Many of you will have no idea who I am talking about, but I learned today that Lance Hahn, the singer for the band J Church died yesterday of complication related to kidney disease; he was 40 years old.
For those of you who know me, music has always been a big, important part of my life. And one of my favorite bands of all time has been J Church, a group found by Lance Hahn, who was formerly in a band called Cringer (I loved Cringer, too; they were one of the bands that played at the first punk show I ever went to.). Throughout the 1990s when punk rock broke and major labels were swooping in to pick up any punk bands they could get their hands onto, Lance Hahn stayed independent even though he was offered various major label deals. He stay true to a different value system in relation to music and people, one that valued art and human beings above money and the commodification of music. He stayed true to these ideals up until the end.
I got to meet and talk with Lance Hahn on numerous occasions over the last 16 years, each time being when the band was coming through Tempe or Phoenix. He never came across as some rock star or arrogant ass (probably because he knew he was not a rock star and never wanted to be one in the sense that the term has come to mean in our culture: a larger than life idol). He was always interesting to talk to, laid back, and completely approachable. And i know that numerous people have had the same experiences throughout the years at J Church shows.
Some might find it interesting that I would be so into Cringer and J Church, given that much of what I am about does not line up with Lance Hahn's worldview. Lance was an moderately outspoken atheist; I am a Christian. Lance was an anarchist with Marxist sympathies; I am not an anarchist nor a Marxist, but a Christian with hope in the Kingdom of God. Despite these and other dissimilarities, what Lance Hahn was saying through J Church still meant a lot to me and here is why. Though our worldviews were different and our ideas of what might be "solutions" of ways of approaching the myriad problems in the world, Lance Hahn was able to express and describe many of the problems, longings, joys, and fears that human beings must endure while on this earth. Even if I didn't always agree with the direction of some of his lyrics, I could almost always relate or empathize with him. Simply put, he could express with words and music what life feels like.
This is a broken world with many problems and many people who both hurt and are hurt by each other. J Church music for me helped describe these problems and helped me--and I am sure many others--see that we are not alone in the clarity. Also, Lance Hahn was a voice that pointed to many injustices in the world that people perpetrate on others and was willing to say quite loudly that such situations and behaviors are not right....and was willing to put his money where his mouth was in the process, not something most preachy bands are willing to do. Again, while we may not have agreed on a worldview or how to approach many different aspects of life, I always appreciated the solidarity in Lance's music that said that this life can be hard, but there are ways to stand up and make it more beautiful.
So, tonight I will listen to some J Church albums, do my homework, say prayers for Lance Hahn's friends and family, and mourn the loss of someone who was able to express things that I felt but was at a loss to know how to say them. R.I.P. Lance Hahn (Feb 15, 1967 to Oct 21, 2007)
