A friend of Rebecca's recently sent them a video of a Youtube Guy (and I mean "Youtube Guy") doing a blink-182ified* version of "One Week" by the Barenaked Ladies. I found the guy's voice and demeanor irritating and had to then admit to myself that I just really like the song "One Week".
*You eve notice that the "What if blink-182 wrote _____" videos on Youtube always just sound like All Time Low?
"One Week" is one of those songs tied to a specific memory for me. In January 2009, Brian, Pat, and I drove to Toronto from Geulph so we could see Streetlight Manifesto, A Wilhelm Scream, The Swellers, and The Stich Up play at the Sound Academy. We had recently gotten Brian into Streetlight and were excited for him to see them with us. I also loved taking from friends from Guelph back to Toronto. Everyone at school was from the 519 area and loved to shit on Toronto, so I felt smug that usually anything sick happening required us to go back to my hometown.
In hindsight, I think this show was also a turning point for me in my music taste. This was the last time that I was excited to see Streetlight and I never sought out chances to see them after this. I was just starting to get into, for lack of a better term, "Fest music" and couldn't wait to see both Wilhelm and the Swellers. About 95% of the crowd didn't know those two bands and were pretty indifferent when they played,* so it felt cool and like I was part of a secret club who knew how good those bands were. When we walked in, The Stich Up were covering "Deeper" from Dan Potthast's other band Mu330, and that was an early point in my obsession with that band too. I had been looking forward to the chance to pick up the Swellers' My Everest at the show, and it turned out to be everything I expected.
*Streetlight Manifesto kind of have "Slayer Fan (or NoFX fan or Dropkick Murphys fan) syndrome where they draw a crowd that only cares about the headlining band and are openly hostile to openers. No one cares that you know all the words to "Would You Be Impressed" bro. They're a huge band.
Pat drove us in Brian minivan, Mama Link, to the show because Brian was tired and wanted to just be high in the backseat instead. Whenever we did roadtrips like this night, I would make a playlist on my iPod that we could listen to on the drive into the city. I took making the playlist super seriously and was trying to prove how fuckin' sick my musical taste was, thinking that I would get a "yo, this sounds good" compliment each time a song they hadn't heard came on.
Obviously, that didn't happen. It's not like they disliked the music I put on, but mostly they were indifferent while we drove. The traffic into the city was bad and I was starting to get stressed about getting to the show on time, so that I could see all of those opening bands. The playlist ended as we got off the 401 near Scarborough Town Center and we debated about what to put on next. I turned around and looked at Brian, high as hell behind me and deadpanning, with the glow of his laptop screen light up his face:
"Iiiiittt's beeen"
Every time that I mention this song, I'm also required to mention the last line of the lyrics "Birchmount Stadium, Home of the Robbie" said instead of "It'll still be two days until we say we're sorry". BNL are from my neighborhood in Scarborough, and names and imagery from there are featured in a lot of their music. Shout out to the Real McCoy being in the "Lovers in a Dangerous Time" video. Birchmount is a high school/sports complex near my parents' house. I played house league baseball for the Birchmout Bulldogs and my first lifeguarding job was at Birchmount Pool. Each year, an big invitational soccer tournament is held at Birchmount Stadium called the Robbie. You always see this sign as you drive by on Kingston Road:
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