In the beginning...

We'll start from the beginning. End of fifth grade, "Longview" becomes a hit on the radio. I liked it. I listened to it and many other 90s alt bands on the radio and was into it, including Rancid, who had the song "Salvation" on the radio (and soon to come their other hits as well as The Offspring). My sister went away to college around this time. She would call the house and talk to me sometimes about how she was so excited to be able to go see bands play (she said "I can finally go to concerts!"). Apparently either she hadn't tried to or our parents didn't allow her to when she lived at home.

So she said she had gone to see Rancid a few times and got me something, it was a Rancid "And Out Come the Wolves" tour shirt, which I still have to this day. She also talked to me about this band she saw and was pretty into named the Voodoo Glow Skulls. I thought the name was real cool. I found out later that the first time she saw them it was at a Checkers that at nights on the weekends was turned into a showplace, fucking weird.

Over the time of talking to her, at some point she said something about "black flag is pretty cool, but you probably wouldn't be able to find their cd in normal stores." to which i said "oh! i've seen them in sam goody when i was looking for black sabbath!" she was surprised. she told me to pick something up from them. one day at the end of school year for sixth grade (1995), my friend Ed and I and possibly one or two more were in a barnes and noble in the cd section. I found "Everything Went Black" and went to buy it. He comes up behind me on line, looks at what I have, to which he says "Why are you going to buy that shit?!" I looked at what he was holding. It was Marilyn Manson's "Smells like Children". I said, "whatever man." a week later my father drove us and two other friends to action park, i offered ed to listen to the record, and he flat out refused saying it sucked. my two other friends agreed with him.

My bar mitzvah was the next year, my musical tastes were apparent. It was dubbed, "Doug's Rock-a-Rama" with the kids tables named for bands: I sat at "Nirvana," while other tables were named "Sex Pistols," "Black Sabbath," and "Black Flag." On the shirt there was a variety of bands, including Rancid, nirvana, sex pistols, meat puppets, smashing pumpkins, pink floyd, and nine inch nails (i told you, 90s alt). My sister got me a cd: NoFX's "I Heard They Suck Live." In all honesty, I didn't like it at all. She told me later it was between that and operation ivy's energy, i was confused. she said i had told her i didnt like 'ska' so she got me the nofx cd. i was thoroughly confused.

That year, 7th grade, we had a new kid on our block, i was the first to make friends with him. He had moved from florida. He was really into less than jake and face to face, along with 90s alt. Him and our friends formed a band and 'played' my bar mitzvah, it was cool.

So the next school year, i received a postcard in the mail, talking about an "offspring secret show," at tramps with the joykiller. I was pretty jazzed, and asked my parents if i could go. They said yes. The postcard said that tickets were going on sale at generation records on a certain date. I ended up heading down a day or two later, I cant remember which. It was my first time using the subway by myself, I remember getting onto the wrong platform and not knowing what to do so i left and went to my dad's office to ask what i should do, ha. So I get to gen records and obviously its sold out already. they say to try ticketmaster. So i look around the pretty cool store and area (i'd heard a lot about bleeker and the village) and went back to the office. down the block was an HMV record store, which had a ticketmaster in it.

So I went to the store, I went up to the counter, and my friend ed had just bought tickets to something! i asked what to, and he said that him and alex and a bunch of people were going to the sno-core tour...with face to face, less than jake, and voodoo glow skulls. i said, "i love vgs! and i know ltj and f2f are good because of alex" so they said the offspring show was sold out (just a funny corollary: two of the people that played with f2f at that show are now in the offspring)...i thought for about...3 seconds, and said i wanted to buy a ticket to the sno-core tour. It was only $17.50 after ticketmaster charges.