in memoriam post, but there was one time that Duff and I were talking about our pie-in-the-sky producer picks for Beat Noir. I said Schlesinger and Duff reacted like that was the worst choice possible and didn't fit all. Him working on Sovereignties is a laughably weird fit, but I still stand by it?
Anyways, a year later I'm still sad that he died as a result of this pandemic, especially as someone who was relatively young and still producing great music. When I think about him and Fountains of Wayne, I find myself still in awe of his talent as a songwriter. He was the first person related to my interests who died during the last year, and that sits as a strange post in my COVID experience. It having been a year since he died is a reminder of how long this has been going on and it's sad to think how bad things still are. Maybe it's nice to think about vaccines being readily available Canada now. I don't know. That's nice, but I also can't say I'm confident about things going back to normal like everyone else is. I still never really know how to feel about the pandemic and now the music and death of Adam Schlesinger is weirdly tied up in that. Strange feeling.
Okay, two things related to this:
One is that as part of the tribute, a reformed Tinted Windows performed. Tinted Windows was a super-group featuring Schlesinger on bass and as the principle songwriter (awesome), Bun. E. Carlos from Cheap Trick on drums (IMO the coolest CT member, also awesome), James Iha on guitar (not a huge Smashing Pumpkins fan, but he's undoubtedly the coolest member), and Taylor Hanson from... Hanson on vocals*. I was so excited to learn about this band because it was this joining of forces around this specific type of pop-rock that I absolutely love, but isn't for everyone. Sadly, the album didn't really stick with me, even though I REALLY wanted to like it. Apparently the band had discussed making another record, which I still would have absolutely listened to. It's sad that never happened.
*I can't say I'm a fan of Hanson's music, but I do have respect for them continuing to put out records this far into their career and being committed to pop-rock. Lifers.
I found it touching that this band reformed as a bass-less three-piece to perform for this night.
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