I am now proud to announce, that my mother is the coolest woman over the age of 50 in Toronto.
Last night my mother went to a black/heavy metal (featuring Chimaira) concert at The Opera House (toronto). Why, do you ask? Well, first off because she’s just too damn cool. But let’s start at the beginning.
My brother (khashayar) is 17 (almost) and passing through the teen metal stage of his young life. But as with most things there is a certain cerbral approach to why he does things. He’s turning into quite the musician himself, both composition-wise and in terms of playing. However, i can’t say i share his taste in music. I started him off with the good old 70′s rock like zeppelin and black sabbath and then he took off on his own.
Anyways, he listens a lot of weird bands with even weirder names, the kind of music that makes TOOL sound like pop music. But still the music is … ‘interesting’.
So, both my mum and brother are night owls, and usually around 2 or 3 at night, my mum goes over to his room and they talk, since this is one of the few times in the day when he is more talkative than not. So apparently last week their talk was on his music. She was wondering what the heck he sees in this music.
So after a few hours of talking and listening and my brother explaining the intricacies of his music (my mum knows a bit of music since she plays tanbour and seh-tar), and then going over the lyrics of this stuff, apparently she was converted.
I should have seen it coming. She is actually a fan of TOOL, because she really likes their beats; she says it’s really good for meditation or sama (she’s a sufi). So this was her first attraction to this kind of music, the big beats and the drive of it.
So then she drops this bomb of a news on us a couple of days ago, that she has purchased tickets to go see one of my brothers bands last night (wednesday); seeing some band called Chimaira (opening act Motorhead, or Metalhead, or something like that). At first i thought she was joking, but then it turns out that she’s serious.
Her reasons? First of all, i want to understand and appreciate my son’s taste in music, and secondly, it will be a cool experience, and i really like the beats! Well, what do you say to that?
So she went last nite. Apparently she was the only person over the age of 25. She said as she stood in line, everyone was staring at her, and everyonce in a while some young youth, drssed completely in black, with makeup possibly, and with more than the natural number of holes on her or his face would ask her “why are you here?”, her answer invariably .. “for the same reason you are !”.
Apparently by the end of it all, she had made quite a few friends. Also she said that ” i dont know why they kept using the word ‘fuck’ so much, but by the end i figured it was some sort of term of endearment!”.
So what is next in line for my Heavy Metal Mom? Deep Purple next week!!!
Gotta love that woman.
