The Casual Guitar Sesh

This past week it was a lovely weather outside, the sun was shining, and it was warm. I decided to spend my lunch outside with a few friends. I noticed other students were conversing, eating, and taking a breather from library binge studying. I was on the corner when two guys come out of the school building with two guitar cases, and what appeared to be an amplifier. They were both dressed as they came on a time machine, and you can tell they aren’t just some ordinary hipsters from Brooklyn.

These guys had a different flow to them; one of them was wearing a button down shirt with the peace sign on his back. His hair was long which reminded me of the drummer from Nirvana. The other friend was wearing a Ranger’s jersey and Mets hat. I did not catch their names so for the sake of this performance review they will be called Ranger & Nirvana. They began to unzip their guitar cases, Ranger took out an old school acoustic, and Nirvana brought out a sleek black electric guitar, which he then plugged into an amplifier beside him. As Ranger was tuning his guitar, Nirvana kicked off with a simple track I recognized instantly called The House of the Rising Sun by The Animals. Once Ranger finished tuning, they both started to play a melody, and at that point, I wasn’t sure what it was. By this point, they already had a crowd of listeners, and a girl sat next to Nirvana who appeared to know them began rolling a joint.

I finally chimed in and asked if they could play Sunshine of Your Love by Cream. Nirvana did not even hesitate to reject my request, and they began playing the first few notes that every classic rock lover knows. It made me feel good the fact that in this new generation music likes this is still very much evident. When I was younger, I used to play piano, and since I was 13, I would have rather preferred to learning guitar just of how convenient it can be. The last song I heard them play was Don’t Fear The Reaper by Blue Oyster Cult, which they played together as a duo. It seemed to me that they would jam together often just of how they complimented each other in their duet, it made things a lot better. I was unable to continue listening to their performance together because I needed to be in class. However, when I think about it now, I enjoyed it very much because it made my day that much more peaceful.