We all need our writing music.

By that, I mean the music that puts us immediately in the mood to create.  It’s the music that helps us to clear our mind and to focus on figuring out how best to say what’s on our mind.  I think, like most writers, I have a lot of different writing music.  The music that I listen to depends on what I’m trying to write.  If I’m writing about my boyfriend, I’ll listen to EDM.  If I’m writing about my health, I’ll go with the Run Lola Run soundtrack.  If I’m writing my childhood, I often tend to use Britney Spears and Coldplay as my background music.  If I’m writing about current events, I’ll use Muse.  If I’m writing about something fun, I’ll go with Saint Motel.  Both Moby and Bob Dylan work for when I’m writing about history.  I’ll listen to Adi Ulmansky if I’m writing about my best friend.  When writing about Texas, I’ll listen to someone local, preferably from Denton.  When it comes time to write about Canada (and by Canada, I mean Degrassi), I go with Jakalope.  For any movie about New York, it’s Blondie.  If I’m trying to impress everyone with my maturity, I’ll listen to something classical.

And if I need to listen to something that I know will make me feel happy and that I know will leave me feeling as if there’s nothing that I can’t accomplish, I’ll listen to The Chemical Brothers.  And 9 times out of 10, I’ll probably listen to their 2007 performance at Glastonbury.

Originally airing on BBC Three, The Chemical Brothers At Glastonbury 2007 captures Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons at their best, energetically performing in front of a enthusiastic audience that refuses to allow a little torrential rain to keep them from experiencing The Chemical Brothers live.  Towering over the stage is an astounding graphics display and, as the duo moves from song to song, the images on the display tell a hypnotic story of their own.  Colorful shadows of men with guns and overcoats appear to stalk each other before dancing.  3-D shapes spin with the music.  Strobe lights briefly illuminate the night sky.  At one point, a clown appears and repeatedly orders the audience to “Get Yourself High,” and occasionally it seems like a suggestion and other times it seems like an order.  Sometimes, the clown appears to be friendly and other times, he appears to be almost threatening.  The clown is my favorite part of the show, though I’ve had others tell me that they find the image of it to be creepy and disturbing.  My friend Jason shouts, “GODDAMMIT!” whenever I present him with the Get Yourself High Clown and, as you can probably guess, I usually find just about any excuse I can to trot the Clown out.

But the graphics wouldn’t mean anything if not for the music and, as always, Tom and Ed put on an amazing show.  The frequent cuts to the overjoyed (and soaked) audience only adds to the communal feel of it all.  The transition for Get Yourself High to Hey Boy Hey Girl to Song of the Siren to All Rights Reserved represents everything that makes The Chemical Brothers great.

As I write this, there are apparently a lot of people trapped by the weather at Burning Man.  I hope the best for all of them but, for me personally, I think the only festival I need is Glastonbury, especially if The Chemical Brothers are on the bill.