Signals Midwest

5th April 2012

Post

ramblin’ again

so last night i stayed up until some ungodly hour cataloguing every show we’ve ever played as Signals Midwest.  i dug through folders within folders tucked away in other folders, logged into our myspace account for the first time in months (years? yikes.), tore through internet searches and emails, and racked my brain for anything i could remember.  i dove into the past headfirst and surfaced a few hours later with a pretty good list.

lists are strange because they can be simultaneously comforting and terrifying.  comforting in the sense that they organize large amounts of information into some semblance of manageable order.  terrifying in the sense that they can absolutely overwhelm you with feelings of responsibility, nostalgia, wonder, longing, excitement and anxiety…the combination of which is not very conducive to trying to get to sleep because you have to go to your desk job in the morning.

my point is that looking at this list hit me really hard.  i thought about our first show, and how the cops came 15 seconds into the first song we ever played as a band.  i thought about our first out-of-state show in Pittsburgh at 222 Ormsby and the amazing friendships that grew out of that trip.  i thought about driving down to Columbus to pick up our first-ever run of CDs and sitting on the steps of the Monster House, staring at one in my hands and grinning like an idiot.  i thought about our first tour (in an SUV!).  i thought about when jeff joined and how much it changed the way we sound and the way we work together.  i thought about our first test pressing.  i thought about putting our first-ever 12” LPs together with my brother and sister at my parents’ dining room table.  i thought about the first time we saw the west coast last summer.  i thought about the thousands of dollars in gasoline we’ve burned through, the piles of fast food we’ve inhaled on the road, the great friends we’ve made, the places we’ve slept, the deep conversations and disagreements and inside jokes and everything we’ve shared as a band over the past few years.

this is getting a little too sentimental.  there are thousands of bands who are more talented, dedicated and just generally light years better than us.  but it’s not about that.  it’s about how i feel ridiculously lucky to have come this far.  it’s something that so few people get to experience.

when it comes down to it, the average person doesn’t even go to concerts on a regular basis, and music is usually just something they have in the background while their minds are focused elsewhere.  to have been to so many places where people might actually be marginally interested in four awkward kids from Ohio flailing away at their instruments is something that i don’t take for granted, even for a second.

anyway, here’s an imperfect list of every show we’ve ever played (and most of the bands we’ve played with, though I’ve definitely forgotten a bunch of them).  click HERE to check it out.

also, if you remember a show that isn’t on here, let us know! signalsmidwest@gmail.com.

- max/SMW

Tagged: signals midwestclevelandohiopunkrockindieemopost-hardcorecleveland heightsband

24th April 2011

Post reblogged from DELAY

duh-lay

i was 14 when i played my first show.  it was at a place called the grog shop in cleveland heights, ohio.  that show was headlined by a band called delay and until then i had never seen a band play as fast or as loud as they did.  my perception of shows and music in general changed that night.  plus, delay covered “just like frank” by less than jake, which i thought was pretty damn cool.  okay, it’s still cool and i love that song.

nearly a decade after that show (okay, 8 years) delay is consistently making honest, fast, catchy pop-punk that melts hearts and faces alike.  ryan and austin remain as two of the most important people in the ohio punk scene and have been putting on shows all over cleveland and columbus for over 10 years now.  they are also two of the masterminds behind the annual Berea Fest, the sixth incarnation of which is taking place this year on july 15th and 16th (and which we were just confirmed for - stoked!).

anyway, delay just posted a bunch of free songs you can and should download.  my favorite full-length of theirs is their newest one “plain language”, but if you really want to find a hidden gem you should visit their site below, click “music”, scroll all the way down to the record “tuning out” and download “way too fast”.  still my favorite delay song to date.

delayrox:

Click music

Click the album picture

and you will get a few little treats.

MMMMMMM.

Tagged: bandbestcolumbusdelaydownloadduh

Source: delayrox