What the articles don't mention is the strange process that takes us from liking the music to becoming one of these nomadic fans. Since most of my non-Haggis Head friends think I've completely fallen off the deep end, I thought I'd take a moment to write about my experience of Extreme Fandom.
What happened to me first was the music, or rather the magnetism of the whole live performance. After a day at my first Irish festival, listening to a series of derivative and monotonous Celtic rock bands, I was pulled to the front of a surging crowd as an entirely different kind of band took the stage. I found myself jumping, clapping, and shouting along to a surprising mix of bluegrass, jazz, blues, prog rock, Caribbean, and alternative influences, somehow melded with the bagpipes, fiddle, melodies, and storytelling sensibility of traditional Celtic music. It's a little embarrassing to think about now, but I could barely speak coherently after that show. I scoffed when a then-stranger (not so much a stranger anymore) at the merchandise table told me I should come along on their trip to Ireland, but, well, I've already mentioned how that turned out.
When I saw that they'd be playing an hour and a half away, I went, and that show turned into another, and another. I started meeting people - other people who showed up at multiple shows and seemed to share my penchant for driving considerable distances for live music. I checked out the website and found a fan forum where there is discussion of a wide variety of topics, band and otherwise (which I rarely check anymore, as its function has mostly been replaced by FB and chat, but I digress). I started meeting people before the shows for dinner, and hanging out afterward, then carpooling, then crashing at their houses and sharing hotels. If you show up a couple of times and talk to people, you start getting invited to the after-show brunches, and the mass camping for festivals. We've wiled away late nights chatting, been there for each other in crisis, spent holidays together. I've made good friends and traveling companions.
No offense to the band - they're fantastic musicians, of course - but it didn't take me long to start traveling, not for them, but for my friends. What the media doesn't mention is that we don't so much "follow the band around" as use their performances as the center of social gatherings with a great soundtrack.
The energy of the shows is kind of addictive. The exhilaration is definitely a break from the humdrum of the everyday, which is probably part of why we keep planning our gatherings around their shows. But there are other bands that provide that - many of whom I've come across through my ETH-related travels, and a couple of whom I've also been known to trek long distances to see. Maybe other bands have groups of fans like this too, and I just don't know about them, but the Haggis Heads seem to me to be peculiar. We are a found family, wacky and dysfunctional, and usually not living entirely in harmony with one another, but a family nonetheless.
As it happens, I am on a bit of a Haggis hiatus at present. The money, time, and drama involved has gotten to be a little much. I've seen the band so many times now that I take the performances for granted. I've been a little disillusioned with them as of late. I need a break (which will probably not last long). Despite the respite I need at the moment, I don't regret the last couple of years of mania. Good times, good music, good friends, a little infamy...what more do you want?
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