Sunny Day Real Estate - "Seven" (Live on Jimmy Fallon)

This song takes me back about fifteen years ago...

Every month in high school I would look forward to flipping through the pages of my copy of Alternative Press in search for my next musical discovery. Sunny Day Real Estate had just released "Diary" on Sub Pop Records and I was fascinated with the advertisement featuring the artwork from the album. It was one of the first albums that I ever bought just because of the artwork alone. When I listened to the album the first time I was confused. The album was dark, moody and unlike anything I had ever heard before. It wasn't punk. It wasn't alternative. It wasn't rock. It sounded kind of like Shudder To Think, but was far more up tempo. It grew on me over the years and became one of my favorite albums. While in college I had the chance to see them at The Bottleneck in Lawrence, KS on their first reunion tour in 1998. They had just released the album "How It Feels To Be Something On."

Recently the band reunited with the original line up to play a string of shows this fall. In addition they released "Dairy" and "LP2" on vinyl with additional tracks. Here's their recent performance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

Weird Concerts From My Past: Incubus & Far 4/4/1998

Back in 1998, Darci and I drove from Manhattan, KS to Lawrence, KS one weekend to simply get out of town and go record shopping. Much to my delight the band Incubus was playing an early show at The Bottleneck. Being a fan of The Urge I had already been introduced to Incubus, but had never seen them in concert, so we went. There were four bands playing that evening, Incubus, Ultraspank, 8 Degrees, and much to my surprise.... Far.

The show was not well attended, only about 30 people through the door. Far was amazing and the singer from Incubus definitely had some vocal chops. Darci was fascinated by the dreadlocks that he was sporting at the time. Incubus was touring in support of their album, "S.C.I.E.N.C.E." One of the items I left the concert with that was pretty humorous was a cardboard mask of the dude from their album cover. One year later Incubus was practically a household name with the success of the album "Make Yourself."

I found the setlist online:

Redefine / Magic Medicine / A Certain Shade Of Green / Hilikus / Vitamin / Idiot Box / Summer Romance / Favorite Things / Glass / Calgone / You Will Be A Hot Dancer / New Skin