closure [ˈkləʊʒə]n
1. the act of closing or the state of being closed
2. an end or conclusion
3. Chiefly US
a. the resolution of a significant event or relationship in a person's life
b. a sense of contentment experienced after such a resolution
A month or so after Mike passed Brady came over to the house with an unopened 2 terabyte hard drive. He was very tranquil when asking that I pool together all of the recordings I had assuring me that there was no particular hurry. He was extremely busy archiving any existing audio and video for the Family and would end up going on multiple national tours with Kristoff Krane. As daunting as it felt to collect everything I had on 4 separate hard drives I knew it was an important task that needed to be done but the procrastination began. Everything was still too fresh and the last thing I wanted to do was sit down with hours of Mikey related recordings. I would tell myself that I was busy with work, recording shows or whatever my excuse would be that week...as weeks past.
Finally yesterday I sat down and began going over a list I had made last winter. I had 2 internal drives and 2 external drives to go through. It felt productive and I started to really get into it. I soon realized that instead of filling me with even more sadness the process actually filled me up with happy memories of Mike and the times all of us shared together. Coming across certain recordings would remind me of a joke or an anecdote Mike told in the green room for example. I kept seeing his huge smile flash across my mind over and over. I began to hear his laugh. I'll never be able to forget it nor would I ever want to. The mannerisms he would use while telling stories came flooding back as if I had talked to him yesterday. For an instant he was alive in my room. From behind my shoulder I heard "Hey Johnny, you tapin' tonight?!" I turned around in my chair but of course no one was there. I guess you could say for a split second I was expecting him to be. Suddenly any happiness I initially felt turned into sadness and then into anger. I was angry that he wasn't with us anymore but I couldn't let that trigger another bout of procrastination.
The external drive everything was being loaded onto was extremely fast so I just kept coping and pasting, coping and pasting. Eventually I had compiled 54 gigabytes of .WAV and .FLAC audio. Some of the groups represented are; Abzorbr, Carbon Carousel, Eyedea & Abilities, Face Candy, Guitar Party, Hyder Ali, Kristoff Krane, Mel Gibson and the Pants, No Bird Sing, Oliver Hart, Puppy Dogs & Ice Cream and Sector 7G.
I tried the best I could to include sets even if Mikey only sat in for a song or two et cetera. The goal was to locate every recording I had made during the last 4 years of his life and soon that goal was being realized. It all lead up to the October 9th 2010 Guitar Party performance at The Cedar Cultural Center as part of Bill Mike's Modern Guitar Festival 2. A while back I had given Jeremy a copy of this recording and it's my understanding that this was the last public performance he took part in. It means more than words to me that there is a document of it no matter who's responsible. At one point Mike was encouraging Mijah to dance. He could sense that she was a bit scared (if that's the right word) of performing in front of so many people but he assured her that she was doing a great job and the Rock show continued. The tears came back but then an eerie sense of closure came over me. Not having him in the room anymore will never feel right no matter how many recordings I dig up but it does feel good knowing that my contribution to the Micheal Larsen Archive is with his Family now.
This past year I've been receiving emails asking if I would repost old recordings. The interest is no doubt greatly appreciated but at this point I really don't want to do anything without the Family's permission so please understand and respect that. I am certain that more of these recordings will be made available given time.
The new Face Candy album Waste Age Teen Land as well as many other releases are available on micheallarsen.com.
