hey all

i've been lurking for a bit so i guess i should introduce myself... my name is rena (most people just call me reen) and i live in the nw suburbs of chicago... i spent the end of the 90s following my favorite band around the country and after they broke up i never though i would find a band that would make me want to quit my job and hit the road ever again... but then i saw conan... and i liked them enough to buy the album... and then i saw letterman... and i was a goner LOL finally got to see the band live up in milwaukee (i was a little slow buying tickets for the chicago show and it sold out) and it was totally amazing... even though i felt kind of old i was reminded why i used to go see shows almost every night of the week
so anyhow i just wanted to say hi and also thanks so much to everyone on here who has been sharing info and audio and video and stuff!!!

welcome!

and who was that band that broke up in the 90's? was it NKOTB? ;-)

That's some dedication, nice one.

Welcome.

how could you have possibly known that it was NKOTB???

um... no... but i fear that you may find the actual band just as amusing -Tonic

they recently reunited and are doing shows this summer but i'm more excited about lollapalooza... the guilt is driving me crazy!!!

don't worry, Tonic's not nearly as bad as NKOTB. and i think you are the oldest member on here, good to see that even 99 year olds can relate to this band

damn you lived my dream

welcome

140 shows... 30 states... lots of memories... and credit card debt

there seem to be a few "travelers" on the forum already... go for it...
life's too short!

wow 140 shows! that is amazing... I would guess that I am aproaching 100 total concerts that I have been to in my life

The Bands I have seen the most times:
1. The Decepticonz (they were an awesome Ska band from my highschool)
2. The Brassholes (same as The Decepticonz)
3. Less Than Jake (they were my first non-high school band I ever saw)
4. The Gaslight Anthem (you probably know who these guys are)
5. Against Me! (best live band around today)

youre talking 140 shows, same band? that is definitely dedication. how many years did that take?! the most times ive ever seen a band was seventeen- my old fave band before i heard gaslight. as far as total concerts, i dont know how you people keep track of that! i have no idea how many ive been to in my entire life.

it's been 12 going on 13 years in november... i would have no idea how many shows i've been to total either... probably, as one of my friend likes to say, a shit ton

who was the band you saw 17 times, steph?

e7c, it seems like a lot of people on here like Against Me! i only know one song (thrash unreal) that i heard on the radio on a rare day that i must have forgotten my ipod... i will definitely check them out...

i'm always looking for new music... i need to go back and read through the "other bands" thread... i'm starting to feel out of touch LOL

this forum has an interesting relationship with AM!... all of the admin users here were originally members of the AM! forum. Infact I would say that 90% of AM! fans are also fans of TGA.

If you are going to give AM! a shot, I would recommened starting with the "Re-inventing Axl Rose" album. Lyrically they are an amazing band but Tom can be difficult to understand when you first start listening to them.

haha. i was afraid someone would ask that. the band i saw seventeen times was a little band called HIM. 13 years, dang, thats still more than ten times a year, so are you on a first name basis with the band or what?

thanks for the recommendation e7c... i'll check out Re-inventing Axl Rose this weekend

steph... after a certain number of shows i think any band is kind of obligated to learn your name LOL totally kidding of course!!!
but yes... they know me... and i consider a few of the band and crew friends and a couple in particular more like family... took a lot of years though

I wish I had the time and money to 'follow' a band and go to loads of their shows all over the place!

seriously...me too...going to the last couple gaslight shows pretty much broke me. but i didnt have much to start with anyways haha. but thats what motivates me to keep working and not just walk out the door when im having a bad day at work...im like "you need to save up money for the next gaslight tour" haha.

we never really had much money then... if we couldn't afford a hotel we would sometimes drive all night to get home... or we would sleep in the car at a rest area... we showered at a truck stops... got changed in countless fast food bathrooms... we even took the greyhound from chicago to san francisco once... i was lucky to have a good group of friends to travel with... and we ended up meeting message board people who would occasionally let us crash on their floors... looking back now i guess we were kind of crazy... but there is nothing better than a great show to make it all worth it

i totally get that...
a couple weeks ago i talked a friend into going to the gaslight shows in atlanta and north carolina (i live in arizona, she lives in california). i must be pretty persuasive to have talked her into that, cause she was into them before she went on the trip with me, but not enough to have owned any of their records. needless to say, shes now a fan and trying to talk me into going to more shows...
but anyway, yeah we bought our plane tickets like five days in advance, i drove up to california, picked her up, got to the airport and flew across the country to atlanta, dropped our bags off at some bag check thing in the airport and walked like fifty blocks to the venue, slept in the airport that night, got our rental car the next morning, made the drive to north carolina for that show, and drove back down to atlanta the same night. i had maybe four hours of sleep over the course of three or four nights. it was probably not a good idea for me to drive that whole way...i actually ended up stopping at a gas station to sleep for like a half an hour because i was starting to imagine things in the road as i was driving, ended up sleeping for like three hours and getting the rental car back late and missing our flight haha. yeah i never realized how goddamn expensive rental cars are. oh and since we missed our original flight home, they put us on a flight to pennsylvania i think?, ended up spending like two hours on the runway waiting to take off because of pennsylvanias bad weather, missed the next connecting flight home because of that delay...and then when i finally got back to LA, my car started having problems and i had to call out of work the next day and yadda yadda...
we decided the world was definitely against us taking that trip.
haha yeah its great trying to ignore the weird looks you get when youre shaving and brushing your teeth in the airport bathrooms.
hell, maybe we should road trip together for the next gaslight tour!

OMG girl... sounds like you had an eventful trip
i'm definitely in for a road trip next tour!!!
kicking myself for not attempting a few more shows this time around... probably won't get to see them again this year unless i can get lollapallooza figured out or win the lottery and fly to europe haha
my friend is a photographer and i let her crash at my place a few years back when she came in to photo the fest... i was out of town last year so she stayed with someone else... she's like this crazy older (60+) woman from georgia who is just too cool because she's still out there taking pictures at her age... if she stays with me i can go and be her "photo assistant"... basically following her around all day carrying her stuff... fingers crossed

yes dude check out reinventing its one of the best albums ever made

i can up it for you if you want

thanks for offering... my bro "found" it for me

cool man enjoy

i remember when i heard that album for the first time it was fucking wonderful

As for AM! I would also suggest their live album AMERICANS ABROAD - as a I find their live versions MUCH better than their studio ones - even from "Axl Rose" - Tom tends to overproduce his songs.

Oh - and I found a cool TONIC song for you!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCgq75K0oZ0&feature=related

Not too shabby!

thanks so much for the link! i've never seen video from that show before... everyone looks so different!