SPEAKER_02 0:16

Welcome to Split the Corner. What can we get you?

SPEAKER_00 0:24

Hey everybody, it's Kaz and Kyle in another episode of Split the Corner Podcast. What's going on, Kyle? How are you feeling? I'm feeling really good, dude.

SPEAKER_01 0:35

Uh, this is an episode that I've had circled on my calendar for quite a while because it hits two of my favorite things in the entire world in one day.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Is one of those things margaritas? Because it's Cinco de Mayo.

SPEAKER_02 0:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:53

Actually, no, I can't even say that it's margaritas because they give me heartburn anymore. Well, all right. So Cinco de Mayo is something that we mentioned earlier in our St. Patrick's Day episode, uh, as sort of one of the one of the days that a bartender circles on their calendar as as a as something that they dread. Yeah. Right. Be prepared for frozen drinks and margaritas and people not being able to pronounce the tequila that they're trying to order, and it's just gonna be a mess of a day as people run around pretending to celebrate Mexican independence.

SPEAKER_01 1:37

I was more looking at it from I just enjoy drinking. So I'm glad that we're celebrating that. But I agree with you, man. Cinco de Mayo, when I was working nightlife and when I was working corner bars and sports bars and things, Cinco de Mayo was one of those days that I absolutely dreaded because it brings out the amateurs, as we've talked about. You're guaranteed to see people vomit, you're guaranteed to see people fighting with one another, you're guaranteed to get that guy that comes in and he orders 15 shots for him and his boys, and he does not tip. It's a rough day for a bartender. And to all those of you in the bartending world who are out there and are fighting the good fight today, just know that Kaz and I are with you. We have your back, metaphorically speaking, and we hope that you make a lot of money. Yeah, a lot of money. A lot of money. We really hope there's no vomit that ends up on you, yours or someone else's.

SPEAKER_00 2:34

Just bleed the amateurs dry, ladies and gentlemen. Just take them for all they're worth. Um, that being said, we we wouldn't be your your regular experts on all things national days if we didn't point out that Cinco de Mayo is not actually Mexican Independence Day. Uh, that's not till September. Um, it's a uh it's a victory in war against the French. That's it, it was just it was one of those things that they weren't supposed to win, and they won, and they celebrated it, and Cinco de Mayo just rolled off the Americans' tongue so well that we said, well, yeah, it's like Mexican 4th of July. Let's get wasted, and no one stopped to correct anybody. They were just like, Yeah, what would get the white guys wasted? Why not? Like, just just do it. So, you're not celebrating Mexican Independence Day. That that's that's not till later.

SPEAKER_01 3:39

You are celebrating an unlikely victory against those stinking frogs. We love you, France. And your fries.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

And your toast. And your dips. But that's it. Yeah, nothing else. Nothing else. Stupid tower. And your silly hats. Pastries that are delicious and buttery. All right. Let's I'm I'm getting hungry. We're moving on. Um, actually, it'd be a great day for some nachos. Um we are not going to spend an entire day talking about Cinco de Mayo. I think we've exhausted that because if it's gonna give us PTSD. Let's talk about something a little happier. Uh, a day that shares uh the 5th of May with our with our fun little Mexican drinking day is National Concert Day. And we as a entertainment and pop culture and all things fun podcast uh have not spent nearly enough time talking about music. I would agree with that wholeheartedly. I it's i I believe very firmly that, and I don't know whose quote it is, but I'm gonna go ahead and steal it, that art decorates space, music decorates time. Um I would I would hang that on my wall. Right next to your live, laugh, love right, exactly claimed wooden thing. It's shiplap. Um so off the rails today. So I would I would specifically uh I would think that with as musically inclined as we both are and as our audience probably is, I I don't trust people that don't listen to music. Uh you ever met somebody that that didn't, or just was like, I don't like music. I yeah, I have. That's so weird. I have. I don't really listen to music was the phrase. Well, then what audiobooks? Well, no, see, I can podcast. Listen to lots of podcasts. Maybe, maybe we should have maybe I missed an opportunity there. See, like, but here's the thing, I can dig that.

SPEAKER_01 6:02

And as I've gotten older, I listen to a whole lot more audiobooks and a whole lot more podcasts than I did when I was younger, probably because they didn't exist when I was younger, at least not in a way that you could very easily digest them. But to say that you don't listen to music at all, like that's nuts. I listen to less music now than I used to, I think, because again, I'm you know educating myself in different mediums and things, but there's not a day that goes by that I don't listen to music.

