I'm traveling as a roadie for a heavy, Soundgarden-like post-grunge band, complete with goatees and dyed-black hair and Meaningful But Dark Music. Their most popular song, however, is a cover of Juice Newton's "Queen of Hearts," which they perform in a very slow, dramatic, and grindingly loud fashion.
I watch them play this for a few nights in a row, and it soon becomes clear that the kids in the band's audience have no clue it's actually a silly pop-country top 40 hit from the early '80s. They think it's an original song imbued with lots of mystical symbolism. I'm tempted to run onstage, grab a mike, and tell the truth, but I decide it's funnier to keep them all in the dark.
