message to my friends

One of California's favorite cult classic of the spunky punk rock band, Alkaline Trio is back in our neighborhood. Although our musicians have experimented and drifted away from their roots in the past few albums, to a taste of music we no longer are familiar with, this is not the reason we are going to see them.

Hollywood Palladium

Three hours later with eyes pinned open, bruised and shaken, drenched in sweat from tip of my bangs to my converse shoelaces, ears ringing from the scream along lyrics, I finally reunited with the strangers I had arrived to the show with. We met with our smiles breathing heavily, and pulled our tired arms around each other. And we sung. Just in time for the last song... "shaking... like a dog shitting razor blades."

In October 2003, I met the friends I would have forever.

Sitting on the grass after school by faculty parking, swaying to Hakon's acoustic guitar as he sings, "maybe I... just set aside... the fact that you were broken hearted... in my own special selfish way".
Analyzing what bathroom surgeries mean and it clicking together when Becka points out "I've never met arms like yours". AIM away messages that read "forgot you've got so far to go" as I questioned the meaning of my high school relationship. Getting drunk at David's house and singing along to Maybe I'll Catch Fire as Becka's tears begin to fall and hugging me as if I was slipping away. Scribbling the words "I hope the suns out in New York, I hope he bought you roses..." in my calculus book on Valentine's Day. Making our usual circle outside of Universal CityWalk as Johnny took out his guitar and showed us how he learned to play "If You Had a Bad Time", and we all sung along and told each other, "Let's not slip away after we graduate."

Alkaline Trio did not just bond our friendship, but created it. With a melody that traveled in a guitar bag filled with beer, their raw songs of emotions followed us through our reckless and epic youth. Everytime my ipod randomly shuffles to their song, my heart sinks me into days of long free lunches, random love notes, drunken school activities, walking everywhere under the blazing sun, and simple days that felt so hard because my crush noticed someone else. Alkaline Trio is a bookmark into my life that holds some of the most amazing friends I'll ever had.

Glasshouse

We are going to see Alkaline Trio because this facebook event would have never existed without them.
Cheers.