Last night, Joe and I went to see Mucca Pazza at James Park in Evanston. We met up with some friends and had a picnic under a cloudy sky, which the forecasters said would soon yield us some sun before nightfall.

Wrong! The crazy punk circus riotous music seemed to conjure up the darkening, swirling clouds, and the crowd’s attention slowly turned from stage front to skyward. It was hard to stay present with the music with the storm gathering overhead, and eventually we gave in; the music swelled and got even crazier as the storm exploded in thunder and lightning and rain and everyone jumped to their feet and grabbed their stuff - it was hilarious and scary all at once!

And yet, I didn’t feel all that scared. It was so fun! I felt like it was just a big adventure that we were all in together, and the music was our score. It was a total riot. Sharing that moment with everyone had me feeling very connected with the crowd, with the community. We were all there together in that moment, under that crazy sky, with that crazy music. It was awesome.