When Anna mentioned Spirit Family Reunion was interested in filming a session for the project I could do nothing but smile. I’ve loved the band ever since I first saw them play last year; their music instills in anyone listening a certain nostalgia for a time long past, and the energy and enthusiasm they project when they perform further inclines — obliges, almost — us to stomp our feet, clap our hands and get up and dance.

Adam and I were invited to film them perform in one of their apartments, a walk-up in an old building just near Prospect Park. We made our way in through the massive marble-lined lobby and up to their place. When we entered the apartment we were immediately greeted by guitar strumming and conversation. The band was crammed into the tiny living room, a row of bikes hanging just overhead and a big bookshelf housing records hiding a makeshift bedroom just behind it.

Their rendition of Sonny & the Sunsets’ “Too Young To Burn” honors the original in a way that only Spirit Family Reunion could, as do the cheers and claps from one of their roommates who is listening in from another room. I selfishly wanted to ask them to play a few more songs, but instead we reluctantly packed up and left them to prepare for a show they had later that night

I caught myself humming the song well into the next few days, unable to shake it. “Too young, too young” is a thought that naturally echoes in our heads with this project, but in this context the song conveys something even more: that idea of being stuck in between old and young, as many have also been caught between war and peace and home. These spaces and times in between are where we all live, and those moments we consider endpoints are, in retrospect, what actually make up our lives. Whether you’ve had a busy day before, or have a late evening ahead, these moments crammed in a little room together with friends are moments to celebrate and to be present in. They are some of the many homes we can find along the way, the music reminding us that it’s the journey itself that is the destination. — Sarah