Yesterday we went to McCabe's, the legendary guitar shop, music school and acoustic venue in Santa Monica. Farmer Jason, the alter-ego of the former lead singer of Jason and The Scorchers, was doing a kid's show. His album, "A Day At The Farm With Farmer Jason," is one of the leading documents of a musical movement that must be called, for lack of a better term, "indie rock for kids." It's a concept album of sorts, with the conceit being that Farmer Jason tells kids about the different animals on his farm, and then he rocks out about those animals.
We learned of the concert from Greg, who is the father of Elijah's school friend Sean. Greg is in a kid's band himself, a charming folk outfit called The Hollow Trees, which, according to its legend, is led by a banjo-playing squirrel. Sean pretty much matches Elijah in the adorableness column, except that he's a lot calmer. He and Elijah saw each other and instantly started bouncing. Soon, they were chanting "Farmer Jason! Farmer Jason! Farmer Jason!" even though Elijah, at least, had no idea who that was. This became clear as we waited in line for the box office to open. Elijah pointed to various photographs in McCabe's display window.
"Is that Farmer Jason?" he said.
"No," I said. "That's Jimi Hendrix."
"Is that Farmer Jason?"
"No, that's Robert Johnson."
"How about that?"
"That's Elvis."
"Who are these guys?"
"The Beatles."
"The Beetles?" he said. "Those aren't Beetles."
"They are men who called themselves The Beatles. They were a band. Some people say they were the greatest, but I prefer the Rolling Stones, at least up to 'Tattoo You.'"
"I want to see The Beatles!" he said.
"We'll rent 'Yellow Submarine' sometime."
With that bit of fatherly wisdom imparted, we went to the show. Farmer Jason was perfectly good, but he talked too much between the songs for Elijah, who soon got twitchy. I couldn't understand why.
"Because," Regina said, "you've played nothing but loud guitar rock for him since he was a baby. Now anything that's not completely crazy bores him."
"Oh."
"You've created a 3-year-old punk-rock snob."
Of course, Jason Ringenberg is an authentic punk-rock icon. But to Elijah, he was just a guy in a red-checkered shirt and a straw hat who was encouraging kids to "do the doggie dance." While Sean sat nicely, Elijah removed his seat cushion and started walking around, letting everyone know that it was, in fact, a "salami pizza." The music simply didn't move him. However, at one point, Farmer Jason mentioned that he was about to sing a song in the style of Johnny Cash. Elijah heard this and his eyes brightened. He began to clap.
"Yay!" he said. "Johnny Cash!"
Regina and I exchanged a knowing, prideful look.
© 2007, Neal Pollack