SPEAKER_00 6:30

Yeah, I always have something playing in the background or in in some headphones or or something. And and and I'm with you on the on the on the decorating time. I if you decorate it with a podcast or an audiobook, there there is something to the the age old, like I'm a big fan of people telling me stories. Like I'm in the storyteller nature of society that that lends perfectly to it. So if that's if that's the voice that you want to hear while you're trying to fill the silence with something, then go for it. But how how you make it to a certain age and you haven't found your personal musical nest at that point? I almost feel bad for you.

SPEAKER_01 7:25

There's not an almost involved in that for me, but I do feel bad for you. That's just it seems like you're missing something. I mean, it's one of life's great joys. Right. It doesn't necessarily need to, you know, be your entire personality or something, and I can speak to that a little bit later because I've definitely gone down that road. But uh just to not have anything to like you said, decorate you know, your your time and space. I mean, that just seems sad to me. Even if it's not good music, if it's something that you enjoy, if it's your music, then who cares, man? Like listen to what you listen to. But uh to not have anything, that just seems like you're missing out.

SPEAKER_00 8:09

There is a there's a great uh beauty to the art of it, and you don't even have to break it down further than just music, like the ability to create melody with an instrument is is real part and parcel for me with the ability to create beauty with a paintbrush, or or create beauty with you know uh 500 pages and 30 chapters of character building. Like some of some of the stories that are told through music and some of the stories that have come out through songwriters, I don't feel like you you get out any other way, and and they're expressed in in such a different I don't want to get too philosophical on like the vibrations of the universe and all that shit, but it it's such a unique medium of like maybe and maybe this is a a a big callback to the extraterrestrial episode, but I feel like if we sent out it, you know, uh people just talking, like having discourse in just regular conversation, and and we recorded that and sent that out into space, aliens would be like, yeah, whatever, we do that too. But if we sent them Hendrix, you know, they would be like, Holy shit, whatever they got going on in this planet is crazy. Right. So I I just think it's the art is the best of us. Right? Like that's that's our our capability of creating beauty in the world. And if you're not in, then you're you're missing it. You're you're just missing out on a large part of what makes life on this little marble great.

SPEAKER_01 10:15

Well, since it's National Concert Day, I think we need to dive headfirst into this because this is what I've been waiting to talk about because concerts have played such a monumental role in my life. I think I've been very upfront on this very podcast that I'm a big follower of the band Fish. I've seen them over a hundred times. My wife and I together, just the two of us together, have seen them 95 times. My seven-year-old son has been to 15 shows, my two-year-old son has been to six shows. I've spent basically my entire adult life following different uh musical avenues around the country, seeing different bands here and there, going to music festivals, doing all that thing. And I think that for me personally, those experiences have been what have led me to most of the good stuff in my life, you know. Like most of the friends that I have, the people that I consider my closest friends, these are people I've been to shows with, I've traveled with. You know, my wife and I have this in common. This is why we got together, was because we both loved fish and it was like, oh, look, you're a you're a girl that liked fish. That's uncommon. Because it's a lot of dudes. But just the the concert in general. I mean, like let's let's break it down like this. What do you think is the the thing that keeps people going to see live music? What is it about going to a live show that uh people are willing to spend copious amounts of money and time and travel and distance and all of those things? Like what is it that keeps people going back?

SPEAKER_00 11:59

Again, I don't want to go too deep into the to the vibrations of it all, but I do think the culture plays a large part, and and not necessarily any specific culture, but just the fact that you have assembled like-minded people. You know that there's 10,000 people in every direction that you're looking, and if you look at any one of them and go, hey man, that that third album, man, that was that was crazy. That blew me away. They're gonna know exactly what you're talking about. And it it breaks down one of those social barriers of having to find out if this random stranger uh shares a thing in common with me. You know they do, because you know how much you paid for your seat, so you know how much they paid for their seat. So you guys are are are initially immediately committed at that level. Everyone that's at the Taylor Swift concert is a Taylor Swift fan. You're not gonna look at the person next to you and go, oh my god, what's your favorite song? And they're gonna go, yeah, not really into this. Not at 800 bucks a seat. No, you're in, you're in. You're really in. And the people next to you are really in. So the the community of being able to immediately find your people the moment you show up in the parking lot, and you didn't know that all of the fans look just like you and dress just like you, and and get excited about the same parts and the same songs and the same lyrics resonate, and you know, you you're singing the song because it's your favorite song, and the three people next to you are all singing the same song because it's their favorite song. It's the it's the connection that happens instantly. It it allows you to welcome in a whole lot of people into your circle past step one. It just granted a pass, right? Everyone that that is a fish fan is welcome to at least come up and say what's up, right? Like you you at least want to know more about them as a person because you know you guys share this thing in common. Apart from that, the performance aspect of it, I think, is specifically interesting because you wouldn't go watch a sculptor sculpt. There's a lot of I had to it almost didn't come out of the throw the T at the last, it just kind of as we're running syllable word sculpt. If Van Gogh was going to paint this afternoon, 30,000 people aren't selling out Madison Square Garden to watch Van Gogh paint. Yeah, that's true. That I know of.

