Today: Birthday, Fathers Day, Basement Show.

I lied. I said I would update this thing before Friday, and I didn't. I failed. Oh well. I'm going to try and recap what I've been up to for the past week, and maybe I'll search out something to talk about after, before, or during... we'll see how it all works out.

Last night was goddamn awesome. Brian, Mike, Emily (Happy Birthday!) and I went to the Cafe Metropolis in Wilkes-Barre PA to see a show. It was the first time I've dragged Emily to a show, and based on what I can pull out of a situation I think she had a good time. Maybe we'll do this again someday... who knows.

The bill (in reverse order) was The Menzingers (Scranton, PA), The Copyrights (Elgin, IL), Dear Landlord (Minneapolis, MN/Elgin, Illinois), and Highlites (Doylestown, PA). It really was a great lineup and the room was really positive and fun. It's been a while since I've gone to a show and not had a few beers but just stayed in the back of the crowd and watched everything. It's still really refreshing and awesome to me to have all of these people get together in a room where "aggressive" music is played and there is no bullshit. No fights. No trouble. No cops. Everyone came with the intention of checking out some music, and everyone had fun. It was nice to see Elliot, as he is one of the most entertaining people I've met and has the most genuine contagious laugh ever.

Highlites started the show and reminded me of a less tight Ghost Town Trio. I wasn't much for their sound but it wasn't unlikeable. I just found a demo on the Internet and I will download it and listen to it. Sometimes things translate better when they are recorded, and the live show lacks... or the other way around... who knows. I'll give it a shot and see. The worst that happens is the files occupy some space on my hard drive.

Dear Landlord was next. I've been waiting since the Disgraceland show with Off With Their Heads to see them again. They ripped through a bunch of songs on the new record which I hadn't heard, and I'm always stoked to hear new songs live before hearing them on record. They were pretty much untouchable. Best set of the night, easily. Get 'er Done, High Fives, Crashing, I live in Hell were the highlights of the set. It was nice to see a good collection of kids there to check them out, and hopefully this will bring them back to this side of the country soon.

After a short break, the Copyrights were set up and ready to play. They, also, were excellent. I've seen them a bunch of times and typically they're a bit drunk and not sounding so tight. They sounded VERY good last night. Planet Earth 1994, Cashiers, Shits Fucked, 57 North, Thinking With The Lights On were the highlights. I would have been thrilled to hear The Company and Graveyards Down The Street but Luke wasn't playing drums for them and was replaced by Ronnie from the Arrivals. Luke will be back with them in Baltimore (!!!) for Insubordination Fest this coming weekend and I'm thinking I might have a shot at hearing those songs. We'll see. I'm going to ask Fletcher if there's a chance and hearing The Company tonight. That would make my Sunday. My weekend has already been made.

The Menzingers were The Menzingers. I like them live, but I'm not much for them recorded. They can command a room, which is important for a band, and they were playing a record release show in their hometown. It's nice to see the support they get at home. I saw them play in Gainesville, FL last year and the support they got there was pretty excellent. Florida was the first time I had seen them, and I'm happy to see a band of guys from right up the NE Extension do well for themselves. There were 2 highlights of their set for me... the first was Richard Coury and the second was them letting everyone know not to buy records and shirts from them but to support the out of town bands so they could get to their next city. Classy shit, to say the least.

Oh, tonight. Copyrights, Dear Landlord, The Measure [sa], and the Menzingers in a basement in "stab you in the face, take your wallet and rape you" West Philadelphia. I'm REALLY excited for this one. I'm going to have a drink or two and "rage" with some friends. I'm very excited for this. I get to see a bunch of friends and sweat like it's my job in someone's basement.

I thought of it! I know what I'm going to "talk" about for this entry. Punk Rock. How I got into it. My first show. All of that stuff that probably helped shape who I am today, some of the outcomes will be negative, most will be positive, but I'm happy to have the values I have today, and being 100% comfortable with who I am.

