Freaks and Geeks Episode 6
"I'm with the Band"
Original airdate: Nov. 13, 1999
Writer: Gabe Sachs, Jeff Judah
Director: Judd Apatow
Cast: Linda Cardellini, John Francis Daley, James Franco, Samm Levine, Seth Rogen, Jason Segal, Martin Starr, Busy Philipps, Becky Ann Baker, Joe Flaherty
Freaks and Geeks has a weird relationship to dreams. Because it ended after only one season, there's no way of knowing where all of these characters ended up after high school, so all we get are outsized ambitions. Will Neal get to be a comedian? Will Nick get to be a drummer, or at least work in some way in the music industry? It's unlikely. But who knows?
One thing that strikes me whenever I watch "I'm with the Band," the most Nick-focused episode so far, is that, for someone who's never had a lesson, he's not a terrible drummer. He's not a great one, or even really a good one. He lacks tightness and control, he can't keep things steady when things go sideways, and he also seems a little too showoffy for someone who's still an amateur. He wants to be Neil Peart, but Neil Peart didn't start out as Neil Peart. He banged on household objects until his parents bought him a practice kit and paid for his lessons. He grew his skill by relentlessly throwing himself into it, long before he ever discovered the style and the band that would make him a legend, inspiring numerous boys in basements to manically hammer away at a drum kit that's way bigger than they need.
In "I'm with the Band," we see how much the freaks view music as aesthetics first, talent and artistic vision second. Nick uses a light show and dry ice while banging on his 29-piece drum kit to emulate a Rush gig even though he can't stay on beat with the live album he's listening to. Daniel insists, "Rock and roll don't come from your brain. It comes from your crotch," which may be true to some degree, but also nobody wants to fuck a guitarist who can't get through a single song correctly, at least not if they're trying to be Cream and not the Ramones (about whom Nick opines, "The Ramones only play like three chords"; Daniel responds brilliantly, "All right, so I'll learn another one").
They argue about the band name before any of them can stay in tune or on tempo. And, in the funniest and most egregious example, after Lindsay infuriates the freaks by telling them they should practice more, she says, "God knows Zeppelin only plays half of ‘Stairway to Heaven' and The Who never even practices 'Teenage Wasteland,'" only for Ken's takeaway to be, "The name of the song is 'Baba O'Riley!' It's on Who's Next!" This is a common issue with music geekdom that I've been taken in by plenty of times. Song and album titles, the image of the music presented by album covers and publicity photos, and factoids you can spout out to show off your knowledge get the center of our attention, and the actual craft is dismissed. Ironically, Lindsay's attempt at recentering the band onto the art makes the others consider her a geek who doesn't know anything about true rock and roll.
But Nick doesn't have the luxury of being able to throw in the rock and roll towel, because he's struggling in school, and his strict military-man father has decided that, if he can't maintain a C+ average, he'll have to join the Army. Nick doesn't believe himself capable of getting his grades up to a level that satisfies his father. Perhaps, like Daniel, he has a learning disability that's not being addressed, with him instead viewed as "not trying hard enough" (his dad's words). He's not cut out for school, and he's certainly not cut out for the Army. But as Lindsay points out, one of the first things Nick told her when they met was that his drums are his reason for living. And, still operating on the assumption that the world is fair and just, and that passion alone can make you thrive, she convinces Nick to audition for the band Dimension, a popular Detroit band that is way out of Nick's league (even discounting talent, why would a legitimate band who opens for Jethro Tull hire a high school kid who may not even be able to play some venues?). On a normal teen show, this would be the moment where Nick proves his dad wrong, aces the audition, and gets on the right track to become the next Neil Peart.
Freaks and Geeks is not a normal teen show. Nick fails the audition, in the most embarrassing way possible. It's not merely that he can't keep up, but that he visibily caves under pressure. He's not good enough. "I suck, Lindsay," he says. He explains how much he can feel the music inside of him when he's sitting at his kit, how he can envision himself playing arenas. But this isn't reality. At this stage at least, Nick is not ready for primetime, and he won't be before his father forces him to join the Army. Lindsay, wanting to fix the situation as is her wont, kisses Nick, and then finds herself suddenly in a relationship. Does she actually want to kiss him? Or did she just feel bad for him and want to remedy the situation in whatever way possible? Either way, I don't imagine Lindsay was desperate to jump into a relationship with the dude who, strung out on non-alcoholic beer, tried to unhook her bra. Sometimes, you find yourself on a train that won't stop, and rather than admit your own helplessness, you make decisions you normally wouldn't. Lindsay wants to help, to be a good person, and sometimes this desire comes at the expense of her own comfort. She's not stuck with him forever, but she will soon learn that breaking up is hard to do, especially with Nick Andopolis.
I have to stretch a bit more than I usually do to connect Nick's story to Sam's, but I suppose it's also about being forced by an authority figure into doing something you don't wanna do, and trying to avoid the inevitable in any way you can. The geeks find themselves in the throes of the Presidential Fitness Test (which is back in the news; wild watching this and realizing that a new generation of geeks will be humiliated by this bullshit). One of the rules is that they now have to shower after gym class. Sam's anxiety over publicly showering are akin to body dysphoria (or, dare I say it, gender dysphoria), to the point where it bleeds over into family dinner. His parents insist he should be proud of his body, and even force Lindsay to tell him how beautiful it is, to which she goes wonderfully overboard ("Sam, you have a beautiful body. You're an Adonis. A slab of beef. If I wasn't your sister, oh my god!").
Sam tries to avoid showering by wetting his hair, hiding in a bathroom stall, and faking being sick. And once he finally gets up the courage to take a shower, Alan locks him out of the locker room without his towel, and soon Sam is running through the school halls, completely naked (soundtracked by Madness' "One Step Beyond"), an action that is misinterpreted by the other kids as streaking. Cindy even congratulates him on his school spirit, a major backfire for Alan. Still, I can't imagine this experience not being one Sam thinks back to constantly well into adulthood and cringing. Everyone has those moments. One of Freaks and Geeks' true accomplishments is its refusal to shy away from it, and letting viewers know they're not alone.
Grade: A
