The Adnostic

One thing that I could not help noticing while I was at Bumbershoot was all the parents and their kids. Now Bumbershoot is a relatively kid friendly event compared to other music festivals, but it isn't exactly Disneyland either. They have a kid's science activity area and allow people to play in the fountains, but that's about it. Otherwise the programming is somewhat adult.

I saw parents sitting with their kids and grooving to the New Pornographers or dancing with them on their shoulders. I witnessed the lead singer from Of Montreal freak out over the fact that there were five year olds in the audience and asked them to use "earmuffs" as he continued to drop the f-bomb. While we were waiting for Atmosphere to take the stage on the last night, the father sitting next to us in his Piston's jersey broke out a mini-DVD player and earphones for his daughter to watch Toy Story before and during the concert. When did this start happening? When did a cutting edge music and arts festival become a normal avenue for family bonding?

Never before in history has it been so easy for people to stay on top of what is cool and trendy than with today's internet culture. Today's parents are choosing to not trade in their sneakers for a pair of loafers or their low-slung designer jeans for a pair of Gap chinos. They are redefining what it means to be a grown up and how to act their age. Sure, their maturity grows over time just the same as it always did, but they've begun to realize that they don't have to put away the trappings of their youth anymore. It is no longer uncool to be the one creepy old fart at an MIA concert because there will probably be at least a dozen other matures there with you and one of them probably brought their five year old with a pair brightly colored ear protectors at the ready. These are Grups - adults who are not ready to accept the traditional characteristics of adulthood and are still sensitive to pop-culture.

As an old co-worker once put it, "Your thirties are just like your twenties with more money." And young parents are incorporating what they enjoy into family together time. Just because you gave birth doesn't mean you're dead or that you suddenly don't enjoy the same things you enjoyed nine months before, and although little Johnny may not be able to truly appreciate Death Cab for Cutie just yet, but he'll learn and it's a damn sight more enjoyable than listening to the Wiggles non-stop every car ride.

These grup offspring may be just along for the ride right now, covering their ears to the strains of "Spanish Techno" or being more interested in the movie or the people behind her than the two rappers on stage, but that's temporary. These children will eventually appreciate the performances they go to and probably at a much younger age than you or I. But then what? Here you have an eleven year old who thinks hanging out with her parents at a show with The Rapture is an awesome night out, but do you really think that s/he will still feel that way in a few years once puberty sets in? Children naturally require an outlet for rebellion with the onslaught of puberty. How will they establish their independence and self-possession from parents who think that getting your eyebrow pierced or a wrist tattoo is kind of cool. You know that they're going to find a way to push mom and dad's buttons and when they do it's not going to be pretty.

What is the future for these kids? For these parents? When is that Misfits t-shirt going start looking way too dated on that middle-aged body? Will their kids join the Young Republicans while their parents shake their heads and hope that it’s just a phase? What about drugs and alcohol? Will the trademark grup tendency to treat and talk to their children as equals circumvent any travel down a path deemed too dark? Will adult hearing loss one day reach epidemic proportions?

In the mean time, I foresee an increasing market for youth sized band merch, kid-sized earmuffs in bright funky colors, hearing aids, kid-friendly rock bands and concerts, child/parent "time out" areas concert venues both small and large, and unobtrusive GPS tracking/paging systems for when kids get older and want to head off to another stage on their own.

As for myself, having kids is not a high priority at the moment, and it may very well be that I never procreate, but as we were exiting the Main Stage after the New Pornographers, I looked at The Zen Master and said, "If we ever do have kids, can we be the kind of parents that take our kids to places like this?" He smiled, looked back at me, and said, "Of course we will."

Grups together forever.

[all photos (except one) courtesy of Dave Shea]