It’s hard to talk about music right now. The location of this show makes it even more difficult. For those who may not know Los Angeles lost one if its sons early Sunday morning as Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, and eight others, including his 13 year old daughter Gigi, perished in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, CA. Kobe is most known for his on-court exploits in the ’00s when the Lakers first moved from the Forum to the Staples Center, but for a few brief years he took the court at the Forum, and so his spirit lingers there too.
The right thing to do now is to tell you about this show, that The Strokes, one of the most important modern rock bands, and possibly the only band of the past two decades to contribute anything meaningful to the rock canon. To let you know that they’re playing the Forum on 3/14 and will doubtlessly provide a great show to thousands of people who grew up wanting to be Julian Casablancas because he was just too cool.
But none of that feels right now. Those of you living in the city will understand, but the whole world is gray right now. There was no single person as unifying for this city as Kobe Bryant, it’s possible that no one was as important to basketball as a whole. It will be strange, going to the Forum or Staples center to do anything now, at least for awhile.
Perhaps the biggest thing to take away from this tragedy is that nothing is promised, even for the most deified of us. Being a legend couldn’t keep Kobe safe, so who is to say that any of us can count on being here tomorrow. So hug your friends, cry with your loved ones, and go to the goddamn show.
Kobe was always about moving forward, about not settling for what you have done. Kobe wouldn’t want us to just sit around and weep for him. So we move forward, into a grey city that slowly but surely gives way to flashes of purple and gold.
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