walk straight, talk straight...

this past friday i went to see a local band "the soul miners" play at a little bar down the street,
this band is pretty awesome, they have amazing musicians and a great singer, and play really soulful classic R&B music,
once they get the crowd into it, people really seem to let lose, and just have a good time, i went early this time and got to lay witness to this transformational process of the crowd, and this really got me thinking...

i came upstairs before the band started, there were about 10 people in the bar total, i got the first seat at the bar, the other 2 groups of 5 were sitting at their tables, a bit of a mixed crowd between local townies and college kids, of different ages, mainly all white folk at first, though the crowd went to about 30% black as the night progressed....

when i first got there everyone seemed pretty uptight, there was little interaction beyond the groups that people had came with, everyone seemed to be doing their best to walk the straight lines they had been taught to walk, and afraid of getting shunned or looked at funny if they stepped out of this box...

when the band started playing, people started head bopping around a bit, singing along, starting to get into it, of course as the more beers progressed, the more shots were poured, eventually some people got up to dance,
there was one girl who went up to dance early, hadnt seemed to have much to drink, she was trying really hard, but looked like she had watched one of those how to dance on tape videos, she really didnt seem to be at peace with herself at all, a few girls that joined her started getting into it a bit, and they drug a guy that was with them out, you could tell he was apprehensious about going, he tried to get into it, but was really stiff, another guy standing next to me snatched the hand of a girl who was bopping along and took her to the floor, they started moving really freely to the rythm and seemed to be into it, of course the 3 rounds of shots i had seen him purchase, and the 2 tall vodka tonics she had had were playing a pretty good part in that...

before you knew it, more and more people, myself included, had had some more drinks, and got intoxicated by all the music and the atmosphere of others getting into it, as well as the great music, and we were all dancing along, it was a really cool transformation to witness, but one thought kept going through my mind, that these people really looked at peace, right with theirselves doing this, and why was it that they couldnt just do this all the time, why couldnt they even just do this earlier this night, before the rounds of alcohol, and the hours of great music, why was it that only after this could they let themselves feel so free......