Put 'em in the Hall!!

I'm not sure if Rob Manfred needed the Donvict to remind him that a "lifetime ban" ends when you're no longer alive...  but Pete Rose, the Black Sox, and poor Benny Kauff have finally been removed from baseball's banned list. 

Ok. I have no strong opinion either way, but I don't want to talk about Pete Rose. I want to talk about another abrasive jerk with a god complex that racked up a TON of hits.

That's right, Billy Corgan. Smashing Pumpkins frontman, wrestling promoter, and one of the last remaining lead singers from the 1990s alternative explosion. 

I'm not going to try to convince you that the Smashing Pumpkins were the greatest band of their era. I wasn't even sure that the Pumpkins were worthy of induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame - and I say this as a longtime Pumpkinhead.

But... the recent announcement of the 2025 inductees got me thinking.

I can't properly judge the first four acts. To my admittedly limited knowledge, Bad Company's only hit was called "Bad Company", Chubby Checker had a massive hit with "The Twist" and had no ideas for a follow up except to.. umm... "Twist Again". 

Joe Cocker needed a little help from his friends (and The Wonder Years). That said, I kinda thought he'd been elected a decade ago.  

I loved Cyndi Lauper when I was six years old. Legit. But.. she has three songs, no? "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" -- certified classic. "Time After Time" -- can't even think about that song without crying. And um... "She Bop"? What am I missing?

Outkast, yeah. White Stripes, hell yeah. 

Soundgarden....

I liked Soundgarden in the '90s. Everyone I know had Superunknown, though I didn't know anyone who wore their shirts and went to their shows. So what? I knew, like, 15 people. Personal anecdotes aside, they were a damn good band. Probably the most rock-adjacent alternative band of the era. I can't objectively say that they were better than Nirvana or Pearl Jam or whoever because it all depends on how you measure greatness ... but there's no doubt that Chris Cornell had one of the greatest rock star voices of all time. 

And this is where my sports fandom perks up. Like... now I want to compare Soundgarden and Smashing Pumpkins side-by-side. That's hard to do because there aren't many stats you can use for artists (FWIW their album sales are about the same) and awards are super subjective (a Grammy is about as indicative of greatness as a Gold Glove).  

But, let's go hit-for-hit and see if Smashing Pumpkins are at least on par with Soundgarden. If they are, well...

Billboard Top 100 singles:     SP - 8  SG - 6

I knew the Pumpkins were more radio-friendly but damn. "Tarantula" and "Doomsday Clock" charted?!?! 

“Black Hole Sun” is unsurprisingly Soundgarden’s highest charting single, topping out at #24. SP have two songs that charted higher: “1979” and “Bullet With Butterfly Wings” - two very sonically distinct tracks on the same (double) album. 

Perhaps Chris Cornell’s crew benefited from being less radio-friendly than their Pumpkin peers? Or perhaps the Rock Hall committee preferred quantity over quality? 

Let’s see how each band’s top 15 songs stack up, shall we?

Soundgarden	Smashing Pumpkins
Black Hole Sun	1979
Outshined	Bullet with Butterfly Wings
Spoonman	Cherub Rock
Rusty Cage	Today
Blow Up The Outside World	Tonight, Tonight
Burden In My Hand	Disarm
Pretty Noose	Zero
Fell On Black Days	Thirty Three
Black Rain	I Am One
My Wave	Perfect
The Day I Tried To Live	Doomsday Clock
Jesus Christ Pose	Siva
Like Suicide	Ava Adore
Slaves & Bulldozers	Tarantula

I'd love to know what neutral music fans and/or critics would say about these lists. Call me biased but I don't think Soundgarden is significantly better than SP. One of them is in and the other isn't even nominated? 

My initial reaction to the Class of 2025 was disappointment that Joy Division/New Order did not get in. That's a peculiar case: Joy Division were a ground-breaking post-punk band and their lead singer died young. New Order lasted longer and had more pop hits, but their lyrics are lacking and I can't say they're better than Depeche Mode or Duran Duran. 

My second reaction to this Rock Hall class: how can they keep overlooking the Pumpkins?!?!?

I know Billy Corgan can be a prick but if any Hall of Fame is going to forgive attitude and ego it should be the Rock and Roll Hall, right? The Pumpkins have been eligible for a decade - are they gonna wait till he's dead to honor him? 

