#ThrowbackThursday

This past week I have taken quite the drive down memory lane and I absolutely love it.

The 'magic of nostalgia' is how you can’t quite put your finger on the exact photograph, song, taste or smell that does it, but it’s where you can close your ends and it’s like you’re back in the exact moment with those exact same feelings of quickened heart-beat excitement, looking ridiculous smiles, and pure untainted joy.

Nostalgia this past week came in the form of Warped Tour. Although my wonderful husband and I didn’t attend the Toronto date, the idea of going sparked an epic week of relishing in the sweet memories of ‘the glory days’.

When my wonderful husband and I read the lineup of the then upcoming Toronto date of Warped Tour we met each other with immediate thoughts of how incredible the line up was—so many old school bands we used to LOVE! I’m talking Anberlin, Cute is What We Aim For, Bayside, Finch, Yellowcard, The Maine and, for JP, mostly just Terror. This sparked memories of previous Warped Tour years, seeing artists like Cute Is What We Aim For and Anberlin, and I wanted to be back in those moments, at those shows, experiencing the almost now untouchable simple joys that came from seeing your favourite artist at a show with hundreds of other people just like you—perhaps a little bit awkward of a teenager, dehydrated and hungry, hot and sweaty, all while having the best day of your life because they are playing and you are singing along and life couldn’t get better.

From the moment we decided we would entertain the idea of attending all I wanted to do was chat about my past experiences. I went to work and to my enjoyment, one of my co-workers hopped on board with reminiscing about Warped Tours of the past with me. I can remember the very first year I went to warped tour with three amazing friends and my dad. For the record, my dad is awesome. He sat in the air-conditioned parents day-care tent and had the highly coveted position of the ‘merch keeper’. Every girl whose closet was made up purely of band t-shirts of artists she had seen live needs a merch keeper—especially at an event as big as Warped Tour in 2005.

Classic Myspace over-photoshopped picture. <3

My awesome friends and I separated ways while at Warped Tour to take in the many bands we liked—all our tastes were a little different and we would enjoy meeting up at random sets to be all “Hey!!!!!” and do a nice little check-in. Getting to see so many amazing bands, meet so many of those bands randomly at merch booths, and especially hear of new artists was an incredible experience unparalleled to any other. My favourites to see my very first warped experience who left an impact bigger than you can imagine were Thrice, Billy Idol (oh yea), Saosin, My Chemical Romance, Roses are Red, Underøath…—oh my, this list could go on and on. At that point in my life, and for a solid chunk of the years to come, Bleed The Dream was my favourite band. Conveniently, they were a smaller band which made it was easy to hang out with them at their booth, get pictures, buy merch directly from them and just hang out. It was a known fact to my friends that if you wanted to find me, just stop by the bTd merch booth. 

**I truly feel honoured to have had such an amazing ‘favourite band’. Almost like brothers, these dudes were awesome. I could reminisce for hours about their kindness, talent, willingness to just chat and hangout, and how they always put their fans first (as a fan, I would know).  I don’t think I can even count on my hands the amount of times I had seen them live, even flying to Toronto to meet a friend from Myspace so we could see Bleed The Dream play live together—something we had always thought would be awesome since our initial bonding moments on Myspace due to our massive crushes on the bass player and devotion to their music.**

Paramore. You know it's old-- hello Flip Phone!

The following two Warped experiences, while still awesome, could never compare to that first year. Unfortunate events (flat tires, dying cars) were unable to steal joy from the day, knowing your way around after being an experienced Warped attendee made the experience more chill, and, as should be the focus, seeing the artists I was committed to was always amazing. The following experience had seeing Paramore live at the top of my ‘epic list’. As the lone Paramore fan in a sea of friends at home who didn’t care, it was simply astounding. It was only after the epic experience I had friends finally listen to Paramore and kick themselves for not taking advantage of their extraordinary set at Warped. The last year I attended was incredible for a handful of reasons—artists and their crew were now friendly faces I looked forward to connecting with where the transition from fan to friend occurred. Top of my artist list though was hands down Story of the Year as well as Anberlin’s acoustic set.

It’s quite amazing how hearing a simple song or two can take you back for a week of quiet moments allowing the excitement of days passed to be relived while scrolling through photographs, and day dreams about the past. I’ve always referred to my time being heavily involved and influenced by the music scene as ‘the glory days’ as they allowed and encouraged me to fearlessly be myself, shaped me into the person I wanted to become, grew my creativity, stripped away some of my shyness, opened up doors to meeting amazing people (some who are still in my life today) and, best of all, have led me to moments like today—where I can look back with no regrets as I relive in my memories of the days I would never change.

I want to encourage you to take a trip down memory lane of one of your favourite past-times and allow the excitement, happiness and care-free memories infiltrate your day and share with those your favourite moments from your days past. Who knows, you may strike up an amazing conversation and bond over similarities of ‘the glory days’.

 *Note - Since writing this I've been addicted to a Songza playlist called “Alt Pop Wine O’clock”. This playlist is littered with artists like Paramore, The Maine, Cute Is What We Aim For, Something Corporate as well as some newer artists. I can't help but smile and feel heart-happy when listening to music I used to live for.