People always ask me where that is and I say that it’s in the western part of the state.
“You mean, like Charlottesville?” No, more West.
“West like Lexington?” Wester.
“Is it near Roanoke?”
I tell them it’s near the Virginia/Tennessee border.
There is usually a blank expression, which tells me that they didn’t know that Virginia and Tennessee bordered each other.
I wasn’t near any major American city, so if I wanted to see a Name band in concert, it meant a minimum of a 2 hour road trip to Knoxville, Tennessee, or Asheville, North Carolina, or someplace further.
And if the closest that Paul Westerberg was going to come to Abingdon was Athens, Georgia, then dammit, I was driving to Athens, Georgia.
The girl I was dating at the time wasn’t familiar with Westerberg or The Replacements, but agreed to go with me, if we made a full day of it. Meaning, if we left early in the morning, spent some time visiting North Carolina art museums, and had plenty of time to check out the college town of Athens.
Being the somewhat obsessive paranoid freak that I am, when we rolled into Athens at about 3 in the afternoon, I wanted to find the venue, so I would know where it was, and that it actually existed, even if the show wasn't for 6 more hours.
Georgia Theatre was a beautiful old style movie house where cool bands that passed through town came to play. We wandered up to the box office to see if we could grab our Will Call tickets in the early afternoon, to avoid waiting in line that night.
No one was at the Box Office, or at the door, but there was an unmistakable sound coming from inside.
And with no one at the box office or the door, there was nothing to stop us from just walking inside, to stand at the back of the room and listen to Westerberg’s sound check.
It’s hard to put into words, my feelings about Paul Westerberg’s music.
Sometime soon, I promise to write about going to see my first concert ever, The Replacements, which is probably the most important Every Day I Write The Blog entry, in that, it is probably the most influential song/memory of my life in music.
So I’ll just say this about my feelings . . . this was the music I listened to when I was the happiest, when I was the saddest, when I was the most angry, when I was the most confused---when I was the most emotional. My attachment to these songs is most emotional.
To be in this large, empty theatre, listening to my favorite songwriter . . . well, it was about as Fan-Geeked-Out as I could possibly ever get.
Of course, it couldn’t last forever. We got to hear about 3 songs before someone on the Theatre staff politely told us we couldn’t hang out, and we were ushered outside.
I stood outside the theatre, knowing that later I’d be inside for a full Rock N Roll show experience. But I wanted one last taste of my private Sound Check.
See the Box Office in the picture? That’s an old photograph, but Georgia Theatre still looked just like that in the late 90s. The box office window had its shade pulled.
But look closely, and you can
see that little box office slot where you’d slide your dollar through, to pay for your movie. If I got on my knees, I could see through it, into the box office. And the back door to the box office was open, which meant I could see through that door, and all the way to the stage. It was like looking through a spy-glass, with the center stage microphone on the other end of the lens.
Paul led the band through “Valentine” as I watched through my little key-hole vantage point.
And it was there that I reached Fan-Geeked-Out nirvana.
Bonus entry!!!
I love it when you discover something about a tune, years after you first heard it.
I've been listening to this tune for over 20 years, and heard something for the first time today, as I wrote this entry.
Twenty-something me was not musically educated enough to catch this, but after years at mvyradio, I finally realized that Westerberg does what seems to be a hat tip to Joni Mitchell in the lyrics.
"Valentine" -- If you were a pill, I'd take a handful at my will, And I'd knock you back with something sweet as wine.
"A Case Of You" --- Oh you're in my blood like holy wine, You taste so bitter and so sweet, Oh I could drink a case of you darling
"So I’ll just say this about my feelings . . . this was the music I listened to when I was the happiest, when I was the saddest, when I was the most angry, when I was the most confused---when I was the most emotional. My attachment to these songs is most emotional." This sums up my relationship with Westerberg's music perfectly. Thank you for posting this!
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