April 19, 2020 — Yesterday, I happened upon a story, a response to my constant Google search — when will the world get back to normal — with the article at the top of the search results saying this is the second-most commonly searched term in the trends right now. I’m not sure what number 1 is because for me, there’s nothing more important. I watch a lot of news. Many experts on the news say we must get used to the new normal. What is that? Nothing being open? Nothing ever to be the same? Personally, I’m not accepting that, but then again, I’m not one who can accept that things can’t go back. And while I’m on that subject, what does need to go back to the old normal? Concerts.

I get this email notification from something called Bands In Town. I don’t even know why I get it. A couple of days ago, it said there was to be a live stream on Saturday of pretty much everyone — Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, those are the ones I remember. What it was people all seem to know about. It was a concert to benefit the World Health Organization put on by Lady Gaga, and I use the term concert loosely, very loosely. In actuality, it was a collection of one song each from a variety of performers, all in their respective houses. One World: Together At Home, they called it.

I watched a few individual performances on YouTube. Sure I’m not normally one to be negative, but most of these performances were not even adequate. These major stars seemed so half-interested. Honestly, I suppose I was expecting to see so much more; I wanted to see the star-magic they have, like it’s some secret thing that’s even present when they are at home. But as it turns out, it just seemed like these stars were the same as anyone with the skills to play music playing at home. There was no magic. And I really didn’t even like the houses. Okay sure, it’s fun to know these famous people are making songs for us to pass the time while the pandemic thing continues to roll on; it’s good to know that Mick Jagger has the ugliest draperies I’ve ever seen, but this concert was so vanilla. I guess, like many things, for a concert to work for me, it has to have the energy of a concert. If this is the new normal for concerts, I’m going to be hard-pressed to find anything I like.

I did kind of like the Rolling Stones; well actually I kind of liked Mick Jagger. And I kind of liked Taylor Swift. So I’ll go with those two, but I did find myself wondering what was going on with Charlie Watts and the air drumming, and I think Keith was asleep, or drunk; notice the mug of beer on his coffee table. Mick carried the song, Ronnie Wood too, but the participants on the right side of the screen weren’t feeling it. And Taylor? Honestly I was distracted by her bangs and her darker roots. I kept wondering if she is growing out her color. With that much distraction, I can’t say I loved these performances, but they are the best of what I have seen from the One World At Home concert. Again, concerts need to be concerts. At least for me they do.

Now back to the Google search: when will we go back to normal? It can’t be soon enough for me. Then again, I keep hoping that when I wake up, this all will have been just a bad dream, all the sadness, the death, the sickness, the economic disaster, the uncertainty, and worse, the complete and fundamental change to everything. Perhaps it is hard for me — who in my youth had the freedom to attend general admission concerts, and the crazy-factor to rush to the front to be in a collection of hundreds of people pressed up against barrier wall to see my favorite musicians right up front — to take that this is a modern concert. Times are supposed to get better, more prosperous, more safe. Yet the new times pale in comparison to the times of my youth. I really do want the new normal to be that. Normal.