Two weeks ago I saw a concert that moved my heart outside of my body. Music, poetry, theatre doing things to me I couldn’t quite handle. I felt an overwhelming amount of love taking over me and everyone around me. Stories brought up tears from deep down and laughter louder than ever.
Tank and the Bangas was a name still pretty new to me. Nearly two years ago, while living in a snowy cabin on Vancouver Island, my dear friend Bob sent me their Tiny Desk show. "She reminds me of you", he said. It was the sweetest compliment I've ever heard. I listened to the 23 minute concert a gazillion times, but never really watched it. Singing along, doing other stuff while her stories coloured the background.
It was only until I saw them play live, right in front of my eyes in a park in Brussels, that I realised what magic this woman and her band were capable of doing. No day has been the same ever since. If you think I’m talking about a regular music concert, you’re wrong. She is a colourful powerhouse fairy, a wonderfully weird clownish theatrical poet with an angelic voice.
Words can’t even describe what this woman did to me. I questioned everything after that. One hour of mind blowing madness left me bewildered, drenched in sweat and inspiration, motivation. Knowing: I can be a better person than I am today. Am I living life to my fullest potential? The answer is no. After experiencing Tank and the Bangas, I know there is so much more to explore. To live, to act, sing, write, be!
I played the Tiny Desk show again. This time, I sat down and watched it like a movie. It was the day after a week of festivalling, so that might have helped but my eyes were pouring tears, endless salty waterfalls on my cheeks. She is such a beautiful, crazy lady, embracing her weirdness like I have never seen. I feel that too, the Mad Hatter, the Alice in her Wonderland, the crazy, strange, weird living inside of me. I’m already a weird human, I realise that, but I have never dared to embrace that weirdness. That potential to be myself 100%. Have I ever been myself one hundred percent? Have you?
What potential awaits within you, ready to take over as soon as you give it that last little push? What fire can set your soul alight if only you would spark that flame? How truly wonderful could life be if you would dare to set your freaky, weird, crazy, loud, hilarious self free?