New Summer Concert Season

When my friend called to tell me that she was going to be coming to LA for the Dispatch concert, I immediately got excited and bought my ticket.  I used to love listening to Dispatch in high school, and I'm fairly certain that my friend, Andrea, and I even schemed to play hookie and roadtrip to their "final" gig in 2002.  So rebellious, per the usual.

Since that time, the band has gone on a few reunion tours, all of which neglected to register on my radar.  Despite my negligence towards the band's tunes the last few years, I very much so looked forward to revisiting the ska/reggae/acoustic tunes of my youth with a few good friends.

As the weekend of the concert approached, I anticipated catching-up with my out of town guests and spending my Sunday at the Greek.  A few days before the concert, however, I received a call from my whom I was supposed to go with.  Being new to California, and not living in LA, an amateur mistake was made when she purchased tickets to the show on Saturday at the Greek in Berkeley.  Siiiiiigh.   

Despite being disappointed by the absence of my friends, I went to the concert alone and really enjoyed myself.  With each strum of the guitar, memories of driving around in my hometown and sitting around at bonfires came flooding back to me.  Being fully immersed at the concert, I also realized I never acknowledged what a talented group of musicians comprised the band.  Each of them, unique looking in their own ways, play drums, guitar, bass, sing and write their own songs!  That takes true talent, and to see so much of it up on the stage at once was overwhelming.

Some claim that scent has the most power to  instill nostalgia in a person, but to me, music and sound conquers my scent driven memories;  songs have the ability to take me back to an age, a place and an emotion, and that's what makes them impossible to live without.