Pete Rose, Joe Jackson, elect 'em, don't elect 'em... but for God's sake, put the Pumpkins in the Hall!! 

I frickin' forgot Rocket!

Thanks for reading!



~

Feeling Blue

There are a lot of things going on in the world, in our country, and in my life that absolutely suck. 

My mom was scheduled for major surgery in August but it was delayed due to the first of two hurricanes to hit the northeast in the past 16 days or so. The one that hit us Wednesday dumped enough rain to flood our basement and our front window. It just so happens that I work for a mitigation company - but I knew firsthand that our crew would be booked for days. Luckily we were able to dry it out ourselves.

The day before, I went to the dentist for the first time in.. I dunno, ten years? We've been barely scraping by until this year. Stimulus checks + selling sports cards + brother-in-law making bank after his company went public and sharing the profits = finally enough money to see a damn dentist. And I'll need all of it if I want to avoid looking like a pro hockey player.

Home life isn't great. I won't get too personal but I'm definitely going through a mid-life crisis, feeling lonely and already pre-grieving my mother - who isn't in any immediate danger of dying, she's just in a lot of pain. 

My marriage isn't what it should be. It's not bad, it's just.. well, my wife has described us as "friends who had kids" and sometimes I don't even feel like she likes me all that much. All of this makes it much harder to go to work and make small talk with OG. I like my job, I love my manager, and most of my co-workers are awesome. But I often come home feeling forlorn.

Anyway.. you might read all of this and assume I am depressed. Not exactly. It comes and goes, but at the moment I feel good. I'm going to see my family tomorrow and some of my favorite seasons are about to start - fall and football.

My manager G and the aforementioned young lady I work with have been busting tail all week in and out of the office. They're both in the office longer than I am, they both have kids, and they're both on call after hours. That can be very exhausting, especially during a disaster.

Anyway, those bearded QBs you see above are among the handful of blue parallels I acquired in my latest (and last?) COMC order. Color-matching parallels have always appealed to me - but blue cards in particular really make me smile.

I prefer Panini Prizm parallels and both Fitz and Fouts were cheaper than these Press Proof parallels of Houston legends. But I must have been in a blue mood when I added these to the COMC cart.

Have you ever noticed how many songs have the word "Blue" in the title? There are at least three that I have on my playlist - and none of them make me sad. In fact they make me want to dance. My all-time favorite is New Order's "Blue Monday"

 

I still have this cassingle in my closet.

My high school best friend used to sing(or shout) "I see a shit in the harbor" whenever this song came on. That always made me laugh.

Here's another "blue" song that cheers me up whenever I hear it:

My current favorite is the song that converted me from a skeptic to a follower of Chvrches:

That beat drop is strikingly similar to Depeche Mode's "Just Can't Get Enough" And I just can't get enough blue parallels. Terrible segue, I know. I'm really bad at this. I should just stop.

I've tried to acquire a Steven Stamkos Blue Prizm parallel but they're always just out of reach. I settled for a Phil Kessel instead. The Credential card you see here isn't a blue parallel, it's something called a "Mandelbrot Fractal" - whatever that is. These Dazzlers aren't exactly blue, either:

But thanks to ePack they were cheap. These two Avalanche stars plus the Stamkos above totaled 91 cents (Stammer's jersey number) Here are some other cheap hockey cards I picked up at COMC:

Wait a second... these are all red. Blue might be my favorite color but a lot of my favorite teams wear red.

One more...

Thanks for reading!

~

A to Z Music Challenge

My sports cards have been organized enough that all I need to do is put away new purchases, and so last night I moved on to my CD collection.

As you can see, my CDs are all stored in a drawer. This drawer, which has one busted wheel, slides underneath my bed and gets quite dusty. After removing all the CDs to clean and organize them I noticed that I have a favorite band or artist for nearly every letter in the alphabet. 

Once upon a time I participated in a blogging challenge that took place in April. We'd all pick an overarching theme and a daily topic that matched each letter. It was fun. Unfortunately the people who ran it showed their whole ass and I didn't want to be associated with them anymore. Still like the concept though.

