I left the office for lunch today. I know, I know, pity the martyr. But we’ve been busy ’round these parts, and it’s easy to forget just how gorgeous the weather is in September when your face is permanently glued to a computer screen. So instead of eating my leftover pasta and updating my Google reader, I went downtown to see my favorite Portland band, the Shaky Hands, play in the grass outside my former high school. And now, more than ever (we are a bit late) I think it’s pretty apropo to post “We Are Young,” the first single from the just-released Lunglight.

The Hands have always been an exuberant, young bunch; their songs burst with an energy and passion that many people just can’t touch. After getting over the initial awkwardness of being on Lincoln’s campus for the first time in, like, three years, I was sold the minute Nick Delffs began stomping in the sun and belting out the opening verse of “Fire in the Western World.” Looking around, most of the kids seemed stuck in their own world, either unaware of nonplussed that a freaking BAND was playing on their lunch break. But you could see it in the eyes of those who were into it, this widespread shock at witnessing such a momentous event, of having a band willing to share their art on the grounds of a public high school to kids who, for the most part, couldn’t name one of their songs. Though it’s not like the Shaky Hands weren’t grateful, singing autographs and even asking if they might be able to score a free cafeteria lunch after the gig. “Thank you so much for coming,” Delffs said. “Thanks for coming to school.”

“We Are Young,” like most of Delffs best songs, captures that same awestruck moment that each of the kids in front experienced. At a brisk, steady 2:14, it boils down the essence of being young, of living in the moment and trying to grasp everything in a world that is constantly in flux. “And we will soon be old/ but for now we are young/ always knew you were the one/ to live my life with your looooovveee,” Delffs sings, his voice almost cracking as he attempts to keep up with the rest of the band. Lunglight was recorded live in an old wherehouse with very limited overdubs; in fact, bassist Mayhaw Hoons told me that most of the vocals on the record were laid down straight to tape. And despite its breakneck pace, “We Are Young” maintains this elegant, galloping urgency. If only I could have seen something like this when I was 16.

Download audio file (weareyoung.mp3)

Links:
The Shaky HandSpace

Photo courtesy of the Shaky Hands