SPEAKER_01 15:06

I would're sure you'd find some some people they'd be like, oh, look at his brush technique.

SPEAKER_02 15:12

Just from a distance with the share the binoculars. There's no way he's gonna add more white to that yellow. Oh my god, he did. Whoa.

SPEAKER_00 15:22

If you sit on the right side, you can say whatever you want about his painting and he can't hear you. Some guy tries to start the wave.

SPEAKER_02 15:34

You're gonna distract him.

SPEAKER_00 15:36

He flips out in the middle and storms off the stage. Have you ever been to a concert where the where the audience can't clap on beat? Oh my god, dude.

SPEAKER_01 15:57

There's a band I used to see a whole lot called Umfreeze McGee. I've seen them with you. They're a great band. Shout out to Umfreeze. But for whatever reason, that crowd is notoriously terrible at clapping on the beat. And there was a time years ago, I can't remember exactly when, but the band used to like make fun of the audience. So they'd be in like a breakdown part or whatever, and be like a lot of rhythm and piano and stuff, and then they the the lead singer would get on and be like, You guys are off. You got you come on, get on the beat. And I think it's very interesting that the amount of people that go to show after show after show after show and enjoy this music are unable to keep a steady beat. That's unbelievable to me. You've seen this band enough that you know that's rhythm and you can't do that. Come on.

SPEAKER_00 16:51

I don't know if I should say this. This is a white person problem. It might be. It might be, dude. If this, if if we were two black dudes talking about our experience at the Stevie Wonder concert, like has that ever been a problem at a black concert where like, hold on, you guys are off beat. No, they're they're like adding beats and like syncopations and like making it better, all sorts of staccato rhythms and changing the whole mood of the song, and and and here we are sitting at Umfreze trying to figure out ones and threes, guys. Ones and threes, not twos and fours, ones and threes.

SPEAKER_01 17:32

Get it together, folks. But you brought up uh you brought up an interesting element of it, the uh the whole aspect of the parking lot. Like that's such a huge thing, especially in the hippie jam band community and world. I mean, you show up six hours, seven hours before a show just to hang out in the parking lot. And I've spent a considerable amount of time doing that myself. I mean, there's like a there's an outdoor marketplace, you know. For those people who have never been to one of these shows, they have vendors that follow the band around show to show to show, and they are given a designated space in the parking lot to set up a basically an open-air market, and it's called Shakedown Street. And you go to Shakedown and you meet at Shakedown and you get food at Shakedown, and beers and other things if that's your pleasure. But there's this whole village, this whole town, this whole traveling circus that develops around this thing. And I mean, obviously, it started with The Grateful Dead being the first band of its kind to really have fans travel city to city to city. And it that mantle has been picked up. You know, fish took picked up the mantle, and then it's been starting to happen with other bands. I mean, not just starting, I mean, it's been going on for years, but you know, bands like the disco biscuits or Humphreys McGee or Goose nowadays.

SPEAKER_00 19:01

You see it in the set of modern festival culture, too, right? Like the Bonaroos of the world that have that have started to become more pop relevant and uh, you know, more country stars, more hip-hop stars, more top 40 people, and the the bonneros of the world have the the same kind of layout. You know, we used to do Camp Bisco and Peach Fest, which are two diametrically opposed crowds, and and they both set up festival kind of the same way. You you camp here, you party here, you you shop and eat over here. Like there is a setup to it that does. It feels like a like a weird renaissance fair.

SPEAKER_01 19:45

Yeah, that's actually it's just instead of instead of tunics and jerkins, people are wearing tie-dyes, tie dyes and birkin stocks. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:00

Instead of meeting for giant turkey legs, it's peanut butter noodles and some sort of some sort of egg dish. But it's it's always the same vendors, or it doesn't matter if the almond brothers are playing or some DJs laying down a womp fest, it's the same tent selling fries with stuff on top.

