Love is the Law

If you were anywhere near the Twin Cities in the mid 80's you must remember The Suburbs. You know, as in "Rattle my Bones" and "Love is the Law"? The ones who attracted a crowd with peroxide dyed hair that fell very perfectly over one eye and wore black t-shirts with a line up of what looks like Lego Star Wars figurines...remember? It was in some supper club type joint with deep red banquettes that I cannot recall the name or location of that I smoked my first clove cigarette (and it was inside said joint with the red banquettes!!! gasp) and danced to the music of The Suburbs in a mosh pit of sweaty people before the "mosh pit" even existed. Or maybe it did, but I certainly never had any exposure to it being cocooned deep in the real suburbs.

It was dark, smoky, and loud as we were under the watch of my friend's older ninth grade brother who distributed the cloves and told us to beat it. There were three of us 7th grade girls decked out in our black t-shirts and Guess jeans and we danced our tiny junior high butts off to one of the greatest bands to ever come out of Minneapolis. I will never forget the feeling of freedom that night gave me and I wish I was able to relive it again tonight with what will no doubt be a huge crowd of 40 somethings shakin' their thangs remembering the good old days of junior high and clove cigarettes. Not much has changed since then other than the fact that you can't buy clove cigarettes anymore, and even if you could you certainly couldn't smoke them inside. We all may have a few more gray hairs and a wrinkle or two, but the ability to dance, sing at the top of your lungs, and enjoy music the way we used is something that never goes away. Now we are just sore the next day...

The Suburbs will be rockin' First Avenue tonight at 7pm. And it's only $20 bucks a ticket. Go shake your thang...