It wasn't surprising then to hear it only took seconds on Monday morning for tickets to Crowded House's November Opera House shows to sell out. In another two decades, at least 10,000 will legitimately be able to claim we were there the second time around. 

Gen X is finally taking power, culturally and politically, if not always economically. 

And it's as if the current festival of 1980s and '90s musical legends touring Australia has arrived to offer a triumphal soundtrack. 

We've had Culture Club and the Cure tour. Bruce Springsteen will be here in early 2017. The Stone Roses will perform at the Opera House in December.

It's a funny thing when the bands of your youth, even ones once considered edgy and indie, come to town, grey of hair and plump of belly, to play shows that can top $200 a seat.

The bands understandably want to cash in on their final flickers of fame while international airfares still come without exorbitant senior travel insurance.

The audience, meanwhile, are generally more cashed up than they were in their 20s but are at a peak work-life juggle moment. We want a night out that comes with an insurance policy. A night that can remind us of who we were before our lives were full of cares and worries and complicated histories.

There is also a more sombre reason to see these bands now. The deaths of Prince and David Bowie makes us wonder if this will be the last chance to see an iconic figure live, to hear a treasured song from our youth.

For Gen X, the time stretching out behind us now feels much longer than the time stretching out ahead of us. It is no coincidence that the march of these ageing bands through our venues is matched by my Facebook feed, which is full of old friends who played music or painted or wrote when they were young finding the muse again. "I just decided I had to do it now or I never would," says one friend who is writing a novel.

Now that big ambitions are mostly achieved – children, travel, jobs, houses – we're trying to catch the dreams of our youth. There is something exciting about this middle-aged burst of activity, both from the famous and not-so-famous. 

It's great to see bands who can take us back to a familiar, youthful place. But it's even better when they create new art too. 

Earlier this year, I watched New Order's lead singer Bernard Sumner bop around with his endearing dad dancing, running through all the band's hits. The band returned to the stage to perform Love Will Tear Us Apart, the song Sumner played with Ian Curtis in Joy Division. But there is something that doesn't sit quite right with a much older band and crowd singing such a brilliant but, let's admit it, young person's song.

That's why, although I was tempted, I found it hard to buy tickets for the Stone Roses. They were the sound of a party about to begin, something about to happen. I'm not sure about watching a band already into their 50s singing "I wanna be adored". 

The Stone Roses are well into late middle age now. As are the rest of Generation X. 

We know which way we're heading and we're dreaming of our past. 

Perhaps that's why we're so keen to listen to Crowded House singing Don't Dream it's Over one more time.