So here's an idea if you have some time or you're out of blog topics: make a list of your favorite musicians from A to Z or do a Sporcle-style speed round and just type out the first ones that come to mind as quickly as you can.  Here's my list of favorite musical acts by the letter:

All Time Low

This video gives me all the feels. I used the song in a story I wrote. Never finished that thing. Maybe someday.

 Bush

A surprisingly tough letter for me. Sixteen Stone is the only CD in my collection from a 'B' band. Is there a "Best of Bush" greatest hits CD? [edit: There is .. but its frigging expensive!]

The Cure

One of my all-time faves. I hadn't listened to them in years and then earlier this week I popped in Disintegration because it was raining (again.) Love it. A more current 'C' band I'm listening to is Chvrches. Thanks for pointing me in their direction, Shane!

Depeche Mode

Good news: Dave Gahan, Martin Gore & co. were finally elected to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame!
Bad news: They were elected last year, and the ceremony was virtual due to Covid.

E

Evanescence? Erasure? Echo and the Bunnymen? I'm drawing a blank here.

Fall Out Boy

 
One of my top three favorite bands of the last dozen years.

Green Day

Also receiving votes: Garbage

Jimi Hendrix

I haven't listened to Hendrix in years, but H is not a strong letter for me.

I Don't Know How But They Found Me

I saw them open for Silversun Pickups in 2019. They're good enough to knock Incubus off the list.

Joy Division

The cover art for Unknown Pleasures might be even more popular than the band itself.

Kent

They're a Swedish band and one of my all time favorites, even though about 80% of their recordings were in Swedish. The Killers are another fave, and I listened to a ton of Keane in college.
 

Linkin Park

I actually don't have any of their CDs. I've been planning to get at least one, likely a Greatest Hits compilation.

Muse

My wife's favorite band, and one of my top five. If you haven't heard them yet, hear them live first. While I'm on 'M' bands, I should mention that the restoration company I work for did an inspection at the home of My Chemical Romance guitarist Frank Iero. I was very excited about this. Naturally I was the only one in the office who'd heard of him.

New Order

I mentioned them on The 1993. Obligatory Nirvana mention here, as they're the reason I got into alternative music.

Oasis/The Offspring

Call it a tie between two '90s acts I liked a fair amount. Nowadays I listen to a little more Oasis.

Pvris

When I first heard "Fire" it reminded me of another female-fronted band, Paramore. I love Riot more than any single Pvris album, but Hayley Williams & co. lost me a couple albums ago. Use Me isn't my cup of tea in general but Lynn Gunn hasn't lost me yet. (Also, their cover of "Chandelier" lays waste to the original.)
 

Queen

I challenge you to find a better artist for the letter 'Q'. Really feeling this track lately.

Radiohead

I mentioned them on The 1993 as well.

SP

Smashing Pumpkins are my all-time favorite band. Silversun Pickups are my current favorite band. I listen to a lot of Silversun and very little Pumpkins these days. Love 'em both though.

Thirty Seconds To Mars

Number bands are left out of this exercise (sorry, 311) but since Jared Leto & co. spell out the word Thirty I'll tuck them in to 'T'. [bands that start with the word The obviously do not count here.]

U2

See Queen. I was just remarking to the Mrs. that I haven't listened to enough U2 lately. I'll fix that.

Van Halen

I wasn't the biggest Van Halen fan in the world but I do like their hits (and Balance brings back junior high memories) Here's a question for those of you who are fans: David Lee Roth or Sammy Hagar?

The White Stripes/Weezer

Another tie between two different but equally good alternative bands. I like more Weezer songs but I like White Stripes songs more, if that makes sense. Also I should mention that I'm kinda digging The Weeknd lately.

X

Ah, the dreaded X. I know XTC is a band that exists but I can't name any of their songs. And I can't count Lil' Nas X.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Another tough letter. This is really the only YYY song I like though I haven't dug too deep into their catalog. Yet.

Z

ZZ Top would be the obvious choice, or Frank Zappa. But I can't say I like them. Rob Zombie? His band had a song or two I liked okay, but those are listed under White Zombie. Rather than trying to come up with a 'Z' artist I like enough, how about Zooey Deschanel singing the national anthem at the 2012 World Series.

That's my list. What's yours? 

Thanks for reading & listening!



