My first post.

Long time lurker and member since 2000, having a beer, I thought 'I should do my first post'. And that post should be about your becoming a fan:

It was the Fall of '91, when I was 21, and in college. A couple of my friends worked at the record store and one of them had an apartment above the record store. They would get new albums that had some buzz around them, and 10 was one of them, along with Nevermind, TOTD, and Badmotorfinger. These were played repeatedly and the mood, memories, smells, and emotions have woven their way into the songs to where I can go back 20 years to sitting on the couch in that apartment, see my friends, and feel the air coming in the window, when I listen to the albums. I remember playing 10 repeatedly, thinking my favorite band only has one album. Prior to this most of what I listened to was from bands disbanded or dead people. You had their catalog, but no real emotional context to put it in. These were songs before I was alive or just when I was still pooping my pants. Pearl Jam was ours. U2 could stick around, but no more hair metal. I felt like I was ahead of the marketing, before everything really blew up. I remember making the connection on my own that AIC, Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Pearl Jam were from Seattle. I would get confused about Smashing Pumpkins, since Gish was in heavy rotation, thinking, 'oh wait, there from just up in Chicago'. The anticipation for VS was huge, and now my favorite band had TWO albums that I could play over and over.

Side note: I remember looking reading the 10 CD and seeing the fan club info, and thinking 'fan club, isn't that something the Monkeys had?' stupid me......

Well I about crapped my pants when I hear they were going to play a show at Elliot Hall at Purdue, my school, the band is going to be playing 1/2 mile from my apt!! No one plays here, they're playing here??!! Of course everybody and their pet monkey wanted tickets. There was some sort of lottery that I was shut out of. I remember some radio station was giving away some tickets and the line was a mile long. I knew I was going, still. So I hit up a scalper just before the show. Bought a $16 dollar ticket for $50, was in the last row, worth every penny. Let my long hair fly. I was in for the long haul now. This is my band.