Another Elephant 6 related concert - I'm going to get all of these out of the way. This tour came through before either band had really hit; I think Elf Power just had a 7" out, and Of Montreal were something I had only heard of. Both would later go on to modest success, particularly Of Montreal who managed to separate themselves from the E6-identification and probably still put out records today (I don't follow them).

Manny organised this and asked me if I wanted to be the opening act since he knew of my E6 love and (and website). It was kind that he asked, but Land wasn't ready to play live yet (I think we were just starting to practice) so I formed a quickie band with John Lancia. We called ourselves the Auspice Band, though we were only billed as Auspice here. This was (in retrospect) one of the more fun and quirky things I had ever tried to put together. This was, for better or worse, my singer-songwriter project as of autumn 1998. I have some photos of this show, where I am a lanky 18-year old playing the Mosrite electric guitar that I still own and John visible in the background on drums.

This must have been one of the earliest Millvale Industrial Theatre shows I went to. I can't remember when it opened exactly - I want to say summer 1998, and I think the first show there was for a Tim Berne project, maybe Bloodcount? I didn't go, and I was actually not fond of MIT because of it's practical limitations - I didn't have a car and I found it difficult and inaccessible. Now I look back on it as my favourite venue of all-time, disregarding Ptarmigan.

Auspice Band was pretty auspicious,  I guess. The songs are hit and miss.  At the time I was really into Mission of Burma and Olivia Tremor Control. I wanted to simultaneously be the singer-songwriter and Martin Swope. I worked out all of these layered noisy 4-track tapes, which were thought out and not just random, with various sound-effects, delay-pedal drones, and noise. I played this with the 4-track hooked up to a volume pedal which I used, at times, to bring the tapes into the mix. John also played keyboards a bit while he drummed. I think we were terrible this show. We played one more time at the first ADD fest the following month. Someone told me that the songs were similar to Daydream Nation-era Sonic Youth but that wasn't much of an influence --probably just a result of the weird guitar tuning I was using.

John took all the 4-track demos we had recorded during the 2 months of the Auspice Band and put out a tape on his Home-Aid label without my permission, called Improvement, modeled after the cover art for New Order's Movement. I'll post it here eventually, as I think there are some charming gems that I still enjoy hearing, like my ode to orange juice and some tender teenage emo tunes. The following year, when I was fully obsessed with Dead C and This Heat, we hung out Thanksgiving night and recorded four really experimental tracks that John also put out as the second Auspice Band CDr. There is nothing I would like more than to reunite the band after 13 years.

Sonic Rob & Ollie were I think a song-based trio of students who went to Pitt with me but I don't remember them. I actually don't remember much about the other bands, except that I enjoyed it. Elf Power covered Eno's 'Needles in the Camel's Eye' and Of Montreal were pretty dainty but I was into that at the time. They all stayed at my apartment in Shadyside but I don't think I ever saw any of them again. I was in touch with Bryan from Elf Power for awhile because of the whole E6 website thing.

The show was fairly poorly-attended, though I also realise now that any show with less than 50 people felt that way at MIT.

This is the one that blew it wide open for me.

Maybe I've said that before.  I went to this show the summer between 11th and 12th grade, excited to see Butterglory.  My friend Amy had dubbed me Are You Building a Temple in Heaven? and it's twee-ish indierock harmonies rocked my world.  Karl Hendricks Trio were about all I knew of "local music" at the time - I had seen them at Lollapalooza '93 and knew they had been signed to Merge records.

Neutral Milk Hotel, who played first, I knew nothing about.

And of course, we all know what happened.  Boy sees band, band rocks boy, boy is never quite the same.  NMH erupted with complete and total joy, with the fuzzy 60s pop influences I loved at age 16, but also the flair for the experimental, the eclectic - singing saw, trumpet (played by Scott Spillane who climbed on top of the PA at times); the manic drummer. Songs that just seemed so rich and inviting - and this was music being played as a way of life, a calling.

I wrote a much more gushing and absurd recollection a decade ago on my 'farewell' page, when I shut down my Elephant 6 site, which thankfully archive.org still has a copy of, if you can deal with the font/margins.