~

Wrappers Delight

I'm going to test a hypothesis here. Let's assume that the reason my Women In Music post garnered over 650 views wasn't because of Brie Larson, but because y'all just enjoy talking about music.

Here is an empty blaster of 2003-04 Upper Deck MVP Hockey. I've saved it for almost 17 years because Martin Brodeur is pictured on both sides. 2020-21 MVP Hockey is set to hit shelves later this month. I doubt there will be dealers hoarding blasters of 'em, but you never know.

This is the Devils' unofficial theme song. It has been played at Continental Arena and the Pru Center for as long as I've lived in Jersey. It's also my favorite devil-themed song. "Sympathy For The Devil" is okay. I'll pass on "The Devil Went Down To Georgia".

Can you think of any other songs with 'devil' in the title or chorus? Do you have a favorite?


Inside this opened blaster I've stashed sixty empty wrappers. Thirteen of them are from a box of 1993 SP Football I bought in the early aughts.

In 1993 I became a huge fan of Smashing Pumpkins. The first SP song I heard on MTV was "Cherub Rock", and "Today" was very popular as well. But my favorite track at the time was "Rocket"

This was the first song I recorded and rewinded rewound again and again so that I could decipher the lyrics. (I'm still not certain I have them right.) My best friends cheated and paid a dollar to send away for the lyric sheet. Ah, the pre-internet days.
 
Do you have a favorite Smashing Pumpkins song? Have you ever loved a single despite not knowing what the heck the singer is singing?

1992 Upper Deck was one of my all-time favorite football sets. I loved the cracked granite design. If the set had any decent rookies at all I probably would have bought a box or two. I bought a lot more Topps Chrome in 2004 than I did in 2003; kinda surprised I saved this plain green wrapper from a set I didn't particularly like. 

Speaking of green.. I know why I saved these two. I don't know why I paid $4 for a pack of Pacific though.
 
Whenever I'm annoyed by the repetitive playlist my manager listens to all day every day I try to find an earworm of a song that I actually enjoy, preferably one that I haven't heard a million times. Lately my go-to has been "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley.

Is there a song you're so sick of that you might go crazy if you hear it one more time?

I saved eight baseball card wrappers (aside from the 2018 Opening day wrappers I just added) 2008 Bowman and 2017 Topps Heritage are very familiar to me; I bought multiple boxes of both products. This 2004 Bowman Heritage pack was the only one I purchased, and I'm not sure where I found it. I wish I had bought a box at the time. The 1955 Bowman design is a classic.

 

Most of my favorite rap songs are classic tracks from the early years of hip-hop. I don't remember hearing Run D.M.C.'s "Rock Box" until I learned that Chris Rock sampled it for his satirical track "Champagne". 

Who's your favorite old school rapper or group? Do you have a favorite satirical song or a track from a comedy album? 


There aren't any basketball wrappers in this box, so this next segue is kind of a stretch...

In high school my best friend was friends with a guy named Mark who I did not get along with at all. I knew little about him except that he loved the band Korn and he was a Chicago Blackhawks fan.

Also he knew all of the lyrics to the Onyx song "Slam" and rapped this whole track on the way to my friend's house one day after school. This was always one of my favorite jams:

I'll save the rest of the wrappers for Volume 2. Thanks for reading and listening!



~

Women In Music

This post contains a handful of music videos and zero sports cards. If you're not a fan of video clips in a blog post feel free to skip it. Thanks.

I'm grateful to have an "alternative" rock radio station that I can listen to on my way to and from work, or for long drives to Connecticut. However Alt 92.3 is highly flawed. 

I'm also grateful for my job. It's easy, to the point of boredom, but my bosses are friendly and my co-workers are like family. My manager G is the best. The only complaint I have is that she loves country music. Her Spotify playlist is loaded with Luke Bryan, Carrie Underwood, and the like. Some of you may like that sort of thing, but it gets repetitive after a while. I've heard it eight hours a day, five days a week, for the past year. My ears need a vacation.

Because of this I rely on Alt 92.3 to wake me up and give me two songs to enjoy before the inevitable assault on my senses begins. Far too often my station fails me.

Last Monday I was particularly frustrated with their selection. After starting far too many mornings with Billie Eilish I heard this track on my morning drive. I was already in a salty mood and complained about the "sleepy girl music" this station seems to love.