SPEAKER_01 20:21

Yep. Actually, I'll you you mentioned Bonaroo. I'm in a weird flex here. Not even weird flex, I'm in a strong flex here. I went to one Bonaroo in 2009, and it was specifically to see fish because they played for two days. But uh the first night that they played right before them was the Beastie Boys, and it was the very last live performance the Beastie Boys ever had. And so my my flex here is that I did get to see the Beastie Boys, but I did get to see the very last time they played. And then right after that was Fish, and it was dope. But I remember that Beastie Boys performance specifically because they played Sabotage and they all were playing their own instruments during sabotage. So they get to the part where they all yell and they messed it up. So they had to go back like six bars and do the buildup to it again, and it didn't diminish it at all. Everybody in the crowd still went apeshit, and it was awesome, and it was it was this amazing thing, and it was something I'll never ever forget. Um, and also at that Bonnaroo, uh Fish played Friday and Sunday, and the headliner for Saturday was Bruce Springsteen. And I'm going to say something right now that is going to probably make me a pariah in the southern New Jersey, southeastern Pennsylvania quadrant where we both live. But I don't like Or understand why Bruce Springsteen is so popular. I think Bruce Springsteen's music is way overhyped. I don't get it. It all sounds the same. Why is there so much xylophone? It's just I don't like it. I don't like his voice. I can't relate to it. I'm not here for it. But Springsteen did stick around and come out and play a couple tunes with Fish on Sunday, which was kind of cool. Except that he forgot everybody's name and just was like, take it, Mr.

SPEAKER_02 22:30

Keyboard Player Guy.

SPEAKER_00 22:33

I don't know. I don't like Springsteen. It's a weird glass house to be throwing stones from. And I'm gonna keep throwing them. To to to say that from a fish fan. To say that Springsteen sounds like weird noise. It just I it just feels like the pot just hasn't looked in the mirror in a while. And I I feel like I think it I'm glad you brought up Springsteen because it's it's another point of of why music is so powerful. If you don't get Springsteen, then Springsteen's not for you. Springsteen caught a very specific moment in time, and I think so did uh so did Billy Joel. Um there is a there is a world that that existed and people in that world that's their soundtrack. If if you grew up in the type of in the type of community or the the type of time when you know when the weekend was about hopping in your car and picking up your buddies and cruising around and trying to see what adventure the night would hold. And you know, you know, you don't know if you're gonna end up at the lake at some giant party with a bunch of people, or you know, maybe you're gonna get into a race, or or maybe you're gonna drink some beers and get into a fight. Like there was a moment in time that is frozen in Bruce Springsteen's songs, the same way there's a moment in time that is frozen in Bob Dylan's songs, that that like let's ride the rails and sing of peace and protest the war. Like that's preserved in that music. So I I didn't own a souped-up GTO that was gonna get me away from this coal mine in town, but maybe my grandfather did, you know, maybe maybe my dad did. Maybe maybe a whole section of people in you know northeastern Pennsylvania or something, you know, one of these coal mining towns, maybe that's their maybe that's their their rally cry. It's their war song of like, I'm I'm gonna meet me and these four wheels are gonna go. So I I think if you don't get Bruce, then it's it's not it's not for you.

SPEAKER_01 25:18

It's the same, you can say the same thing about fish. If you don't get if you don't get fish, then it's not for you. If you don't get the dead, then it's not for you. And I think you could say that about pretty much any musician, really, but I think in those specific terms, then yeah, I mean, maybe I don't get Bruce because I can't relate to that kind of music. But the fact of the matter is, so many fish songs are nonsense lyrics. Like, I don't care though. I'm not a lyric guy. Like, your lyrics don't necessarily mean that I'm going to be a fan of you. I'm I'm there to get my face shredded by guitar solos and organ solos and weird little tricks on stage and things, man. That's what I'm there for. I'm not there because you happen to be in love one time and sing a song about it, and like I'm gonna go, yeah, I've been in love too. Like, who cares?

SPEAKER_00 26:09

Every tread. Every tread but you, every this is our paths diverge in the words here in in a strong way. I don't lyrics are such an enormous part of the process. The the storytelling, the word play, the the ability to turn a phrase, the the way it paints a picture. I I don't I if you're not listening to the lyrics again, I are you even are you even hearing the songs? I I don't understand how you can say I'm not a lyric guy. And I feel uh I feel like it that's something that that I also don't understand about the death metal community. And the the growling and screaming and those shows are fun, dude.

