we'd sit in the room, listening to albums on vinyl
burning incense
talking about shows like we were savvy critics
playing mix tapes to sing along
thanks for sharing mewithoutYou with me all those years ago, sam.



Trevor and I drove down to LA last night for the show. mewithoutYou was only opening, but even those 30 minutes were so beautiful. Thrice was amazing, of course, and even though I was, confessedly, a bit skeptical of Brand New, they were so emotionally charged and raw during their whole, long set. At least live, I am sold on them.

Nelly and a friend met us outside The Wiltern for some genuine Chinese bean-sauce noodles at a hole-in-wall place and then bad but welcome cups of coffee from Denny's while we waited in line. We saw Aaron going through the trash (read my favorite interview with him here: http://www.bustedhalo.com/features/BustedAaronWeissmewithoutYoupart1.htm) and awkwardly said hello. He offered us pieces of pizza, but we were so full.

The drive home held more music, especially Radiohead (of course), crunchy green apples and good conversation. There's nothing really to say, except that I want to be part of this truth-telling, this way of writing things so true that it hurts and offends and feeds all at once. I want to eat truth like bread each day. I want to swim in it like the ocean, feel its waves crash around me. I want to know it communally, with others. I don't know how these musicians write songs that are so true- how they verbalize that we're "playing around with matchsticks when we could be utterly changed to flame," that we "do the best we can." We're so small and weak and incapable, but He says we'll overcome. Oh, doubters. "We desire truth in the inmost parts," a friend reminds me. And I want to remind others.

There was almost a desperation hanging over the entire show... a desperation seeping into us, a desperation we partook in.


"i was once the wine, and you,
you were the wineglass
i was once alive, when, when You held me"