Remake/remodel/revisit?
As did many of my friends, I saw the first appearance of The Three O'Clock in some twenty-five years on "Conan" last night. I found myself in conversation with several people who saw the show and then asked me if I had any plans to reform The Punch Line. This topic comes up every few years. It's nothing bad; it's certainly not offensive, off-limits or a touchy subject with/for me.
It's been at least 25 years since The Three O'Clock were a going concern; the same can be said for The Rain Parade who have reappeared, The dB's original line-up took about the same length of time and so on. Even The Del Lords have returned to the fold after a 23 year hiatus.
At this particular time, it's only been 7 years since the last version of The Punch Line parted company. And I do not have any contact with anyone from the band. It isn't by virtue of any negative feelings - there are none. It's simply that no one has stayed in touch with one another and I don't think it's been a priority in anyone's lives.
We've all grown up and moved on and forward and are immersed in our own situations. We're all married, have children - the others do, anyway - and are living in a later-stage adult real world. That I'm even fortunate enough to be involved in any kind of musical activity - as peripheral as it is - is a blessing and a joy. I'm older and I savor every good thing in my life and that still includes in great numbers all I do musically, whether it's writing for online music journals, writing and recording songs or preparing for an acoustic show - it is done with love and a sense of greater understanding and perspective than I had before.
Along with that notion goes pride - I am the first to ashamedly admit that I had not been kind to my former bandmates over the early years of our dissolution - I let emotion cloud rationality and allowed myself to be no less antagonistic/spiteful as my bandmates had been - I felt - towards me. But like all bad things, time healed the view. And so that negative pride of being hurt became a positive pride over the few small things we'd done. That's how I look at The Punch Line now. We were a great band; at times, I felt (especially in some rehearsal instances) that we were as good as, if not better, than some of our contemporaries and some of the bands we admired. I love some of the songs we recorded. I can listen to them, not as the person who wrote or performed them, but as a listener and for pleasure.
Whatever regrets I once had - like the never-to-be-released original version of "...to get to the other side" disappearing forever - have evaporated. We did what we were supposed to do the way it was supposed to be. That's just life unfolding naturally. And at this juncture in our lives, we're all strangers.
So, hypothetically speaking, here's how I view it - and I'm doing my utmost to maintain objectivity: if any one of the other members were to get in touch with me (I'm easily accessible; I do have web presence) with an eye on getting together - even for a one-off - I would certainly listen. I would have some simple requirements:
- who would the line-up consist of? The '86 - '92 version or the '04 - '06 version?
- what is the objective and motivation?
- how serious would the eye toward rehearsing be?
Beyond that, I would not let my imagination get away from me by thinking too far ahead. And my answer would have to be a "yes". This is not arrogance, just fact: The Punch Line is my band. I named them; I wrote and own the majority of songs; I was the lead singer and frontman - I did the work necessary. So a Punch Line reunion could never happen without me. Again - not said in obnoxiousness.
I don't think that any one of us has The Punch Line on their radar; in its own way, a sleeping bear should be left alone, rather than poking it with a stick. I know that very often on, when a band gets back together, it's under best case scenarios, but the old hurts and resentments tend to rear their heads. It happened to us. Being closer to 50 now, you can see how ridiculous and petty it is. So an exercise like a reunion would also have to be me at my absolute most disciplined in not getting sucked into any mire of bad/negative vibes - the past is the past and it really has no place in anything. I've certainly learned from my mistakes - and for matters much deeper and more important than a rock band that I was once part of. Objectivity and discipline would have to be s.o.p.
So would it happen? I'm being honest - I doubt it. If any of them were interested and reached out, I would be more inclined to see if we could find common ground for conversation before tackling the concept of "band" again. But you never know.
It's been at least 25 years since The Three O'Clock were a going concern; the same can be said for The Rain Parade who have reappeared, The dB's original line-up took about the same length of time and so on. Even The Del Lords have returned to the fold after a 23 year hiatus.
At this particular time, it's only been 7 years since the last version of The Punch Line parted company. And I do not have any contact with anyone from the band. It isn't by virtue of any negative feelings - there are none. It's simply that no one has stayed in touch with one another and I don't think it's been a priority in anyone's lives.
We've all grown up and moved on and forward and are immersed in our own situations. We're all married, have children - the others do, anyway - and are living in a later-stage adult real world. That I'm even fortunate enough to be involved in any kind of musical activity - as peripheral as it is - is a blessing and a joy. I'm older and I savor every good thing in my life and that still includes in great numbers all I do musically, whether it's writing for online music journals, writing and recording songs or preparing for an acoustic show - it is done with love and a sense of greater understanding and perspective than I had before.
Along with that notion goes pride - I am the first to ashamedly admit that I had not been kind to my former bandmates over the early years of our dissolution - I let emotion cloud rationality and allowed myself to be no less antagonistic/spiteful as my bandmates had been - I felt - towards me. But like all bad things, time healed the view. And so that negative pride of being hurt became a positive pride over the few small things we'd done. That's how I look at The Punch Line now. We were a great band; at times, I felt (especially in some rehearsal instances) that we were as good as, if not better, than some of our contemporaries and some of the bands we admired. I love some of the songs we recorded. I can listen to them, not as the person who wrote or performed them, but as a listener and for pleasure.
Whatever regrets I once had - like the never-to-be-released original version of "...to get to the other side" disappearing forever - have evaporated. We did what we were supposed to do the way it was supposed to be. That's just life unfolding naturally. And at this juncture in our lives, we're all strangers.
So, hypothetically speaking, here's how I view it - and I'm doing my utmost to maintain objectivity: if any one of the other members were to get in touch with me (I'm easily accessible; I do have web presence) with an eye on getting together - even for a one-off - I would certainly listen. I would have some simple requirements:
- who would the line-up consist of? The '86 - '92 version or the '04 - '06 version?
- what is the objective and motivation?
- how serious would the eye toward rehearsing be?
Beyond that, I would not let my imagination get away from me by thinking too far ahead. And my answer would have to be a "yes". This is not arrogance, just fact: The Punch Line is my band. I named them; I wrote and own the majority of songs; I was the lead singer and frontman - I did the work necessary. So a Punch Line reunion could never happen without me. Again - not said in obnoxiousness.
I don't think that any one of us has The Punch Line on their radar; in its own way, a sleeping bear should be left alone, rather than poking it with a stick. I know that very often on, when a band gets back together, it's under best case scenarios, but the old hurts and resentments tend to rear their heads. It happened to us. Being closer to 50 now, you can see how ridiculous and petty it is. So an exercise like a reunion would also have to be me at my absolute most disciplined in not getting sucked into any mire of bad/negative vibes - the past is the past and it really has no place in anything. I've certainly learned from my mistakes - and for matters much deeper and more important than a rock band that I was once part of. Objectivity and discipline would have to be s.o.p.
So would it happen? I'm being honest - I doubt it. If any of them were interested and reached out, I would be more inclined to see if we could find common ground for conversation before tackling the concept of "band" again. But you never know.
posted by R L Ross at
2:11 PM
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