Playback: Longwave – “Tidal Wave”

The Fab Four, December 2007

I am always amazed that while I often have a hard time remembering when to use “its” or “it’s”, I can still remember the first time I heard a certain song.  This is a prime example of this phenomenon.

Everyone seems to have that one summer that they always remember.  It is hard to top that summer, and usually we tend to forget about all of the bad things that may have happened and exaggerate the good things.

However, I can say without exaggeration that 2002 was the best summer of my life.  Other than football practice, I had to obligations or commitments.  My evenings were spent driving around Wheeling with Dominic, Ben, Adam, B.C. and whoever else decided to tag along.  At the time, we thought we were being cool, cruising the strip with the top of Dom’s Jeep down (in retrospect, we were, in fact, not cool at all).   Typically, we would cruise around looking for something to do, and when that inevitably failed, we would head to the Wheeling Coffee Shop where we proceeded to act cooler than we were while attempting to drinking multiple cups of sub par coffee (I didn’t develop a love for coffee until many years later, though I tried my damndest to drink it as much as possible because I though that’s what the cool kids were doing).

I had some of the most eye opening conversations in my life that summer.  I learned more about the group of guys that would become my best friends than I could have ever imagined.  We all had big goals in life and plans to get out of “the Valley”.  Coincidentally, this was the summer that I realized that we were much different than the majority of the people our age.  It seemed that all that these people ever wanted to talk about was girls and getting drunk, which seemed a bit odd to me.  It also seemed that whenever someone found out that I spent my evenings with a bunch of guys drinking coffee and listening to music like this I was immediately heckled for not being “man” enough (whatever that means).

I didn’t care though; I looked forward to these lazy summer evenings more than anything else at the time.  I wasn’t concerned with meeting girls or boozing in a field somewhere.  The feeling of the wind rushing past my head and the smell of fresh cut grass as we drove circles around Wheeling was exactly what I wanted.

Which brings me (finally) to this song.  I remember Dom telling me that had a new band that I needed to hear, and that he would pick me up in an hour.  At this point in my life, I was in my punk rock phase, and I was fairly certain that this new band wouldn’t quench for thirst for something fast and loud.  However, as we drove around, sun setting, music blaring, I was mesmerized.  Even though the quality was terrible (this was long before any of us knew what “fidelity” was), I was instantly hooked.  Longwave was the perfect blend of garage rock and melody, a refreshing sound that I wasn’t expecting.  I was floored at the new discovery, and didn’t think it could get any better.

As the summer began to wind down and we all prepared to return to “real life”, it seemed that every deep conversation and poignant moment of those final days was set to “Tidal Wave” playing in the background.  Though on the surface the lyrics are simple – a guy expressing his feelings for a girl – they embodied much more to us.  The tidal wave meant responsibility and growing up, facing real life, and making decisions that would impact the rest of our lives.  It stood for a time that we were all together, and, most importantly, happy – “all the little things that once could make me whole”.  We longed to “feel it again”.

Seven years later, a funny thing will occasionally happen.  Inevitably, I will be sitting at my computer, unable to sleep because I have something on my mind.  As if iTunes senses that I need to talk, this song will come up on the shuffle, and remind me that though my best friends are living in places from Boston to L.A., they are always a phone call away.  I never mention it to them, but having a conversation with them about the most pointless of things, along with this song, helps me forget about being an adult for a while.  For those three minutes, I’m a nerdy high school kid, having the time of his life with his best friends, and I don’t have a care in the world.

–J.W.

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