Taking Back Sunday Sunday

Sundays are a day for TBS. They are my hands down, all time favorite band. They changed my life, in a for real kind of way.

I had just gotten home from school at the beginning of ninth grade, and I accidentally changed the channel from VH1's Countdown (or some such Top 40 nonsense) to Steven's Untitled Rock Show on Fuse, which happened to be playing Cute Without the 'E' (Cut from the Team). I didn't immediately change the channel back because the video happened to look like my favorite movie, Fight Club. I'm so glad that it did. I sat there for the remainder of the song, entranced, and decided to watch the remaining videos. Then I decided to record the show every day. Then I bought Tell All Your Friends. Then I woke up, and started listening to real music. Then I became me. Did I like every band and song on the show? No, but Taking Back Sunday led me to Brand New and My Chemical Romance and so many other bands that I can't imagine not knowing at this point in my life. I started reading Spin, and discovering new music on my own. I got my first pair of Chucks (which, I still have, by the way), that Christmas. 

She said, 'don't, don't let it go to your head; boys like you are a dime a dozen, boys like you are a dime a dozen," she said, "you're a touch overrated; you're a lush and I hate it..."

I still listen to Top 40 radio sometimes, and I still go see Hanson in concert, but now I know that music is more than what I happen to hear; it's what I want to hear, what I need to deal with all the things in my life, good and bad. It's how I cope. It's 85% of who I am. And who knows how long that would have taken had I never heard Taking Back Sunday for the first time that day. I might be listening to the radio on the way home, not caring which song comes on next, but hearing TBS that afternoon taught me that real music is music that speaks to you,that shapes you, that makes you better a better you.

I've seen them three times. I've met multiple members of the band. I have five shirts, signed CDs, and the last time I saw them, we came full circle: I sang Cute Without the 'E' (Cut from the Team) WITH ADAM. They are my favorites, and I will talk about them quite frequently, I'm sure. I'd like to gather the whole band one day, (much in the same way I'd like to speak with JK Rowling), and just tell them in the most sincere way, "Thank you," for making music, for being them, for changing me, for the better. 

Hoping for the best, just hoping nothing happens, a thousand clever lines unread on clever napkins. I will never ask if you don't ever tell me. I know you well enough to know you never loved me.

Happy Taking Back Sunday, y'all.