My wife took me to task. With two girls in the car, she wanted to make it very clear that girls don't exclusively make sleepy music (hello, Coldplay?)

Of course I knew that. But I didn't have the time or energy for a nuanced discussion.

Once I was at work and had some time to think, I started to realize that I've actually liked a lot more female singers than my wife has.

I'm the one that rocked out to "Barracuda" on Guitar Hero. I'm the one that can name the late singer of the Cranberries (she asked me this three days ago after Alt played "Zombie" for the 865th time - after work, of course.) I'm the one that went to a Jewel concert and wore a Garbage t-shirt to school and owned not one but two Veruca Salt albums.

Andso I complied a list of my favorite female singers while at work (to distract myself from the unpleasantness emanating from G's playlist) Since I couldn't listen to these great tracks at the time, I thought I'd post them today. And then I'll take my blogging break. Maybe ;)

Honorable Mentions/One Hit Wonders/etc.

As I've mentioned before on this blog, pretty much all of my favorite female celebs can sing - and some have even reached #1 on the Billboard charts (is there anything Anna Kendrick can't do?) I'm excluding them for this exercise.  

is it me, or is she giving off strong Tina Fey vibes here?

My personal playlists are often peppered with single tracks from female-fronted acts. Not all of them are one hit wonders. Sometimes I only like one of their songs, or I haven't downloaded more than one. That said, I highly recommend any/all of these tunes:

• Best Coast - "California Nights" an awesome summer chill track 
• Mazzy Star - "Fade Into You" sleepy girl music ain't always bad, lol
• The Sounds - "No One Sleeps When I'm Awake" hat tip to Night Owl
• The Faders - "No Sleep Tonight" hat tip to Veronica Mars
• Lacuna Coil - "Enjoy The Silence" killer cover of Depeche Mode's classic
• Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Maps"

 

 Not really a lead singer, but..

When I was a young lad, Smashing Pumpkins were my favorite band. I thought it was cool that the bass player was a girl. There didn't seem to be too many girls in rock bands at the time. My fellow Pumpkinheads and I really wanted to like D'arcy. But she always looked so disinterested. She didn't contribute all that much (although Billy Corgan's massive ego could be to blame) and didn't join the fairly recently reunited Pumpkins lineup. 

Nikki Monninger of Silversun Pickups is the bass player I always wished D'arcy would have been. She's a lot more fun to watch than D'Arcy ever was, contributes a lot more to her band, and she's just plain better at playing bass. Also, Nikki can sing quite well when called upon. Here's their brand-new cover of Martika's "Toy Soldiers":

A couple of years ago I bought a big box of CDs (and cards) from Gavin at a great price. There was so much music included that I might never get to it all, but I gave Metric a spin. Until then I'd only heard "Youth Without Youth." I'm now familiar with about a dozen more tracks, and I'm not quite all-in on all of it but I am sold on Emily Haines for sure. 

There was a time when I was into Paramore about as much (if not more) than I liked Fall Out Boy. Then Hayley Williams started doing solo projects, the Farro brothers left, and the band had to convince skeptics that they were still a band. The last Paramore single I liked was "The Only Exception" but everything up to that point was amazing. 

Three summers ago I was at a wedding for one of my wife's best friends and I heard a song that sounded like classic Paramore. But it wasn't anything I'd heard before and the vocal packed more punch. As I soon found out, this wasn't Paramore - it was Pvris.

 

Pvris was the opening act for 30 Seconds To Mars/Muse when we saw them at Jones Beach in New York. The Mrs. and I became fans almost immediately. I've never enjoyed an opening act as much as I did that day. Some of their songs are dark and depressing, and I'm not quite sure what they're going for on their new album, but Lynn Gunn is a force of nature.

After months of being beaten down by my manger's playlist I sought out cover versions of certain songs, to distract myself when I dislike the original artist. Lynn and Pvris covered Sia's "Chandelier"and absolutely crushed it:

Who are some of your favorite female musicians? Have you heard any of the tracks on my playlist? I'd love to hear your thoughts on these artists, or your own recommendations, in the comments.


Thanks for reading!!



