Sound confession

Aside from the occasional local music festival and the various “WBLI Summer Jams” early on in my tenure of musical appreciation (Jones Beach and featured band 98 Degrees was, to a 12 or 13 year old Long Islander, a sad little slice of heaven) I’ve been reflecting upon the evolution of my musical tastes and auditory interests. I know they’ve certainly changed (and, with the benefit of retrospect, thankfully for the better). Piquing in college, as I’ve gotten older my interest in large venues and heavily populated shows has drastically decreased, though my love of live music has not. As embarrassing as this may be, let’s take a little trip down memory lane with a sampling of popular shows (those that I can recall) I’ve attended, shall we?* Though not necessarily all-inclusive or indicative of the entirety of my musical interests, it's certainly entertaining.

First, there was high school. I was, it seems, a hop skip and a jump away from a septum piercing and JNCO jeans. The fact that one of my biggest regrets in high school was miserably failing to see Tool when I had the chance says quite a lot. (The fact that I later – much later, at age 26 – seized the opportunity to meet Maynard James Keenan and shake his hand at a wine bottle signing at Whole Foods in Cambridge, MA also says a lot, and I don’t think that it’s really in my favor.) The list:

• Blink 182 (an outing with a couple of besties – c’mon, give me a break, they're tatted and pierced and loud and rebellious and they were super fun to see live)
• Moby + The Roots (the outlier… I think I got these tickets for free)
• Incubus (as a young teen listening to Incubus pre-huge international pop-like fame, I was obsessed with Brandon Boyd. I feel fortunate that I was at least lusting after a pseudo-rocker and not a Backstreet Boy)
• Hoobastank (“stank” is actually incorporated in the band name. Need I say more?)
• Linkin Park (But, you guyssss, I saw them before they were totes famous! Wait, what? Doesn’t matter? Yeah, you’re right. It doesn’t)
• Taproot (inexplicable)
• Deftones (le sigh)
• 40 Below Summer + Ill Nino (Jersey heavy metal phase? Um, yikes. Shows like this did, however, allow me to frequent CBGB’s before it was dismantled, so, win)
• Coheed and Cambria (this required a 3-hr trip to Poughkeepsie, which I was happy to make at the time)

Ah, college. I wholeheartedly thank my fabulous friends (what up, IMF?!) for introducing me to 95% of the below, in addition to helping shape my current musical consciousness. While I was exorbitantly intoxicated for a good number of these performances (again, what up, college?!) this hasn’t prevented me from repeatedly enjoying their records.

• Cursive (this was early on in college, and also during that weird phase when every indie chick got into knitting, often bringing it to shows and sitting off on the side to complete some monotone scarf or something. Sadly, I was not immune).
• Decemberists (Awesomesauce)
• Shins (kinda dicks. Just saying)
• Andrew WK (freaking fantastic show)
• Rilo Kiley (a college favorite. Salute Your Shorts, kids, and Troop Beverly Hills!)
• The Mountain Goats (this is the first of three times that I’ve seen them, and I remember absolutely nothing. Damn you, Bacardi Raspberry, damn you!)
• !!! (Chk Chk Chk) (This show was particularly memorable as Nic Offer not only called me to the stage in my absence – I had left early - but then took an article of mine that I had left behind and shoved it down his pants in protest)
• Minus the Bear (notable as, like the other shows, I did the artwork for their promotional poster and it ended up looking like “Minus the Bean”. I still call them this)
• Ellis Paul (le sigh)
• Ratatat (two dudes, two electric guitars, a Mac, some flashing lights, and a bottle of Jack)
• David Dondero (I recall nothing of note)
• The Unicorns (disbanded)
• Sleater Kinney (Feminist riot grrrls still rocking)
• Ted Leo (sans Pharmacists, I would later live in the same neighborhood as him in Cambridge. Apparently he’s all about Hollywood Express)
• Jennifer Gentle (bizarrely high-pitched, but catchy tunes nonetheless)
• Elf Power (oddly just saw them a second time, as they opened up for Jeff Mangum)
• Chromeo (sexy – totally sexy – le swoon. A tall, dark and handsome French professor at Barnard College? C’mon, it’s not even fair. A handshake was almost too much to bear)
• The New Pornographers (never really liked them, still don’t, and yet thanks to a friend and an ongoing music exchange throughout graduate school I have more music of theirs than I know what to do with)

Post-college has been a time of adjusting and re-adjusting to urban adult life, and has not, it seems, incorporated very many live shows. Increasingly scrupulous, a couple of repeats and some obvious favorites.

• The Avett Brothers (Paradise Rock Club was a super fun venue, although I was nearly overtaken by the suffocating aroma of body odor – plaid, beards, it shouldn’t have come as a surprise)
• The Mountain Goats (John Darnielle is phenomenal! I’ve seen him multiple times and I will see him again! Any time he comes to town! And there is a good chance I would travel to him as well!)
• Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel (fucking. amazing)
• No Age (looooOOOOOOuuuuuuddddddDDDDDD)
• Feist (beautiful, beautiful voice)
• Ellis Paul (I’ve seen him more times than I can count, at this point. One of the most wonderful singer-songwriters continually touring – all should attend at least one show of his)

*Read between the lines: mindless Monday afternoon activities that can take place at one’s desk with little to no suspicion.