Gaining Ground Above the Banalities of Life

I feel like I have just been to outer space and back. Or as one friend described it, as though I just experienced a lifetime of emotions in two hours. I would agree, and say that I just experienced the most painful and the most ecstatic feelings of life all in the same moment.
The occasion was Godspeed You! Black Emperor! a show that I never anticipated on seeing in my lifetime. They were broken up before I ever heard of them, so to see them live in Vancouver was a once in a lifetime experience.
The show took me on a roller coaster of emotions, back through time in my own life when this music was the only solace I had during a deep depression. While GYBE!’s music hardly needed any additions, their choice of entertainment couldn’t have suited them better. Each of the band’s dark, melodic compositions were carefully highlighted by a series of images projected through an old-school film projector. The images were obviously chosen with care to highlight the mood of each song. The set opened with a simple projection: Hope – reminding us all why we were there. Peaceful images from a summertime road trip provided the backdrop Storm, while more dystopic images such as decaying buildings and junk yards were chosen to highlight the climatic anxieties of songs such as Static.
Though the images reflected the inherent consciousness of the songs they complemented, I also felt there was a certain continuity that could be drawn between all of the projections. A deep sense of nostalgia for a more simple, less chaotic world seemed to tie all the projections together. Whether images of protestors juxtaposed with the stock market, or a grainy shot of daffodils blowing in the wind, the images allowed us to experience the mundane realities of life through a romantic lens.
The image that had a most lasting effect on me, is also one I see frequently. The shot of a power pole captured high in the sky with no relation to the ground. Just a simple pole and transmitter, set against a fading sky. I’ve wondered as of late why this is such a popular image. You see it frequently, especially in photographs from Vancouver photographers. Why this fascination with such a mundane piece of everyday reality? Well, as mundane as the transistor seems, it also offers us a symbol of hope. Light after darkness. Power to help us find knowledge and escape reality. It is so everyday, yet so extraordinary at the same time.
Perhaps I am just as guilty of painting a romantic glaze on the banalities of life, but isn’t that what art is for? Perhaps that is what GSYBE attempts to do with their music. Heighten the emotions of the everyday so we can remember to live, so we can remember that beneath the ordinary lies the extraordinary. It’s time to re-awaken our souls so that we can peer a little deeper and remember why we are alive, and what makes life worth living. Whether it’s to enjoy the inventions of modern man, or to take a drive to that far away place where wind blows the daffodils into stillness, there is so much beauty in the world not worth forgetting. Tomorrow I will wake up and try to remember that, but if I can’t on my own, then I can always reach for my ipod to help me get through the day.
Tonight, GSYBE helped me to remember this and I will go to bed feeling a little more at ease knowing there is so much beautiful simplicity to look forward to when I wake up tomorrow.