~

12 Days of Christmas Day 8 - Music

When I was 19, I worked as a seasonal employee at Kay-Bee Toys. It was my first official job (I had only worked for my mom's office cleaning company up to that point) and it was a fun experience. However, we had to listen to the same Christmas songs over and over and over again. All day. Every day. For six weeks. Some of them were pretty standard, while others were just different enough to get stuck in my head 20 years later. 

My brother in-law and his group of friends had a tradition of making each other mix CDs for Christmas, with a track list based on certain criteria such as "A song with a color in the title", "An Elvis song", "A song from a movie", and so on. He passed this tradition on to the family, and we exchanged mix CDs for a few years - until YouTube came along and made us all lazy.

I have to admit I rarely listened to their CDs. The fun was in making the mix for everyone else. There were a few bands my wife's sister and nieces like that I either liked already or got into because of them - and there are a couple killer tracks on the CDs scanned above.

That said, their musical gift-giving pales in comparison to my lifelong friends. Sometimes we made each other mix CDs, and sometimes we bought proper albums to gift each other. Often I had never even heard of the bands that John or Joe recommended. Most of them were from Scandinavia - which might explain why they always put me in a wintry mood. Here are some of my favorites:

Mew is a band from Denmark that I listened to a lot in college. One semester in particular started in January. I crushed pretty hard on a girl that was way out of my league but much closer in physical proximity (she sat in the row next to me.)

This track always brings back memories of walking home in the snow with that gorgeous girl on my mind.

They also have a song called "She Came Home For Christmas" that's just about the saddest thing ever. (okay maybe not, but it is very emotional.)

I may have mentioned Kent before; they're a Swedish band that I started listening to in the late 1990s (I think they've broken up recently?) This was one song my wife liked a lot when we first started dating. The English lyrics aren't super brilliant, but the music is absolutely beautiful.

Allmusic.com compares Kent to Coldplay and Muse - which explains why I was such a fan.


If you want to hear a wintry Nordic song in the original dialect, here's Iceland's Sigur Ros:

Not to sound all "Bah Humbug" but I don't really have a favorite Christmas carol and I'm indifferent about the holiday standards. The only festive music I enjoyed listening to came from Trans-Siberian Orchestra CDs that I bought Mom as a Christmas gift. 

I'll have to see if she still has this CD so we can listen to it when I come home for (almost) Christmas this weekend.

Do you have a favorite holiday song? Or a favorite non-holiday winter song?

Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!



~

Silversun day

I almost forgot the Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony was today. Luckily I was able to catch Lee Smith's speech and Mariano Rivera's speech (closers go last. perfect.) The reason I was not thinking of sports today was that I went to a concert last night. 

About a month ago I learned that Silversun Pickups were coming to New Jersey. I mentioned this to my wife and didn't give it a second thought. She does not like Silversun; Brian Aubert's voice is too high for her. (This is a common complaint among non-fans, they can't tell if he's singing or bassist Nikki Monninger)

Then, two weeks ago I was having a discussion with her (my wife, not Nikki) about the August card show. I'd been hemming and hawwing about going and it was giving my wife whiplash. She needed to know once and for all if I wanted to go - because she had a surprise planned for our anniversary weekend. She was going to get me tickets to see SSPU. I decided to scrap the card show (technically I can still go, but logistically and financially it is a long shot.)

So last night we had dinner at a Japanese restaurant nearby and headed out to Sayreville, NJ (hometown of Jon Bon Jovi) on what was probably the hottest day of the year. We sat in the car with the a.c. running because the doors didn't open until 7pm. No point in queuing when it's 98F outside. I had the idea of ordering tickets at Will Call rather than the stupid digital tickets which 1) gave me a souvenir of the show, and 2) got us in ahead of almost everyone since the Will Call line was a lot shorter. 


The Starland Ballroom is a small place, with bars set up in all four corners and a decent size general admission floor. There was a pull-up screen right in front of us that kept running ads like a damn movie theater. Most of them were for upcoming shows including the one we were all attending. The most popular ad was for IHOP. One guy (who was definitely drinking) shouted Wooo! IHOP! and a couple others laughed and clapped. Then, when the IHOP ad came around again, more and more people caught on until dozens of people were cheering loudly for pancakes. You kinda had to be there. 

