Out of Mind

Perfect weekend.

Woke up in Boulder. Went with my friend to grab some coffee/breakfast on the hill. Headed back, drank some cool water… then headed out on my own to get in line for Circa Survive’s sound check. Noticed that Anthony Green was hanging out a couple blocks down, alone on a bench with his guitar. Awkwardly walked up and asked if he’d mind if I just chilled there and listened. Listened to some vocal arpeggios, what I think was a Good Old War song, a cover of Someone You’d Admire by Fleet Foxes, and some other music stuff I can only assume will be on Beautiful Things. Then he told me some weird story about being there years ago and having the craziest rock-star night after a Soasin show. (yep) Then he left to grab food or something and told me he’d see me inside. I waited outside with the other “Creature Club” members for a while, some really cool people actually. They let us in, and the 15-20 of us watched Circa play a few songs while the venue checked them. Anthony asked all of us if someone wanted to sing the last one. Nobody said anything so I tentatively raised my hand. The next five minutes were a dream. Anthony got me on stage and told me to go for it, then jumped down with the fans. Brendan asked me if ‘Baby’ was ok. I, smiling wider than my own face, told him it was my favorite song. Describing how great of a moment this was for me is much too impossible, so I’ll just keep the story going. I sang the whole thing, and after the first little bit, really let myself drop into it. Moved around a little bit, was much lower than Anthony would sing, obviously, but I felt confident enough and the high from something that crazy happening at all just overcame me. When it finished I just kept blurting thank-yous to all of the band members. Anthony told me it was “so great”, and then a few of the guys grouped hugged me, and then Anthony kissed me on the neck. I told him what just happened was a dream of mine, and he responded by saying “you can make dreams real”. All of us then got to hang out and talk to all the Circa guys. Collin said some very cool shit about how he lives his life, and how stoked he was about the occupy Wall St. protests in particular. Eventually they asked us to leave so the other bands good do their checks, so I went and ate some lunch. After that went and sat-down outside the venue with the other fans, and talked about Circa shows, collage, all kinds of stuff with people I hadn’t met until then. Then Mr. Green showed up again and started playing songs for all of us. He played 7 or 8, and I loved every second of it. That’s that video up there, I’m to the right of Anthony. After his little acoustic set he thanked us and left. We waited a while, I ran into some more friends, and talked to the other crazy fans who were at the top of the line with me some more. States blew me away, not just with how adorable Mindy White is (very) but with their very appealing sound. Also, their cover of Cee-Lo’s Crazy was the grooviest, coolest cover ever. Maps and Atlases ruined my mind with their mathy folk-influenced style, and then Circa came on and… Just being in the middle of that mess of people going crazy for every single song. I’ve experienced it a good amount of time now and it’s always spectacular. It’s so difficult to explain what crowds turn into at their shows, but they are really the only band where I’ve experienced it. There is absolutely nothing even close to the craziness that happens while they play. Two fantastic new songs, and a bunch of old loves.

I love that band so god damn much I can’t stand it, one of the best weekends I’ve ever had.