Believe it or not, this post isn’t a homily (though I’ll have one again soon).

Last night, I got to see a band live that I’ve been waiting to see for over a decade, Public Service Broadcasting. In 2013 and 2015 they released two albums that I listened to on repeat: Inform-Educate-Entertain and The Race for Space. I first heard their music on NPR’s Tiny Desk concert series. Their newer music is just as good, but these two albums really got me through in various ways.

You’ll notice that I haven’t told you what genre these guys play, because I don’t think I have a good answer to that. It’s technically British rock, but it’s melded with electronics and archival footage sampling to produce something like if the Foo Fighters had a weird baby with The Avalanches. I think you just need to listen to some of it, to be honest. That’s kind of the whole point of this post, I suppose. I took a couple clips of two of my favourite songs: “Spitfire” and “Gagarin”.

The crowd was definitely my kind of crowd, too: it skewed noticeably older and nerdier. Everyone was super chill, and very enthusiastic. Lots of British ex-pat accents sprinkled throughout the fandom. Truly a lovely group of people gathering together to rock out. I even chatted with a couple who’d flown down from the Yukon to attend this concert.

I want to share that this music is significant to me in two major ways. First, I wrote a lot of my PhD thesis with PSB on in the background. They chugged me along to complete section after section, and to stay awake and focused during long nights.

Second, I have no idea how you’re meant to exercise when you have cancer. I’m really impressed by those who do, but I was mostly limited by a biliary port for much of my treatment. However, when that came out, I was at least able to sit behind my drum kit. And let me tell you, trying to keep up with these albums was a workout. Even now I’m having to rebuild my body very slowly, but drumming is something I can do with fervour (even if it’s a seated exercise!). PSB’s drummer, known mononymously as Wrigglesworth, shares my sort of sentiment for much of these rhythms, and his beats feel very natural to pick up.

That’s really all I wanted to share. To say “music is important” is pretty banal, but when you get to go chat with the fellows that made it, something happens. Cancer pretty well eliminated my ability to go hear live music for a good two and a half years. I’ve been to two concerts since entering remission, and my body still isn’t really ready to stand for several hours. I woke up with a charley horse at 2:30a that still hasn’t gone away. And yes, I’m taking magnesium. It’s just going to keep taking time to recover.

The other part of this, as you’re all looking at your Spotify and Apple and whathaveyou year-end summaries, is that I hope you’re also seeing various bands posting about how much money they make off streaming. Companies like Spotify could afford to pay artists WAY more than they do, it’s really quite laughable how few pennies are earned per stream. So go hear live music, buy records and merch (not in an ultramaterialist way, don’t outspend your budget folks), and maybe send an email to a band you like letting them know that the art they make matters. Rant over.