SPEAKER_01 27:07

Have you ever been to one of those shows?

SPEAKER_00 27:08

They are fun. Look, it's the same argument for the fish crowd. You don't understand the lyrics, but man, are the shows fun? It's a good time, dude.

SPEAKER_01 27:18

So you get your ass kicked in the middle of a crowd of people, they're gonna knock you over and then help you back up right before they knock you over again, and then you hug when it's over. It's awesome. It's a lot of fun. But here's the thing, dude. You can sit there and talk to me about lyrics all you want. That's fine. But I don't understand why the concept of virtuoso musicianship doesn't take you on some sort of journey itself. A guy that can sit there and do a 25-minute song, or four guys that can sit there and do a 25-minute song, that song may only have four words and they might be boy, man, god, and shit, which is you enjoy my self-reference for all those of you following along at home. But that doesn't mean that the song doesn't create an emotional landscape. It doesn't mean that the song doesn't take you on a journey. Just because the lyrics are nonsense doesn't mean that what those guys up there are doing doesn't resonate with somebody in a powerful emotional way. Just because Bob Dylan's lyrics or, you know, Darius Rucker's lyrics or Bruce Springsteen's lyrics didn't speak to me doesn't mean that, you know, it doesn't speak to somebody else, and that's fine. Let them speak to whomever they want to. That's the beauty of music, man. Just because I don't care about your lyrics doesn't mean that you playing a four-minute guitar solo isn't gonna make me feel something. And I would argue that it could even be more powerful because you're allowing interpretation to take you there. When someone's singing, I got my heart broken, and now I'm sad, like you can't take that anywhere other than I'm sad. But if there's a guy up there ripping guitar or bass or keyboards or whatever, and the way that they're playing and the notes that they're choosing and the way that they're in throwing that out to the world, it's left for a limitless amount of interpretation. And I think that that is a very powerful thing that doesn't get necessarily talked about that much. When you talk to people who say, I can't listen to fish, like I don't want to hear a 25-minute song, that's fine. That's fine. But there's going to be moments in those songs, those 25 minutes, that are going to be much different than when they started. And it's going to allow you to interpret those things and make you feel things and let the hair on the back of your neck stand up. And just because you told me you were in love one time and now you're sad and riding the rails and coal mining towns and all this, like you're not letting me interpret the music for myself.

SPEAKER_00 29:43

It's not your song.

SPEAKER_01 29:46

But it can be. That's what you're you're sitting there saying. No, you're saying that if the lyrics are the things that mean the most to you, then it becomes your song because you are attaching your personal experience to those lyrics. So yeah, that does become your song. Whereas when they're up there improvising on stage and making things up as they go along, it allows you to interpret and make it your song as you see fit.

SPEAKER_00 30:10

It is such a wild take that that you're trying to that you're trying to say that lyrics limit a song. I I don't I don't follow the fact that a 28-minute guitar solo with four words that changes 14 times is one emotional journey that you're going on, and you overlay your own story into the the plucky plucky bouncy bouncy of the of the fish music.

unknown 30:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:00

From my personal interpretation, yes. I feel a lot more when I'm in the middle of an extended jam than I do when I've got some guy singing at me about his souped up GTO. But that's again, that's the beauty of it, man. That's the the absolute beauty of it, is that your interpretation of music and what draws you to music is different from what draws me to music and what I interpret the music to be. And it doesn't make us any less music fans or whatever. It just means that we are having different experiences, and it's that's a great thing.

SPEAKER_00 31:47

I'm sorry, I'm still just trying to process the the justification of I'm not I'm not asking anybody to justify anything.

SPEAKER_01 31:58

There's no justification necessary.

SPEAKER_00 32:00

But every time we bring up music, you spend half the podcast trying to defend your fish fandom.

SPEAKER_01 32:06

There's no defending this was just me talking about my fish fandom. We talked about fish not making it in today's musical realm. That isn't there was no defense there. I agreed with you 100% off the jump. All I'm trying to say is, and maybe maybe I didn't do a good job, but what I'm trying to say is that I feel more of an emotional connection in the middle of a jam than I do when some guy is lamenting his lost love in his lyrics.

SPEAKER_00 32:38

Well, but so many why why are the only lyrics about lamenting lost love? Okay, then let's let's break it down. If if you're in the middle of a of a giant sing-along jam in in a crowd of 20,000 people all singing at the top of your lungs, that doesn't that doesn't evoke something from you?