Halloween. Duluth, MN 1995. I got a flier for a band called Johnny Pantsless and Matt (best friend in High School) and myself thought we should go check this out. I already had a Fugazi CD and a Green Day CD so I had clearly been around the block and knew exactly was I was getting into. WRONG. I don't remember the lineup for the night, but I remember a band called Flux Skapacitor and Johnny Pantsless (Jesse now plays in a band called Pretty Boy Thorson and the Falling Angels... 7/6!!) were playing. The opening band was dressed up like KISS and played covers. I didn't know very many of them, but something that sticks in my mind is a cover of Screeching Weasel's "Hey Suburbia" but the lyrics were changed to be about the OJ Simpson trial. There were a bunch of kids who were just like me in this old abandoned telephone company called The Receyclabell. It was great. Between bands we'd go outside and hang out with other kids who were just like us. There was never any bullshit. I didn't see a fight at a show until I came to Philadelphia, and never understood the motivation to do so.

We came to this same space over and over again for the next 2 years. I saw bands like Slapstick, The Umpires, Digger, Ferd Mert, Backwards Struggle and the Riff Randells. Then a few other places in Duluth caught our eye. One was a YMCA in West Duluth (I played my first punk show there!), the other was a Ballet recital room above a record store called The Electric Fetus. We'd frequent these places almost every weekend and slowly met friends, girls, bands and collected a disgusting amount of music... all of which I still have, and still listen to. I met my first "real" (kind of crazy when I think about it now) girlfriend at a punk show. Her name was Anna and ultimately taught me several lessons... most of which I'm not sure I learned anything from.

There was a really amazing sense of community at these shows. People you never talked to before were immediately friends and people we would hang out with for the next couple of years. We (John Laney, Matt Olmem, (I don't know who played bass! shit!), and myself) formed a band called The Screw-Ups and we played two shows. One was at the afore mentioned YMCA and the other was at a small coffee shop in downtown Duluth called the Orphium Room. We never got paid. We didn't want to. We wrote songs about being in high school, girls, and we also played a few cover songs. Our set couldn't have been more than 20 minutes long. My parents had rented a house to a couple of lived behind our garage and eventually they moved out. We took the living room of this house and turned it into our practice space. We practiced for HOURS. Hours of practice to play 10 songs to a room of people for 20 minutes. My voice was shot and I remember thinking I wasn't going to be able to sing (scream) when we played our second show... we made it through ok. I wish we could have had these shows taped, or ever tried to record something. It sounds like a trainwreck of bad musicians and screamy screechy 17 year old vocals in my head and I'm sure that's exactly what it was. That is what I had always wanted to do. Write some songs with some friends and play them for a group of people who wanted to hear them. I think I'm glad I got that out of my system when I did, but I still have the crazy desire to do this again someday... even at age (almost) 30. I think it would be different now because I know about more than how I'm tired of jocks, don't appreciate stares from people who hate me based on no reason or the cute girl in my anatomy class who never knew I existed. I know much more now that I did... everything was written to be very straight forward and not metaphorically. I think I could write better now, but I'm afraid to find out I can't... so I don't.

Fast forward to right now. June 21st 2009 1:25pm. I'm typing out this blog, drinking a beer, and waiting to go to a show with my friends tonight. Not much has changed, but the lines on our faces have gotten deeper, life means more and I appreciate the smaller things much more than I ever did before. Looking back on it, if I wouldn't have gone down this path I don't know what I would be doing with myself, but I know in the back of my head I would have never had this much fun.

Thursday - Saturday of this week is going to be the best. Every year at the end of June about 500 kids descend on the city of Baltimore for 3 days of friendship, punkrock, high fives, drinks and then sad "see you next year" hugs. It's so much fun. I've met the majority of the people there through an Internet message board and formed these awesome friendships. I love most of them like family, and I wish we all lived in one city and that every show was this good. I'm very excited for this weekend.

Otherwise, the past week or so has progressed like any other week, so just go back a few entries and read those... I'm a creature of habit. I like finding a formula of what works and sticking to it. I've been spoiled as of late. I know this. I'm completely enjoying every second of it.

My battery is going to die. Oh no!