Alright, so here we go folks. I figure now as good a time as any other to start sharing this project that has brewed in my head for years and years. It’ll come to no surprise to people that know me well, and even those that only know me only through social media, what I have to say.
I. Love. Music.
All forms of music. Especially live music. Kid’s school performance? Acoustic bar show? Dirty punk bar show? Sold out amphitheaters? Weekend-long festivals? HELL YEAH BROTHER!!!
Seriously, though, I really do. I couldn’t even begin to recall them all to anyone if they asked me. I got a perfect example of that actually. I lived with my buddy Josh and his girlfriend at the time so we all rolled to a Tiger Army show downtown together at the Sunshine. Buying the tickets got me stoked because I had never seen them before despite knowing the name and hearing all my friends talk about them.
Straight up though, I never once owned a single album of theirs. I still haven’t bought any. I do stream them legally…mostly out of shear laziness that I don’t fuck with torrenting discographies. Wait. No. I lied. My buddy asked me to make him an offsite digital backup of his physical CD collection. I couldn’t remember right away where I got those tracks from, and rather than going back to rewrite this, ya’ll get to see it all nice and fresh.
Anyways, we go to the show and it kicks ass. I couldn’t suffer through much moshing at the time as I recovered my injured back and spine. So I didn’t. I hung out back in the 21+ section just enjoying a good ol’ punk rock show. Always been my happy place.
So, they come back the next year, because they’ve always frequented our scene. Which is why so many of my friends were into them. I’d since moved out to another spot with another roommate who wasn’t into that shit in the slightest. Wasn’t my first, sure as hell wouldn’t be the last concert I went to by myself. Some people always get weirded out and question me when I say that, too.
I have a hard time allowing anyone to stop me from going and doing what I want to do when and how I want to do it. My mom recently told me an allegory that parents teach children to become independent and then don’t know what to do when they no longer need to help. My parents taught me how to carry myself and handle situations so it has been relatively uneventful in terms of fucked up shit happening.
So, I went to the show. And again. It was fucking awesome. The opening “band” was just Amigo the Devil which is comprised of a single dude, Danny Kiranos. Holy cursed fuck. I was not prepared for that level of musicianship from a single dude with a single acoustic guitar and his banjo. You don’t typically open a psychobilly show with acoustic folk music. He freaking smashed it and turned out to have a super awesome disposition when I went and bought his first record from him. Cheerful as hell despite the morbidly dark lyrics and deliciously ethereal melodies of his songs. (See “Perfect Wife”) https://youtu.be/5tCZTvb2XqI
Okay, so this is getting a bit long winded and I’m tired and want to get comfortable considering 11 days ago I had to have 3 ligaments, a tendon, and a loose chunk of bone operated on in my ankle. Point of this story is that I had actually seen Tiger Army ten years prior during high school and didn’t remember it until I was digging through my concert stub collection.
So yeah, music is important and shit. I like to write about it. Plan to see more and let me know if you find it interesting.