SPEAKER_01 33:01

I never sing along a 28-minute guitar solo. You don't. You dance and you allow the music to take you wherever it's going to take you.

SPEAKER_00 33:13

It doesn't necessarily have to be the white people thing. That Chappelle show episode where they brought John Mayer in.

SPEAKER_01 33:21

Oh, that hit real close to home. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:23

Yeah, uh-huh. Yeah, that hit real close to home. 28-minute guitar solo and you and you dance. Which if you've been to a fish show is more of a slow flail with hula hooping. You're not wrong. No, I I do believe, and I I have uh you know I I mingle well with the the fish crowd. I'm just I I will I will meet you in the parking lot and hang out for about as long as as I can hang out, and then you guys are gonna go in and I will see you later. That's cool.

SPEAKER_02 34:07

We don't need your negative vibes, bro. Don't bring me down, Ann. Custy.

SPEAKER_00 34:18

There there was there was a weird moment in a festival a couple of years ago when when Trey was playing, uh Trey Anastasio, the the singer from Fish, for all of our normal fans, uh, and I decided to wander off and see who was playing on one of the other stages, and you guys treated me like I had no idea that Jesus was about to speak, and like I should really be sticking around. And I was like, no, I'm just gonna I'm just gonna go over here. And you're what do you what do you mean? What do you mean you're gonna leave? Why would you leave? You should never leave. You're gonna leave? You're gonna come back though, right? No, I don't I don't think I am.

SPEAKER_01 35:03

Ginger Jesus was about to lay down the gospel, bud.

SPEAKER_00 35:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:10

Yeah, well, at least it was you left, and I had more room to slowly flail my arms.

SPEAKER_01 35:17

What was the first show you ever saw?

SPEAKER_00 35:19

The first concert of my life shout out to the 90s uh was the teenage mutant ninja turtles coming out of our shell tour.

SPEAKER_02 35:34

It's the greatest thing you've ever heard in my life.

SPEAKER_00 35:38

Where four men in ninja turtle suits and costumes Reebox um played rock music about the life of the ninja turtle. So it was, you know, uh skateboarding in the sewers and eating pizza and you know, karate had that cassette, and uh yeah, halfway through the show, uh Splinter Kid or uh Shredder kidnaps April.

SPEAKER_02 36:17

Then the rest of it, the rest of it is a rock opera about trying to get her back.

SPEAKER_00 36:22

Yep, very much so, including a three-finger man in a turtle costume playing a guitar. No regrets.

SPEAKER_02 36:38

That's so good.

SPEAKER_00 36:40

Wasn't coming out of our shells.

SPEAKER_02 36:43

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 36:44

Yep, I had it on V chest. You can still find it on YouTube if you want to have a weird afternoon and you're a ninja turtle fan. Go ahead and find that gem because it's also on Spotify. I think.

SPEAKER_02 36:58

Yeah, my my son listened to a bunch of those songs with me, dude.

SPEAKER_00 37:03

Yeah, all right. What about you?

SPEAKER_01 37:05

And can can you can you top I can't top that? No, absolutely not. I can't top that. Um, well, my mom was a music teacher growing up, so we did a lot of going to the symphony and stuff when I was little, and I always gave her a hard time about going because I didn't want to put on khakis. But I always had a good time when I was there. But like the first concert I ever went to was OAR back in 2000. And me and a couple buddies, uh, the one guy's dad drove us down from right outside Harrisburg down to Philly to the electric factory. And it is now called Franklin Music Hall. But if you've ever been there, you know that it's always and forever going to be the electric factory. Yeah, it's the electric factory. I've seen so many shows there, and it's not even a great venue, but there's a lot of love in that building. Um, but here's how inexperienced I was. Uh, we get out of the car. Guy, like the dude's dad drove us right up to uh right up to the side gate there on Callow Hill, and we get out of the car, and the first person that I interact with, this guy just comes up, he's like, You want some mushrooms? I'm like, no, thank you. Mushrooms are gross.

SPEAKER_02 38:23

Are you also selling pizza, good sir? I would really like an uncrustable.

SPEAKER_00 38:30

2000s was a weird time to be an OAR fan. You you had to there was a line in the sand in the acoustic indie world, and and you had to declare it immediately. You were OAR or dispatch. It was the general or crazy game of poker. There were never the two shall meet. And God forbid you picked up an acoustic guitar and tried to work out a medley. Someone's throwing something at you. It it the fans were were as bitter rivals as can be while wearing corduroys. That's right. It was the Eagles and the Cowboys, it was the Yankees and the Redskins.

