THE FIRST ENTRY: For the First 18 Years of My Life...

I did not listen to music. It was embarrassing.

People would whip out their headphones, their CD players, their Nirvana references...and I'd be at a loss. My parents were part of the problem: "You listen to music," they insisted. "Sinatra and Gershwin are ten times better than that the junk they play on MTV!" I bore equal responsibility, though, because I did little to correct the problem. My boldest attempt at breaking into the modern music world was buying a Creed cd senior year. Scott Stapp would so make me cool.

Somehow, though, as I entered William and Mary, I did not feel musically secure. Why had Creed not given me more cred?!

The big change came with Weezer a month into freshman year. Listening to “Undone,” “Say It Ain’t So,” “Buddy Holly,” and the rest of the blue album, I found rhythm, emotion, wit, wisdom…everything I could ask for in music. After that came Foo Fighters. And then early Dylan, Chili Peppers, Wilco, and fifty more. By the end of college, music had become the most important thing in my life.

Influential as music had become, I still had never traveled to a live show. As soon as I graduated, though, I made a pact to correct that: concerts would become what music had been in college. A month after graduation (6/21/07), I drove to Maryland and saw my first show, Wilco. The month after that, I took the train to NYC and saw Dispatch. Then came the White Stripes, Muse, and forty more. This past June (6/21/09), at Wolftrap Pavilion in Vienna, VA, I attended my

44^th concert – Wilco. I made a full circle.

If you choose to browse this blog, you will be able to trace that circle – to follow the concerts from the first to the last. I had wanted the blog to go live right after 6/21/09 but that clearly didn’t happen. I’ve posted six reviews since then, and the final nine will be posted by mid January, when everything will be up to date.

My suggestion is that you glance at the “Current Concert List” box at the top right corner of the page, type a band you’re interested in into the search bar at the top left corner of the page, and click on that entry. If you’re able to find two or three songs you connect with, awesome. If you’re not able to find any, well, at least you’ll see I’ve moved past Creed…

Scott Stapp totally belongs in the photo...