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Daniel Smith
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2021-11-26T20Indie Rock Amid a Pandemic
My first major break from the COVID-19 pandemic was attending a concert. I saw Houndmouth perform at the Vogue theater in Indianapolis on Nov. 26, 2021. I flew home for Thanksgiving from AZ to IN and my friends invited me to see one of our favorite bands. I thought, well I've already had so much exposure to other people on this trip, what more could this outing do? I felt safe enough to put myself out there maskless for the first time in a year and a half. November of 2021 was a significant lull in the number of COVID cases, likely the downturn from the Delta variant. I was glad to get out for this experience because barely a month later the Omicron variant hit nationwide and discouraged us from such outings for a few more months. The concert was an absolute blast. There was a recent change to the band's lineup after their new album Good for You came out. I got to stand right up front with loud bass, thunderous drums, and some very good friends I hadn't seen in a long time. It was like a literal breath of fresh air to "get back to normal" even though we'd be masking back up once again for about another year. Since I was coming from the Navajo Nation where I teach high schoolers, our mandates and regulations were far stricter than Indiana's where many folks had enough of the rules and ditched their social distancing and mask early. Returning back to the Rez, I had to resume conforming to tight regulations, especially in my classroom.