Tonight was the show I was waiting for. But I wasn't waiting for what I thought I was waiting for. (This will become clear to you very soon.) I thought I was waiting to see Toots and the Maytals for only 7 bucks, with Ben Folds and some other band playing. What I ended up with was an amazing experience.

Ben Folds, live, for 7 bucks.

I gotta say, he knows how to put on a show. And countless others before me have praised his songwriting and musicianship, so I won't go there. Anyway, if you know what I'm talking about - if you've seen him live - then I need say no more. And if you don't, there's really no way I could explain it to you. Ben Folds brought us all together - yes, even the drunken, obnoxious Vanderbilt students - we all stood there, together, and sang 3 part harmony while a guy who reminded me of a young Dr Emmitt Brown jumped up on his piano and waved us on.

To be fair, Toots was awesome. Nobody knew who he was, which made me a little sad. And these guys next to me (guess where they went to school?) would not shut up while he was playing. They had very important things to talk about. They had to be heard. I'm really glad I didn't get into any trouble with them. At the same time, I almost wish I had.

In other news, I think I'm getting very close to a research topic. "Nostalgia as the driving creative force in popular music" - there are countless examples. (I will now name some for those of you who are still with me.) "Still Crazy After All These Years"; "El Condor Pasa" (and most of the rest of the Paul Simon catalog); "Rusholme Ruffians" (again, most of the Smiths catalog); 90% of the music produced in the 1950's; any song that contains the words "I wish" or "I would" or any other subjunctive language (which, if you think about it, is a hell of a lot of music). Even in rap - "December 4th" by Jay-Z is a prime example. And I noticed it in a lot of the stuff Ben Folds played tonight.

Nostalgia takes such a beating from everyone - maybe because it's overused - but realistically I think it's something that resonates universally among us. We've all made mistakes ... we've all said the wrong thing at the wrong time. And just about every songwriter uses it. (It's there in poetry, too, and literature in general. But I'm no expert on that. I just like Dylan Thomas.)

The funny thing is, sometimes I miss the times that really sucked. You know what I mean? "Man, those were great times. I had absolutely nothing going for me and I was miserable - but man, if I could only go back there, just for a second ..."

Of course, this wouldn't be about me without an awesome contradiction. I don't believe in dwelling on things that can't be changed. Like the past, or how many licks it takes to get to the chewy center of a Tootsie Roll pop. (Who thought of those, anyway? "Let's take this strange, turd-like candy of ours and put it in the middle of a lollipop. The kids will love it!!") You can imagine the fights I have with myself about these kinds of things.

And so I wonder - why is nostalgia something I identify with so strongly? The answer is embedded in the music I love. In studying it, I've amplified those feelings in myself. Or maybe that's a load of crap. I think I'm trying too hard to make some kind of a point here. I think the song I've had looped for the past 20 minutes can make that point for me, a song that said like no other, "This is the dawn of a new era":

Once there was a way to get back homeward
Once there was a way to get back home
Sleep, pretty darling, do not cry
And I will sing a lullaby...