The Sway

By Jules McVey, Wicked Rae's

May 17, 1995, I was 13 years old when I saw the music group “Live” perform in Sacramento, CA with my older sister who was 16, and her friends. It was one of my first grunge concerts that forever left its mark on my soul. Not my memory. My soul.

Less than a month prior on April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, with a Ryder truck, killed 168 people (19 being children) in Oklahoma. I remember my mom trying to shield me from the front page of the newspaper the following day that had the firefighter carrying the body of the child covered in blood. I’ve never forgotten that image.

The room where the concert was held was hot, dark, and the smell of sweat and alcohol was my first taste of freedom and remains one of my strongest nostalgia core memories.

Ed Kowalczyk was, and remains, the lead singer of the band.

There’s something special about this moment in time (that day in 1995).

Younger generations will never know, or feel, what it was like to jump up and down while sweating and screaming and swaying with strangers that were suddenly kin when the voice from the stage brought us back to the moment.

One arm in air. Lighters lit with a sway that was automatic. Known. Safe…making the room hotter as we all held our breath so we’d not miss a beat of what that voice was about to say.

I remember looking into the sea of lights flickering in the darkness, at my sister, then back to Kowalczyk as he told us to close our eyes, drop our heads, and hold that silence for all the souls lost on that fateful day.

It was like the lighters were their souls as that silence transitioned into “Lighting Crashes.”

Visceral. Raw. No cameras. No phones. Just silence. Tears. Love for strangers. A moment.

The group, Live, was formed in the 1980s. Though they weren’t from Seattle, they were instrumental in the alternative rock movement that helped shape and define grunge.

As soon as this song begins, I time travel to that moment.

Do you time travel too?

This is the first blog to welcome our 90s limited series workshops.