SOULOVE UNIVERSE- Friday, April 10th at MOUSETRAP
http://www.myspace.com/souloveun...

My good good good people of Indianapolis and beyond,
This is my summarized train of thought as I watched the SOULOVE UNIVERSE show:

Music begins.
I start to think about all of the things that are good. This leads to me thinking of other really good things. I think of more good things and without even realizing it, I am smiling. Why am I suddenly smiling…Oh shit, another song. Other good things begin to get thunk. Now my feet are doing something. And my body and my head. They are all smiling. And I am floating on a gigantic bubble of fucking nuanced sound so fine and forging that it blows out all of my bad and replaces it with nothing but nice good happy good shimmy good yes happy smile right-on good yes nice right right and then some yeah! This time a fuck yeah! With some feeling. All involuntary. Now it’s a fuck yeah and a really quite impressively loud whoooohoooop. Like a Lynyrd Skynyrd kind. I forgot about how much I enjoy belting out a whoohoooop when it is appropriate. Another great song. And I’m not even done Wooohooping from the last one. Yeah! All right again. Another one, and a sort of mildly calm sigh and a smile. But this one is because I am seeing for the first time all of the beautiful women everywhere. Dancing. Gloriously so. What was in that flood? I see all of the beautiful people now. And the link between them and the red and black engine churning out music on stage, and they are all beautiful too. I watch as a horrifically ugly person walks in and becomes immediately beautiful as the music enters their earhole. This is pretty cool. It actually makes me laugh, but I get my kind of humor. It is still going and more songs erupt and dissipate and fill the room with sonic soothing, but I have to use the facilities. Why is my bladder not bigger. I can still hear it all and that makes me smile. Everyone is pretty serious in the toilet. But you know…
The door opens occasionally and the music swells with each swing. A quick flush. Smile. The door opens and a burst of pure, unspoiled R&B pulses across me. How are they doing that?

In the middle somewhere during a short musical break I think of something unpleasant. I think of Dick Cheney. But then, another song starts…I don’t even know which one, probably that Tina Turner song, and I think…Man, you are front and center at Dick Cheney’s nightmare. Soul Love Universe. More uncontrollable smiles.

I’m not the only one in a good mood. There are tons of people there. Maybe 6000, and they are all just as insane with joy as me. It is like some kind of spastic unknown force of tickle, rippling up through the floor around the wastes of everyone and it won’t stop tickling. Not a pee your pants kind of tickle either. It is the kind that will stop when you are out of breath and lets you get up and dust off. It will even go get you a freezepop from the kitchen. Then when you are done with the freezepop, another song starts and you are so happy that they started another song, that you just are like…Fuck! That’s an even better tune! What the fuck? They are playing instruments like other bands I’ve seen before, and they are singing and such. But it isn’t like other shows. People are moving in rhythm to the music. They are putting their hands up and they are dancing…wait. Everybody is dancing pretty well. Even a couple of the white people. It is soul food. What is coming out is like butter that isn’t fattening, and power that isn’t corruptible, and charm that isn’t informed by polls, and I think at one point I get a vibe of moxy. Bits of bliss and the band is still pumping it out, and the voices singing in four part harmony with soul, and the bass brimming with life and power and the keys teasing a snicker of glee and the guitar chugging out riffs of truth and the drums keeping it all nearly perfectly centered in a groove of assured syncopation…I am at ease with it all. One more fuck yeah! Why are they doing this. It is almost mean. I mean, how could they keep this from us and only bring it out on Saturday night. This should be breakfast, lunch and dinner for all. Everyday. Well, OK, maybe not everyday. Raisin bran is good too. More songs, more good, more wanting more, no one leaving. Everyone hoping for it to keep going. How can it end. It is too good. It is going to have to stop…it does. How could it. It’s OK. It is good. It is still good. It isn’t ever going to be bad. 25 songs later…and I want 28.

Soulove Universe

Your Pal,
Darren Strecker
The Mousetrap, 56th and Keystone. 255-3189
All the best Jam bands play the Trap. NO COVER!!
http://www.myspace.com/mousetrapbar