Jeremy posted this on October 18, 2002 to Discuss Biscuits, a forum in which Disco Biscuits fans can write about the shows they see and the experiences they have. Jeremy had seen many shows of many bands, but this particular one had special meaning to him...
--
Wednesday night I walked into the Florida theater to see The Disco Biscuits. For me personally there is no more significant venue than the Theater.
Nearly 10 years ago on 2/27/93 I walked into the theater with a friend to see a band I had never heard of, Phish. It is hard to quantify how much my life has changed since that day. I was just two days shy of my 20th birthday and the events of that night would mark a serious change in my life and essentially define how I would live throughout my twenties. Now just a few weeks before the expected arrival of my first child and a few months shy of my 30rth birthday, I have come full circle to the room that started me the path I have walked, run, stumbled and traveled for nearly a decade.
When The Disco Biscuits officially announced their fall tour I circled the For t Lauderdale show as the highlight. After nearly four years of touring behind the band they would be playing in my home town. Ethan Shwartz had worked long and hard to get a home town show and it was a big day for my good friend. As the shows grew closer though I found myself fixated on the Gainesville show. There was so much history for me tied to that room.
As a sophomore at the University of Florida, I was a frat boy, a member of the debate team, and pretty much a strait edged guy. I had been drunk twice in my life and never had tried any drugs. My plans were to plow through UF then maybe go to law school or get a masters. My musical tastes were tied to the radio, with the exception of my love of Rush. My cousins had tried to get me into the dead as a kid but I had passed for the likes of Van Halen.
Music didn't mean all that much to me, I went to concerts bought CD's and pretty much listened to music in the background. I never watched MTV and never made it a point to go out of my way to see a show.
Yet there I was in the Florida theater back in 1993 to see a band that I had never heard of and suddenly my life changed. I started collecting Phish tapes, traveling around Florida when Phish came to play. I made new friends and tried new things. Within a year and a half I was no longer a student at UF. I was living on a Kibbutz in Israel with a solid collection of Phish tapes. Exploring the world challenging all that I had believed and being inspired by music, art and creativity.
Upon returning from Israel in time for Phish's Florida run in 1995 I moved back home for a while and enrolled at Florida Atlantic University. I started following Phish more and more and expanded my musical tastes. I also began to get into the rave seen in south Florida. Music became the driving force in my life, despite never having attempted to play an instrument. Every weekend I searched out music, went to festivals, raves etc.
Mostly out of luck I joined my mothers business in 1996, made a bunch of money and started to tour more frequently and out of Florida. My business allowed me to expanded my lifestyle, flying all over the country to see shows and making two more long excursions with my backpack to Europe. While overseas I saw more music attended more raves and essentially slipped further and further from the path of law school.
My life has ebbed and flowed around the music / rave seen for nearly 10 years now. The highlight of which has been the last four years seeing the Disco Biscuits. I have traveled to every corner of the country in every state of mind to see this band play. Through them I have met dozens of friends and found out about tons of new bands. My musical horizons are always growing. So it was fitting that this week I returned to the room where my life took a strong change in course with my favorite band and some of my favorite people.
On the morning of the show my Grandmother passed away. I drove from the hospital to the show relieved that her pain was over but deeply saddened that she didn't live to see my daughter born. Upon arriving at the show I made my first and last request for a song ever to each and every member of the band. I simply asked that Hot Air Balloon be played that night. I specifically asked that there be no dedication or mention of my name. I just wanted the song. My favorite song of all time. It had so much meaning that night, back in that room, my grandmother passing and the changes in my life. Aron and Marc both told me before the show that I would indeed get my "habber" and I cried like a baby through the entire thing with Liz patting my baby from the first row a place i rarely stand. Aron and Marc both looked at me knowingly several times. It was truely emotionaly the most moving Habber for me.
As it turns out the Gainesville show is my last for this year. I won't be at the holiday run. My place is with my daughter on her first new years. I am back in grad school, starting a family and finally settling down a bit. When I walked out of the show of the venue a couple of hours after the show, I felt complete, I felt closure. My life seriously changed in that room 10 years ago and for several months as the pregnancy has progressed and the realities of a career changed have settled in, I have mourned the apparent loss of the life I have led throughout my twenties. I am not giving up on music or my friends or the rugged independence that has made me Jland for the last 10 years. I am merely growing older, more mature, and planning for the first time to have someone in my life who depends on me being a little more sane and home a lot more often. The transition has been painful, that is until Wednesday night. When I got home Thursday it didn't feel painful, it felt right.
It has been an incredible wonderful ride, I recommend the "20's" to everyone. Enjoy them grow through them, live learn and have fun. I treasure each and every day, every show, ever experience and mostly every friend. You the people I have met since that first Phish show mean the world to me. If it wasn't for raves I would never have met Kira and we wouldn't be have a child. So much turned, so much happened all because of one ticket to one show.
People call free tickets to shows a miracle, well then my free ticket to 2/27/93 was the greatest miracle of all. It has been an amazing ride. I am not going away forever. Yet my days of 30 shows in a year and all night parties are numbered. Suddenly diapers, a new career and life in my 30's are just about here. I will always be around but I am as of now hopping off the bus at the same stop I got on, The Florida Theater, What a venue, what a show.
10-16-2002 My personal Best show ever.