SPEAKER_01 39:18

Well, I ended up seeing them like like four times. And but in that in that interim, I'd found Fish and I found The Grateful Dead and Humphreys McGee and the Disco Biscuits and all these bands that I ended up seeing a whole bunch of times. But I just remember that being, it was a really good time because I was like 15 years old, and I remembered looking around at all these. I mean, like you know, OAR existed on the fringe of that hippie jam band scene, especially in the early 2000s. So you had the tie-dyes, you know, it's the the first time I ever saw somebody with really long dreadlocks, thinking that that must be really heavy and difficult to take care of. And it was a great time, man. But like that's the thing, is like I've spent my pretty much my entire adult life going to shows. Like just I've spent an exorbitant amount of money. I've done an incredible amount of traveling to go see different shows, and and I mean, I that really was like the the the first time that I I did it, and it kind of sparked something in me that I've continued to do, and now I do with my with my kids.

SPEAKER_00 40:27

Yeah, I would I would my advice would be don't do the math. No my god, no, dude. Don't look at those. Uh that that is money well spent. There is there is a release there, there is you know it's good for your well-being, it's good for your head space, it's good for your social commitments or whatever you're doing in in in your social life, it just don't don't do the math. Unless you you know, unless you went completely overboard. We're not financial advisors, let's not be ridiculous.

SPEAKER_01 41:03

No. I mean, the fact that I've uh uh driven halfway across the country on multiple occasions for things and have uh flown across the country for other things and dude, I'll tell you this. I've me and a a few friends uh fish played Syracuse one time. We drove from Philly to Syracuse, which is a six-hour drive. We did the three-hour show, we got back in the car and we drove the six hours home. I mean that I mean by the end of that drive, my god, the sun was coming up, it was rough. Fun story about that show though, was afterwards we're in the parking lot and it was like this really beautiful venue. I think Fish was the second band to play there, but it had this really open parking lot. It was mostly gravel and stuff. And I have a a a good friend who has an affinity for fireworks, and fireworks aren't necessarily legal in New York State, I don't think, or if they are, like it's a very specific, like sparklers or something. But this dude had like some mega like bottle rock, like whatever, whatever, whatever the step up from bottle rockets is, and he fired one of these gigantic things off, and just as he lit it, a helicopter flew very low over the parking lot, and that firework missed that helicopter by just such a minuscule amount of space that everybody ran like hell. People we didn't even know were like, oh shit, and like dropped everything and just ran off. But yeah, so don't shoot fireworks at helicopters, folks.

SPEAKER_00 42:42

They claimed to be such a peaceful, loving crowd.

SPEAKER_01 42:45

He didn't shoot it at he didn't shoot it at the helicopter, he lit it, and the helicopter flew by. Come to the colour. I don't know why there was helling lot and watch us play with anti-aircraft missiles. It was it was celebratory, it was a good show. What was the last show you saw?

SPEAKER_00 43:05

I was just trying to think about that. I do believe the last show I was at was when um so my daughter is entering uh and it's a it's an interesting musical conversation, but she's entering her rebellious teenage years musically. The problem is there doesn't seem to be an outlet for the modern rebellious teen. So her rebellious angst music is going back to the the early aughts kind of emo vibe, right? Probably the the generation after uh after us. I didn't want to listen to you know Elvis and the Beatles anymore, so I found Pearl Jam and Soundgarden and Metallica and Nirvana and you know the the the grunge movie. was my was my rebellious angst she has found like many before her the the works of Fallout Boy and My Chemical Romance and so I she has just gotten to the point where she's starting to ask to go to concerts you know she's she's clocking who's coming to town and oh the tour dates just went up and the tickets are going on sale and so our last show which was my last show uh was the band Ghost and they are a Swedish I don't want to call them metal because it's more theatrical and operatic than that um but it it's very much uh kind of Trans-Siberian orchestra the other ten months of the year kind of feel like it's not Christmas but it's still that big lots of pyro lots of theatrics like I I went to this show and I kind of understood how people could get into KISS you know like that there's a there's a hell of a performance here and there's a huge a huge um commitment to the show that they are about to put on and it's well orchestrated and the lights and the sounds and and like I said the pyro so I that was my last show I'm I've got a quite a few lined up for this summer um but Ghost surprisingly I never thought I would have set foot at a show like that but I had a good time it was it like I said if if you can find a couple songs that you like and really let yourself get lost in the showmanship that's a that's a good time.

