05/07/00 Mustard Plug/Edna's Goldfish/Catch 22/Planet Smashers/Big D & the Kids Table @ Wetlands, New York, NY

This was one of those classic Sunday punk and/or ska matinees at the Wetlands (aka Sweatglands). That music was more my speed in my high school years.

I remember very little about this show, except that it was the site of my first and only stage dive.

04/22/00 Bloodhound Gang/Nerf Herder @ Roseland Ballroom, New York, NY

Another Bloodhound show. This was in support of Hooray For Boobies.

The highlight of the BHG set was during the song "Mope" when they brought out a guy in a Pac-Man suit to reenact the "Pac-Man high on crack" portion of the song. It was just like I had imagined it.

This show also introduced me to Nerf Herder, a group of nerdy pop punkers with delightfully catchy melodies and songs about Sleestaks and Courtney Love.

This was my first time at Roseland.

03/21/00 Soulfarm @ Wetlands, New York, NY

I'm almost positive this was my first time at the legendary now-defunct NYC hippie rock club. I wasn't cool enough at the time to grasp the gravity of the situation; I just went because that's where the happening Purim party was going down. Novice as I was to the NYC bar scene, I sort of assumed that it was just the way NYC clubs roll.

At any rate, the entertainment for the evening was the cream of the Jewish jamband crop - Soulfarm née Inasense. They were the band du jour for high school teenagers of the Tri-State area Jew scene. They cover classics like "Sugaree" and "Woodstock" and delivered some very enjoyable originals such as "Listen To You" and "Enjoy The Ride." I actually lived a few blocks away from the lead guitarist, and I was friendly with his daughter and step-daughter, the former of whom later married the guy who took me to my first Phish show, but that's another story altogether.

I think I got ejected prematurely for underage drinking. Ironically, I had yet to develop a taste for beer at that age and I was merely delivering it to a friend downstairs. The bouncer failed to see the irony.

This show was recorded and released.

10/11/99 Bloodhound Gang/Goldfinger/Showoff/The Hippos @ Irving Plaza, New York, NY

This was one of the first times I can remember going to the city for a concert, on a school night no less.

I was a big fan of the Bloodhound Gang's irreverent humor and their single "Fire Water Burn" was in heavy rotation for me at the time, as was the album One Fierce Beer Coaster. It was full of pop cultural references running the gamut from Gilligan's Island to Def Leppard, often in the course of a single goofy tune.

Goldfinger was a big favorite too on the strength of uber-catchy neo-ska tunes like "Mabel" and "Superman."

I was so amped for the show, I even bought Showoff's self-titled release earlier in the week and became instantly hooked.

Even the The Hippos later became one of my favorite third wave ska groups and I'll still throw on Heads Will Roll every once in a while.

The show was stacked with just the kind of music I was digging at the time and I got to enjoy it with all my high school buddies.

One lasting memory is crashing at a friend's parent's apartment uptown and missing the morning bus to our New Jersey private school causing us to miss the PSATs. That and the $1.50 subway fare.

It was also my first time at Irving Plaza (later rechristened Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza).

07/25/99 The Offspring/Lit/The Dickies @ Jones Beach Theatre, Wantagh, NY

This was basically my first concert that I can recall following a couple of close calls (i.e. shows I tried to go to, but just couldn't make it).

One of those was a No Doubt concert ca. 1997 at RCC, the local community college that I planned on attending, but didn't possibly due to a disciplinary measure. That was right after the band blew up on the success of "Just a Girl" and the venue was way too small for their rapidly increasing fanbase. The show resulted in moshing and trampling and they didn't allow another concert at the venue for several years.

Another aborted attempt was a Dropkick Murphys show at an American Legion Hall in Teaneck. This was on the heels of their Do or Die album and they were way too big for such traditional Oi! venues. That overcrowded hall coupled with the hardcore, somewhat imposing Murphys fans were enough to prompt our ride (my friend's father) to prohibit our attendence at the show.

That same friend's father was also our ride to Jones Beach that day. As for the show itself, I don't remember too much about it. I recall The Dickies playing "My Pop the cop," which I knew from a Fat Wreck Chords (Fat Mike from NOFX) compilation. Lit played their one and only hit, "My Own Worst Enemy" and Offspring must've run through all their classics with a focus on the recently released Americana.

The venue itself, Jones Beach Theater, is situated on the picturesque waterfront which serves as a stunning backdrop to the stage and it would be the locale of several memorable future concerts.

What I recall most about that day is the live radio broadcasts of Woodstock '99 we listened to on the way. That festival was just several hours away from one of the largest debacles in American music festival history, arguably a final nail in the coffin of the peace, love and music ethos of the 1969 edition.

And thus began an ongoing obsession with live music and other assorted merriment which will be meticulously cataloged and remembered herein.