The opening act was a duo called I Don't Know How But They Found Me. This was the first song they played:

 

Appropriately-titled track aside, there were quite a few young fans who were definitely there to see them. I wasn't sure what to make of them at first (is this...hipsters?) but they were energetic and entertaining for sure. I'll have to give them another listen. 

We were fairly close to the stage, only about five or six people were in front of us. My wife had earplugs but my hearing doesn't bother me in concerts. It's usually my back or knees because I am out of shape and standing in place for long periods of time isn't easy. Once the floor started vibrating from all the amps and whatnot my left leg went numb. 

After the opening band finished their set and we were back to watching ads for IHOP and Da Baby (ya gotta see Da Baby!) the vibrating numbness went away. My knees stopped working by the end of the night, but during the Silversun set I felt fine.

I was really psyched to be less than 30 feet away from one of my favorite bands. Fall Out Boy and Muse are stadium acts; I'm still not sure how well-known Silversun Pickups are. Wifey was nice enough to take some pictures and video for me since she's the one with the smart phone. Lots of other people had their phones up too, which was annoying. I wish I could say it's just a girl thing, but at one point I saw three guys all pointing their phones in Nikki's direction. 

Since you're probably not familiar with their songs I'll spare you the full rundown of their setlist. They played a few tracks from their latest album Widow's Weeds - though not two of my favorites, "Songbirds" and "We are Chameleons". I can't complain though. They played pretty much everything else I would have wanted to hear, including:

"Neon Wound", which was the first song of their set (also the first track of the new album)

"Panic Switch" and "Lazy Eye", arguably their biggest hits.

"Growing Old Is Getting Old" which I told myself they'd never play. It's hard to recreate the serenity of the intro in a live setting(way too much reverb) but I'm still thrilled that they played one of my absolute faves.

"Common Reactor" and "Well Thought Out Twinkles", two of my favorites from their 2006 album Carnavas. I was especially stoked for "Common Reactor"

"Circadian Rhythm" a duet I wasn't expecting to hear before the show. Then Brian mentioned the steamy weather outside and said something about making it steamy inside. Then they played something else - "Freakazoid" maybe? Total fake out. 

 

In the past week I had listened to all of their albums so that I'd be ready for anything and everything. Somehow they got a knee-buckling curveball by me -- they played a track from their debut EP Pikul. I do have Pikul, but I've only listened to it a couple times.

I wonder how many of the 2,000 or so in attendance recognized "Kissing Families"? If the over/under is 50 I'll take the under. 

Before the show started I bought a t-shirt for slightly less than the cost of the ticket. I'm wearing it to work tomorrow. Because I can :)  The merch table also had every SSPU album for sale. And I do mean album - you could buy them on vinyl or cassette! It was like the '80s all over again. 

Even though I have all of their albums I seriously considered it - there was an alternate version of one, with acoustic tracks and remixes or something. I could have spent a lot more money there but I didn't want to carry shit for the whole show. I was lucky that the t-shirt fit in the pocket of my cargo shorts. 

Anyway, the night was incredible. The band absolutely killed it. Brian had tons of energy; it's hard to take your eyes off him. But then you remember Nikki over there, quietly playing her bass, always smiling. And Chris Guanlao on the drums, banging away like an animal. I couldn't see much of him until the encore but he was awesome. And Joe Lester, the Seth Rogen doppelganger behind the keyboard. I felt like he was largely ignored through the night, like don't forget Joe over there. Someone take a picture of Joe.

 

Heck, we didn't even get a good picture of Nikki. My wife is 5' 4" and everyone in front of her was taller. This is what it's like to see a concert in 2019.

 
When Silversun concluded their encore Brian tossed a couple picks into the crowd. Nikki waved and blew a kiss or two. Chris tossed his sticks in either direction. I've never been so close to catching a drum stick..and I wasn't that close to either one.


Immediately after the show I had to remind myself how to walk. My back was fine, my ears weren't ringing, but my legs did not work. The concrete steps felt squishy, like mud. My wife and I were parched so we stopped at Dunkin Donuts for cold drinks. It was after 11pm and still 90F outside. 

Today I spent the whole morning in bed, resting my aching knees. Could have slept all day but I wanted to finish sorting a big box of baseball cards I bought on eBay two weeks ago. Also I have trades to complete and feedback to leave. So don't worry, sports card content will be returning to The Collector soon :)

Thanks for reading!


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