I wrote all this unintentionally
It was only supposed to be a couple sentences to post on tumblr, but it got away from me and I ended up writing this whole freaking thing in the tumblr text editor and I figured I might as well post it here. For the kids playing along at home, this is basically what I was trying to say here.
Every once in a while I'll go to youtube and look up live Streetlight videos, and then I get hooked on them and just keep watching, partially because they put so much energy and effort and talent and heart and soul into their live shows that I'm convinced you haven't truly heard or understood Streetlight and what they're all about until you've seen them live...and partially because they remind me of the shows I've been at. This band means more to me than I could properly explain here, but that doesn't bother me because anyone else who loves Streetlight knows what I'm feeling.
Their fans are the best. Everyone says that about their favorite band, I know that, but I can't see any band being supported by a greater group of people. Streetlight has only released two albums of original material, and they've been around for eight years. Any other band with a record (no pun intended) this terrible would be dead and gone by now, forgotten, swept aside behind the mad rush of the limited attention spans of today's consumers. But we're loyal. We love Tomas, and we trust him. To be able to trust somebody that most of us have never met is a bit of a stretch, but the true fans know that when there is another release, in two months or two years, it will be as brilliant and life-changing and beautiful as everything else he's ever written. We're content to wait. Because he told us that "we're going to keep doing what we do, whether or not a single record is sold".
When 99SOR came out, that trust is what separated us from any other fans. It takes guts to release a cover album. It takes guts to massacre a tenor saxophone on that said album, and it takes a tremendous amount of guts to cover your own song. When a new album by any other band comes out, there is always that select group of fans determined that the band has finally jumped the shark--they've gone too mainstream, they've gotten worse, they're just playing the same old shit over and over again. But not with Streetlight. They took some heavy risks on their latest release, musically and otherwise, but we just took it all in stride. Not only did we accept the genre experimentation that is "The Troubadour" and "Birds Fly Away", we embraced it. I love 99SOR. Tomas put it together because those songs meant something to him, and now they mean something to us, too.
We love the rest of the band just as much as we love Tomas, if not more. Ask any random individual off the street and there's a good chance they won't be able to tell you what a saxophone looks like. When Matt or Jim or Mike or Sops or Nadav or anyone in their rotating horn section steps up fora solo, the crowd roars--it just fucking roars. Streetlight's horns are treated as rock stars. If you play a wind instrument, you strive to be half as good as any of the fine gentleman I've listed above.
Of course, if you play guitar or bass or drums, you're looking up to Tomas and Pete and Chris. I don't know very much about those particular instruments, but I'm confident that they are all outrageously skilled at what they do. It sure sounds like it to me.
We know all of the lyrics to all of the songs. We know them by heart because we've stored them in our hearts, to pull out and recite during our darkest days, as our only source of comfort. Annie and Sergio and Mr. Gepetto are our dearest friends and are always there for us with open arms to catch our fall, even when it seems the rain will never end.
We all have our memories from seeing Streetlight, moments that, when recounted in a pathetic little memoir like this one, seem trivial, but moments that we will never forget. I remember when I was in the front row, clinging to the barrier for my life, in a bit of a stare-down with Mike Brown. He kept watching me and grinning that insane grin of his as I shouted the lyrics at him, and I'm convinced he was watching because he couldn't believe that I knew all the words. I would always grin back, as if to say, 'of course I know them, why else would I be here?'
I remember when they played Point/Keasbey/Counterpoint, as they always do. When they reached the end of the bridge, though, there was no Keasbey. They delved right into the end of the song, the Counterpoint, and everyone in the crowd went quiet for just a moment, and I happened to look up on the stage; Tomas was in absolute hysterics. God, but we were all so confused, and he was so overjoyed that he had fooled us that I couldn't help but laugh as well.
I love when they play We Are the Few. Because when we sing "this has been the best night of my life", we mean it.
I hope this wasn't too pretentious, or too long--I'd be surprised if anyone read all this at all. But I felt that it needed to be said.
Every once in a while I'll go to youtube and look up live Streetlight videos, and then I get hooked on them and just keep watching, partially because they put so much energy and effort and talent and heart and soul into their live shows that I'm convinced you haven't truly heard or understood Streetlight and what they're all about until you've seen them live...and partially because they remind me of the shows I've been at. This band means more to me than I could properly explain here, but that doesn't bother me because anyone else who loves Streetlight knows what I'm feeling.
Their fans are the best. Everyone says that about their favorite band, I know that, but I can't see any band being supported by a greater group of people. Streetlight has only released two albums of original material, and they've been around for eight years. Any other band with a record (no pun intended) this terrible would be dead and gone by now, forgotten, swept aside behind the mad rush of the limited attention spans of today's consumers. But we're loyal. We love Tomas, and we trust him. To be able to trust somebody that most of us have never met is a bit of a stretch, but the true fans know that when there is another release, in two months or two years, it will be as brilliant and life-changing and beautiful as everything else he's ever written. We're content to wait. Because he told us that "we're going to keep doing what we do, whether or not a single record is sold".
When 99SOR came out, that trust is what separated us from any other fans. It takes guts to release a cover album. It takes guts to massacre a tenor saxophone on that said album, and it takes a tremendous amount of guts to cover your own song. When a new album by any other band comes out, there is always that select group of fans determined that the band has finally jumped the shark--they've gone too mainstream, they've gotten worse, they're just playing the same old shit over and over again. But not with Streetlight. They took some heavy risks on their latest release, musically and otherwise, but we just took it all in stride. Not only did we accept the genre experimentation that is "The Troubadour" and "Birds Fly Away", we embraced it. I love 99SOR. Tomas put it together because those songs meant something to him, and now they mean something to us, too.
We love the rest of the band just as much as we love Tomas, if not more. Ask any random individual off the street and there's a good chance they won't be able to tell you what a saxophone looks like. When Matt or Jim or Mike or Sops or Nadav or anyone in their rotating horn section steps up fora solo, the crowd roars--it just fucking roars. Streetlight's horns are treated as rock stars. If you play a wind instrument, you strive to be half as good as any of the fine gentleman I've listed above.
Of course, if you play guitar or bass or drums, you're looking up to Tomas and Pete and Chris. I don't know very much about those particular instruments, but I'm confident that they are all outrageously skilled at what they do. It sure sounds like it to me.
We know all of the lyrics to all of the songs. We know them by heart because we've stored them in our hearts, to pull out and recite during our darkest days, as our only source of comfort. Annie and Sergio and Mr. Gepetto are our dearest friends and are always there for us with open arms to catch our fall, even when it seems the rain will never end.
We all have our memories from seeing Streetlight, moments that, when recounted in a pathetic little memoir like this one, seem trivial, but moments that we will never forget. I remember when I was in the front row, clinging to the barrier for my life, in a bit of a stare-down with Mike Brown. He kept watching me and grinning that insane grin of his as I shouted the lyrics at him, and I'm convinced he was watching because he couldn't believe that I knew all the words. I would always grin back, as if to say, 'of course I know them, why else would I be here?'
I remember when they played Point/Keasbey/Counterpoint, as they always do. When they reached the end of the bridge, though, there was no Keasbey. They delved right into the end of the song, the Counterpoint, and everyone in the crowd went quiet for just a moment, and I happened to look up on the stage; Tomas was in absolute hysterics. God, but we were all so confused, and he was so overjoyed that he had fooled us that I couldn't help but laugh as well.
I love when they play We Are the Few. Because when we sing "this has been the best night of my life", we mean it.
I hope this wasn't too pretentious, or too long--I'd be surprised if anyone read all this at all. But I felt that it needed to be said.