Hope I die before I get old...

...so goes the famous lyric from The Who's My Generation.

I was one of about 1200 or so people in attendance last night at a rock concert by Paul Westerberg. Westerberg, for you youngsters, was the frontman for the Replacements, a seminal punk/alternative band that came out of Minneapolis during the early 1980s. Along with Husker Du and Soul Asylum, they took over the mantle of American punk rock from the likes of the Ramones and Television, before yielding to the Seattle-based grunge movement a'la Nirvana and Pearl Jam.

Last night's show was at the Newport Music Hall in Columbus. It's a pretty decent place to see such shows...it's dark, dank, and they serve a good variety of legal beverages. What struck me about the show and the crowd was the average age of those in attendance. Westerberg is now 45 years old (same as me!) and the crowd was clearly in the same age range. There were a few younger fans there, but most were old punkers and folkers like myself. The security team didn't have much to worry about with the aged crowd and thus, were able to keep a tight lid on outrageous behavior (only one body surfer was able to do his shtick and only a brief whiff of illegal herbs permeated the area in front of the stage where I was located) . Overall, Westerberg's performance was typical: hard-rockin', a few muffed lyrics, and loads of fun.

This all got me to wondering about the business of rock-n-roll today. With the concern over lost music sales due to illegal MP3 downloads and an aging music audience, it seems that touring has become the lifeblood of a band's existence today. The grandfathers of rock-n-roll, the Rolling Stones, most of whom are in their early 60s, still tour and regularly are one of the top draws on the circuit. How long can these guys last? Makes me wonder if someday I'll see Paul Westerberg and Bob Mould strumming their guitars on a Carnival Cruise.