EL-P // JUL 25, 2002

The plan involved a 6-and-a-half-hour round trip from Blacksburg, VA to Chapel Hill, NC after a full day of classes ended. And I’d need to be back in the AM to change clothes and drive an hour to my internship.

Oh did I use the word “plan”? I’m no wordsmith but that doesn’t feel right. Maybe “underdeveloped scheme” would be more accurate?

Doesn’t matter. Short story is a friend and I decided that the tour for Def Jux proprietor El-P’s first album “Fantastic Damage” was worth skipping sleep for a weeknight. Honestly, not even top 10 on the list of things I can’t believe I did in college.

Poor decision-making aside, that night in review:

1) The show turbo-banged.

2) I confidently drove someone else’s stick shift like a boss.

3) No one at the internship complained of my smell.

In all, a successful underdeveloped scheme.

BJÖRK + µ-ZIQ // MAY 15, 1998

May 15, 1998 was the day beautiful and chaotic collided like two metaphorical planets in a Lars Van Trier movie that could have used editing.

Björk’s “Homogenic” and µ-Ziq’s “Lunatic Harness” were recently released career standouts for two of electronic music’s creative standouts. Both albums were somehow tuneful while being uncompromising in their rhythmic experimentation. That evening in the former Capitol Ballroom, melody made nice with mania in a way I’ve yet to see topped.

Maybe once on the L train when a woman next to me started shout singing “Jesus Loves Me” after the doors closed, but that’d be using a loose definition of melody.

WILDERNESS // APR 22, 2006

The winter/spring of 2006 was dark. Emotionally and literally. My creative partner and I moved to Seattle to take a freelance job in a suburban industrial park where we experienced the longest streak of rain in the regions recorded history.

In short: we should not have been listening to Wilderness.

This was a band with parameters. Which is the nice way of saying that much of their output was similar, but they were hyper creative at working inside the lines. It was ominous in instrumentation, tom-focused in the drum patterns, and at times, atonal in the vocals.

That dark and rainy evening at the Crocodile Cafe we were treated to a combination of desolation and rainwater-soaked pant cuffs that is referred to locally as a “regular Saturday in Seattle”.

THE CURE // NOV 30, 1997

The first concert I ever attended ended abruptly during an especially atmospheric rendition of “From The Edge of the Deep Green Sea”. I remember a friend and I were tapped on the shoulder and pulled out of the Patriot Center by our ride, who had bought a ticket to the festivities specifically to hear a cover of “Come on, Eileen” and I think that describes my high school experience pretty well.

Really this whole situation couldn’t have gotten more 1997. Post-grunge radio was flailing trying to find something that would grab listeners (and advertisers) so they were trying anything. Which is how a Washington DC radio station paid The Cure to headline a holiday show with openers like Sugar Ray and Save Ferris. It was hilarious. It was chaos. And I still don’t think I’ve fully gotten the smell of CK One off of me.

CITY OF CATERPILLAR // APR 28, 2001

I kept a paper planner throughout college and recently dug it out of a storage box to see what else was happening on the day I walked into a room with the controlled chaos headlining this poster. I was not disappointed. On April 28th 2001, in a hurried scrawl I found the words “Mini-fridge Pick Up 8:30AM”.

Perfect. I’d totally forgotten that finals week activities included moving out of a dormitory. The thought of boxing up all of my possessions, returning a rented appliance, compiling a design portfolio, and studying for a 300-level French exam in the same weekend is giving me heart palpitations so I’m going to stop thinking about it.

That evening at an infamous Blacksburg residence called Solar Haus, City of Caterpillar was the 4th band on the bill and the only act to bring a traveling light show with them from Richmond, VA. This consisted of a single halogen floor lamp that they switched on before unleashing a brutal sonic assault that would stay with me long after the 10 minute return walk to my dormitory. Arriving at Miles Hall slightly dehydrated and excited for a Gatorade, I opened the door to my horror… no mini-fridge.

BATTLES + PONYTAIL // JUL 3, 2007

At my first full time job in advertising I didn’t take a single day of PTO. It’s dumb, I know. But I wasn’t good at it yet and I needed every hour available to make up for that. One time I did 85 hours in a week and a lady in finance straight up told me that they didn’t believe me. I wish, Cindy. I wish.

But that meant every night before a day off was a rush of dopamine and relief. So on July 3rd, 2007 when Battles and Ponytail played a top ten all-timer, they were getting me on a good night. There in the basement of a motor lodge I’d hear early-but-joyous versions of tracks off the yet to be released “Ice Cream Spiritual” and an original Battles line-up including Tyondai Braxton.

So good I nearly forgot to go back to work. I’m kidding. Or am I? I am. Questionnn marrrk?