All About the Bass, or How the Boy Broke my Car

Over Labor Day, the Boy went to Bumbershoot, a three-day live music event at the Seattle Center. There, he learned what a bass drop is. I am not sure I can explain it, but it is when the music revs up to a point and then a large bass beat "drops." He said he could feel the bass in his whole body.

"You can't get that from listening to music with headphones," he said.

"I hope not. You would blow your eardrums out before the rest of your body would feel it," I said.

The next week, we had an hour-long ride home from his soccer game. Jack was working, so it was just the Boy and me in the car. We drove my car, which is a 2003 Lexus ES, which has what I thought was a decent stereo system. They Boy was tired and a little cranky, so on the ride home we listened to music instead of talked. When he mellowed out, we started to chat.

"Can I adjust this?" he said as he started pushing buttons on the stereo systems touch screen. He found the tuning section and cranked up the bass.

Before I get too far, let me say the target market for the type of car I drive is a sixty year old woman. We bought the car used with 45,000 miles on it in 2006. It was in perfect condition except for a ton of scratches under the driver's side door handle. I figure the previous owner's jewelry scraped the paint as she got in her car.

The Boy cranked up the volume, and we could feel the bass as we were driving 65 mph south on I-5. It was a warm sunny day, and the windows were down and the sun roof was open. It was great.

After about twenty minutes, we heard a rattle. Every time the bass hit, the something in the car would shake. After we stopped for lunch, the Boy climbed into the backseat while I ran the stereo.

"The upper brake light vibrates against the window every time a bass note hits," he said. "At least the noise is in sync with the music."

As we were driving up our street, "Lonely Boy" by the Black Keys came on the radio. We parked the car, rolled up the windows blasted the radio in a car with a stereo that was designed for listening to NPR or bands like Air Supply. The rear window rattled and the rest of the car rocked.

The next day, I drove home from the grocery store. The kids were doing homework so I sat in the car. I plugged in my phone to the stereo, and cranked The White Stripes "Seven Nation Army." It wasn't the same as a rock concert, but it wasn't bad for a Monday after grocery shopping.