It's funny to know what certain artists/groups endure just to make it to the spot they're at today. I could probably name a few such entertainers who've taken the road hard travelled and have not elevated to places they never imagined when they were simply trying to get by.

Years back, the Cold War Kids were playing small, I mean small spots just in order to get their name and music out to people who might not otherwise have known their music. A few of my close buddies played a house gig with these guys, back in the day, and they said that the group sounded good but were super aloof.

Well, fast forward eight years or so, here I was in a hallway with the Cold War Kids' road manager and a couple of the guys and all I could think about was what my friends had said years previously. Now, mind you, these guys have played a few shows in our Valley over the last three to four years but this was their largest stage, in the Valley, Grizzly Fest.

Since most people never pay me any mind, it's easy to be mistaken for one of the "help" per se. If you've seen Pulp Fiction, you'll understand that I come from a long line of Wolf(s), I'm sent in to make sure people feel comfortable and things are in order.

Now mind you, this festival didn't have a million dollar production budget and sound wasn't that of a Coachella just to name a festival but what it did have was people, people who were there to see a band play for an hour or so and be entertained with their performance.

Again, I don't know what happens to people who become successful seemingly overnight that they no longer care about the music, the fans, the interaction; maybe after the 1,000th time of playing Hot Coals or Desperate Drive these guys collectively shut down any emotion and truly become Cold Kids, no war or fight in them.

I digress, back to the picture. It's probably my fault for liking this band despite the warning of my friends but there was something special about the night that caused me to walk up the ramp and onto the back side of the stage and take this picture. You see a group which I liked was in town and for a moment their backdrop was my city, my friends, and many acquaintances, within the crowd, and that was cool.

Will I ever want to see Cold War Kids again, probably not but again that's tied to a mindset that they've made it and they don't care about their fans, they just want to get paid, play their songs, and not interact with anyone because well, that's what real musicians do these days.

For one night though, for a span of two minutes, I was reminded that through the bullshit, music is still key; as I turned away from the stage and slowly limped back down the ramp, I remembered something my mother has said to me more than once, "All the fingers on our hands are not the same for a reason, they each have a different job to do..."