This Wednesday I'll be going to see Yo La Tengo at the Singletary Center in Lexington. I'm pretty excited because I haven't seen them in a number of years and haven't seen any shows to speak of since we moved back to Kentucky (after being spoiled by the decent music scene of Columbus, OH and the outstanding music scene of Athens, GA). And YLT are, more or less, my personal heroes. Here's a group that has managed to survive as an "indie" band for at least 17 years without selling out, blowing up, or falling apart; a band that has stayed artistically interesting for their entire careers -- no descent into repetition, nostalgia, or self-indulgence; a band that seems never to have been seduced by the lure of Rock Stardom, but simply remained true to themselves and their music. I'm sure I'm romanticizing what has probably been a grueling and at times disheartening career path, but I find the continued existence of Yo La Tengo to be one of the few positive signs of the viability of not just music but art itself in our culture. Viva YLT!