This isn’t really a blog post. It’s more a love note to a band and an expression of gratitude to the universe.

No music has ever influenced my spiritual or creative self more than Dead Can Dance. Whether it’s their original albums or Lisa Gerrard’s solo work, I return to them year after year. They’ve been a huge part of my life since I thought I was going to be a painter, when I was a poet, and now that I see myself as a novelist. A crush gave me their Passage in Time collected hits album, and while he’s long gone from my life, Dead Can Dance has forever lingered. When my grandmother, the closest family I’ve had, died, I listened to Lisa Gerrard’s Mirror Pool album until I could contain my grief and board the plane. When I drove to Delphi to see the ruins of the oracle, I listened to a mix of their most ethereal songs.

I never thought I’d see them live. They ended their collaboration not too long after I discovered them. If you asked me to name one group I’d pay nearly any amount to see live, Dead Can Dance would be my instant answer. But a reunion tour has come together, their second that I know of (I simply couldn’t manage the first as they didn’t come anywhere near Denver).

So I’m going to Dead Can Dance tonight, in the city I’ve made my home, on my birthday, and I couldn’t ask for a better gift.