Rock 'n' Roll Tragedy

Back in September, a student at Wesleyan University set herself on fire with a flammable accelerant on the edge of the school's athletic fields. Her suicide note held a lyric by the band Stars, "When there's nothing left to burn, you have to set yourself on fire" from their song Your Ex-Lover Is Dead.

The lyrics to their song also advise "Live through this and you won't look back," but a suicidal college student isn't likely to pick up on that nuance. Stars cancelled an appearance at Wesleyan scheduled for a few nights later and donated the cancellation fee to charity. They played the Variety Playhouse in Atlanta last Friday night - despite good intentions otherwise, I didn't go. Not because of the tragedy, which I hadn't heard about until after the Friday-night show, but because I had to work through the weekend.

The Swell Season, who experienced an on-stage suicide when a man leaped to his death onto their stage during a concert in California last August, are offering free grief and trauma therapy to anyone who witnessed the act.

As it turns out, Charles Haddon, lead singer for Ou Est La Swimming Pool, didn't jump off a communications tower after a festival performance out of self indulgence or drug-induced delusion. Apparently, he had performed a stage dive during their act and landed on a young woman, seriously injuring her. She was taken away in a stretcher to an ambulance. Haddon had been told that she would be paralyzed for life, and guilt stricken, sobbing, with his head on the floor, the grief got the best of him and he ended his own life for what he thought he had done to her's. In actuality, the young lady is expected to make a full recovery.

Finally, Russell Lissack, the lead guitarist for the band Bloc Party, was recently bitten by a lion at a South Africa game preserve. On top of that, while he was in the hospital, it got quarantined after two men died from an unidentified virus during his stay there. You may need to get vaccinated before going to a Bloc Party concert.

I bring up all this suffering only as a reminder that even fame and fortune do not provide any respite from the First Noble Truth.