I don't remember much though - Karl's set I don't even know if I watched cause I think I was outside being excited.  I met my friend Christie that night (where are you now?).  I remember being flabbergasted by the 'I love you Jesus Christ' line but not being bothered by it, even though religion in music was total anathema to me.  I remember B. Chad outside asking me if they were serious.  I remember Butterglory were good but I was already losing interest (though that song 'Rivers' was amazing and I distinctly remember the drummer banging away on the floor tom).  I don't remember if they played 'Alexander Bends' which they were (justifiably) known for.

I remember my mom picking me up and my friends (Brian and Nick and Dawn I think were with me) and just being so incredibly excited about this band.  I remember buying On Avery Island a few days later at Randy's Alternative Music on the South Side.  I remember getting the Apples in Stereo's Fun Trick Noisemaker and soon after the Olivias entered my life.  I don't remember at what point I made an Elephant 6 website, but this music became the centre of my word for the next few years.

Of all the posters I found in my parents' basement, I was most happy to find this one mostly intact.  This feels like a real beginning for me, even 15 years later; it's part of the holy trinity of formative live music experiences (along with the Mountain Goats at Laga and Chisel at the Beehive).

This was a night to remember, forever.  A year and a half after I saw Neutral Milk Hotel play the Beehive, they came back to Pittsburgh, only this time they were my favourite band.  Ever.  I mean, they aren't my favourite band ever now, but I think it's safe to say that my passion for this music at this time was greater than I've ever felt about a recording artist - of course, refracted and magnified through that volatile teenage lens.  In the intervening year and a half since the 1996 Pittsburgh show, I had not only become their biggest fan, but I had started an unofficial website for the whole Elephant 6 thing, which thanks to my timing in the nascent Internet fanscape, brought me into contact and correspondance with them.  I saw them play in Cleveland in April '97 and emailed with them, Eric from the Olivias, and others.   Some of them I considered to be "friends" and although I was just a plucky 17-year old with wide eyes, I think they genuinely liked me too and appreciated my enthusiasm.

Here, they come to Pittsburgh again, just moments before their second album blew wide open and the star exploded.  I, of course, knew the record intimately because C and I met in the autumn semester, and he had an advance tape of it from his brother, complete with breaks and skips in places due to a bad dubbing deck.  Once again they were the opening act for another Merge band, this time Superchunk, who I also loved but found my interest in waning.

The show was at Graffiti, a mid-sized venue in Pittsburgh that was frequently booked by Joker productions, a concert promoter whose name I think was John Rinaldo.  This was a step up from the 'Manny' shows that I usually went to and brought with it the irritations of club security, bigger stages, etc.  Of course I saw Guided by Voices twice here and Pavement a few other memorable shows, so I actually sort of miss Graffiti.  Most Joker flyers had a distinct look but this one was somewhat grassroots, and on orange paper and landscape mode - a real departure for Joker!

C and I were on the guest list and had fun catching up with Jeff, Julian, Scott and Jeremy, spending most of our time backstage.  My friend asked Jeff to play 'Two-Headed Boy Part 2' which he didn't usually play live, and he opened the set with it, which was somewhat confounding to the rest of the audience who was generally just waiting for Superchunk to play.  But again, they were an amazing supernova of a band, and they slayed that night.  I recorded it on a dictaphone and I think I still have the tape somewhere.

I actually barely watched the Superchunk set - I think I spent most of the time hanging out with Julian and Jeff backstage, which was downstairs.  I remember hearing 'Slack Motherfucker' and going up to watch it with the rest of NMH, but I wasn't too bothered missing Superchunk, although I never saw them again and the record they were touring for here (I think), Here's Where the Strings Come In, remains my favourite work of theirs.

My parents (who I still lived with) were out of town and explicitly forbid me to let Neutral Milk Hotel crash there, but I disobeyed and brought them back to Brookline anyway.  My grandmother was there and was completely cool with a rock band sleeping on the living room floor; I remember her making Julian scrambled eggs in the morning, and he asked after her the last few times I saw him.  (She died in 2007).  

I felt on top of the world, completely in awe of how people can create such amazing and expressive music together.  I never saw NMH again - you all know what happened once the rest of the world finally heard Aeroplane.  I kept up some sort of relationship with a few of them in various levels, long after I stopped doing the website.  Though at this point it's been years since I've talked with any of them.  C and I are still friends and collaborators to this day and when we are together (which is rare) we often reminisce about this and other Elephant 6 experiences.