That's how John Adams thought Independence Day would celebrated (albeit no the 2nd of July), and we did our best yesterday, going for one last year [1] to the Denver Outlaws lacrosse game at Mile High Stadium, followed, as always, by a big fireworks show.
The show had a series of vignettes up on the Jumbotron with accompanying loud music. It was actually a bit less martial of a display than usual, it seemed to me, though there were plenty of bits focusing on the Things That Go Boom and Our Brave Fighting Troops — but I remain hopeful that, someday, I'll actually go to a 4th of July fireworks show that focuses on the Declaration of Independence. [2]
I mean, that's something distinctive about the holiday to me — not that it's the date of a major battle, or even the signing of a peace treaty, but that it was about a political statement, an expression of ideals. War would come (was already ongoing, in fact), but Adams wasn't calling for celebration of the Continental Army's bravery, or how spiffy American-made muskets were. He was celebrating that act of "independency," and the principles behind it.
Figuring out how to express that is maybe a bit harder than finding a country music singer music video warbling about the sacrifices of American soldiers (for which we also have holidays already set up), but I'd be game to see it.
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[1] We were there mainly because Katherine's HS band performed the National Anthem at the beginning of the game. As this is her last year …
[2] Ironically, there was one Jumbotron pan across a document of the era in one of the music videos: the US Constitution. Which is a fine document, surely, but, again, not what the 4th of July commemorates.
So it wasn't the Triumph of Will (US version), that has been in the past, interesting. I'd be curious as to why the change.
Ours (City of Westminster) had the usual US Uber Alles music (and thankfully no Lee Greenwood), but that was about it. The best seats were in the Beer Garden (as we learned from last year) and it was a fun little show.
For the two hours beforehand we had a fun Tower of Power/Earth, Wind & Fire-esque local cover band that was pretty damn good and had all of the energy (8 folks in the horn section alone, and they were dancing the entire time).
+Stan Pedzick No, that aspect felt a little toned down. Not gone, by any means, but not quite as much that way. Arguably more during the game than after.
We did get a John Denver "Rocky Mountain High" number, drawing from that drone photologue that was making the rounds a month or two back. That was nice.
I was terrified going in we might get a "Make America Great Again" rendition, but someone was smarter than that.
The Wash Park band
http://www.washparkband.com/
Not sure about weddings, but for a huge crowd in a park they were pretty damn good.
And looks like 3 of the 8 I thought were in the horn section up front were in fact the vocalists (we were off to the side almost parallel with the front of the stage.