I just slept for 12 hours straight and the ringing in my ear has finally subsided so I guess that means I've recovered from my last Shearwater gig of the year. Although the guys still have more than a score of shows to play, I am done, but only because my wallet will spontaneously combust if I attempt to spend much more on travel. So unless I win the lotto in the next few weeks, this is it. I'm still trying to comprehend that. I'm also trying to fathom how I managed to see them 15 times this year yet I wouldn't hesitate to do it all again.
Despite the expense, all the sleep deprivation, the myriad discomforts of travel by plane, train and bus, all my anxieties, and every other thing that I had to deal with over these days and miles, it was all worth it. Because when I would finally catch up with the guys I got hear them play. Even soundchecks had moments that destroyed me, like hearing Jonathan belt out Nibelungen in an empty room. And when the audience filled the place and Shearwater took the stage and played, everything else became irrelevant and ceased to exist while the music shook the very fabric of that space in the universe. But eventually the show had to end and I had to come back down from the lofty heights of transcendence because you can't live there indefinitely, anymore than a climber can stay atop the mountain he labored to scale.
I hung out with everyone until we finally had to part ways, and since it was inevitable that my 2012 Shearwater run had to end at some point, at least it ended on a really fucking good note.