The beginning

This is the first memory I have from my youth (I'm on the far right). Anthony brought me to life because he played drums in an alt-punk-country band, Shinola, worked and hung out with hippies in the produce department of Whole Foods and was generally lazy about upkeep with hygiene. In the band we opened for Spoon once, but we almost missed it because Anthony overslept and the Spoon drummer offered to fill in for him! Humans are so unreliable. I've always wondered, looking back, if Anthony's bandmates wouldn't rather have had the Spoon drummer play with them. Would have made for a good story. Occasionally Anthony would come from behind the drums to sing (scream, really) the band's version of Iggy Pop's "Search and Destroy." The grill on the microphone would pull at my hairs, but I was excited to be up front and center stage for those brief moments.

Eventually, Anthony took me out from behind the drums permanently and put me behind a sound board at two really cool music venues, the Cat's Cradle in Chapel Hill, NC and the Music Farm in Charleston, SC. I saw some amazing bands: Pavement, Ben Harper, Flaming Lips, They Might Be Giants, Buzzcocks, Cowboy Junkies, Soul Coughing, Rusted Root, Motorhead, 311, Ben Folds and more. It's hard to remember all of them, but I always had the best seat in the house!