SPEAKER_01 45:52

Some crazy people watching yeah dude I saw Kiss when I was 18. It's the only show I've ever been to with my dad it was Kiss and Aerosmith my dad and my brother and I went in Hershey Pennsylvania it was a good time man I think the band that opened for them oh my god what were they called they had that song Click Click Boom remember that song click click boom anyway my dad thought that was the funniest song he'd ever heard in his entire life so like my my big memory of that was like you know Kiss doing their thing and Aerosmith doing their thing but my biggest memory from that show is my dad just losing his mind just laughing as hard as I've ever seen him laugh while these guys are on stage trying to make click click boom sound like a like a fight song or something. But yeah I thought that was that's like that that's I think that's a cool thing though that's something else to think about with concerts is maybe sometimes it's not even the music that you remember it's the the people you were with or the the experiences that you had while you were there and how old how cool that was like for example um fish did a festival in Delaware two years ago over the summer and it was my younger son's first birthday and my wife and I decided that instead of missing the festival because we had made a promise to each other many many years ago before we had kids that we wouldn't miss another fish festival that we were going to take our kids with us and celebrate our son's first birthday at a fish festival. And you know we do things a lot differently than we used to we hang in the back. There's a lot of families there like we might have a beer or two but you know we're we're chilling and enjoying ourselves but my oldest son is a fan of a song called Meat Stick that fish does and it has a a whole dance associated with it. And it's his favorite fish song and all the shows he'd been to he'd never seen it. We're sitting there on the the lawn in the back it's night there's a lot of glow sticks and and a lot of fun things happening around us and all of a sudden the chords for meat stick start and he gets this huge look on his face and our whole crew we were there with there was like 12 or 15 of us and the crew of people in front of us who we'd gotten to know a little bit they all knew that he was looking to hear meat stick and the entire section around us just absolutely exploded. There was this moment of pure joy that came out they we all picked him up and and everybody's cheering and dancing around him and he just you know I I remember the look on his face and I remember what that felt like and the coolest thing was about three weeks later a buddy of mine screenshotted me a Reddit post and it was from somebody who was behind us. We didn't know this person. I've never met this person if you're listening to this podcast thank you because it made me cry a little bit but he the the person that posted this thing was talking about that moment when Meat Stick came on and like there was this just this outpouring of of affection and love and joy and everything and and he posted about it on Reddit and um you know now I have that forever so that was really cool but you know I don't remember if the meat stick was particularly good.

SPEAKER_00 48:51

I don't remember if any okay that's pretty funny I don't remember a lot about that particular evening or that particular day you know specifically but I remember that very very specifically and I'll never ever forget that I do think that that's the people that you spend it with I we were um we were big Jimmy Buffett still still big Jimmy Buffett fans uh and that you know much like a fish show that concert is an experience all itself and uh it's some of my some of my most memorable experiences don't have anything to do with a cheeseburger in paradise it's more about the fact that you know before Jimmy Buffett would play the Camden waterfront some local radio station would pay for an entire dump truck full of sand to fill parking lot C and turn it into a beach party and we would you know show up early and and party on the beach and you know and there there was always we had family friends who were bigger Buffett fans than we were so it it'll always it'll always remind us of of them right and and that's same thing with a lot of the shows that I've that I went to you know the people that I went to are are most of the people that I went with are most of the memory maybe you remember a couple of songs that were specifically you know specifically bangers or or you'd been chasing them you know I I hope they play this this is my favorite song and then they played it and it was amazing but the odds of you remembering the entirety of the set I so you take away the the memory of the experience and and a couple of songs.

SPEAKER_01 50:57

It's funny to me that you gave me so much shit about lyrics and you're gonna come out here and talk about cheeseburger in paradise it's five o'clock somewhere margaritaville why don't we get drunk come on bud I would I I would can't I would counter all of that with uh trying to reason with hurricane season a pirate looks at 40 come Monday whatever whatever Kaz I know that there was a lot more we wanted to get to we didn't we didn't even get to what we had planned on talking about today but I gotta tell you you know you're gonna bring national concert day in here and and for guys like you and me it's gonna it's gonna take up a a good chunk of what it is that this episode was supposed to be but I've enjoyed it man I like talking it's always a good time it's always a good time talking music with people that really love music.

SPEAKER_00 51:59

And having done a bunch of shows together you know I've seen you I've seen you slowly flail those arms buddy yeah they they flail a little uh it depends on who's playing not tipper oh man that tipper show well ladies and gentlemen another week of split the corner podcast featuring terraco his horns on us or them I don't know