The very first RHA meeting I attended in early September 2005, I got news from the RHA Vice President that a band from Madison would be playing a show in my building on the 28th, which coincided with our very first "open house" meeting for the Middlebrook Hall Council. Cool, I thought. That should help get people to show up, though free pizza was usually the most effective way.
Wednesday, September 28th, 2005. That evening, four dudes rolled up in a van. I felt myself obligated to welcome the visitors, introduced myself as the hall president, and greeted them as they arrived. They were a band called The Profits.
I helped them load their gear in, though it would only be a few instruments as they'd be playing a low-key acoustic show in one of the common rooms. I made a crappy orange sign that read "The Profit$" and hung it up behind where they would be playing, and then lined up a bunch of their CDs on a table underneath it. We then set out on patrolling the building to get people to come downstairs and check out the free show.
People slowly showed up, and The Profits introduced themselves before playing a few acoustic tunes. I sat along the side of the room and snapped a few random photos with my crappy point-and-shoot while listening to this impressive but unknown (at least to me) band out of Madison. "Where did these guys come from?" They were so good but not like anything I would normally have been hearing anyway, as they likened themselves to "Jack Johnson meets John Mayer with vocal harmonies" at the time.
Afterwards, the band spent some time chatting with their many new fans, inviting them all to come out to their show at The Varsity Theater in Dinkytown in two days. I mostly hung back and helped them pack up their gear. Then, after most of the people had left, I chatted with the band some more and showed them a few of the photos I took.
Lucky for me, they thought I was a pretty cool dude too. They signed a flier for their upcoming show and even gave me a copy of their new album along with a spot on the guest list for the show on Friday. Sweet! I figured I'd better bring my camera with and snap a few photos at that as well.
(See another familiar name there?)
The true convincing of this band's greatness though didn't really sink in for me until after they left later that night. I popped their new album, Far From You and Your Everyday Noise, into my computer and was instantly blown away by their music. Sure I already had a positive opinion of the band to begin with, but their songs far exceeded my expectations of a group that I'd never heard of and wasn't any kind of a well-known or nationally-touring act.
To say the least, I was stoked to see them play again two days later.
September 30th, 2005. I biked over to The Varsity, ran into The Profits outside during the opener's set, then promptly realized I had forgotten my camera. I rushed back to my dorm and grabbed the camera before returning to The Varsity pretty much right as the opening act was finishing up. Who was that, do you ask? Why, a guy by the name of Ari Herstand.
I didn't actually see more than maybe a song or two from his set, but a friend who was also at the show that night told Ari to add me on Facebook. He did, and since then I've seen him play 59 times, second only to Roster McCabe at 89. (!) The girl who essentially first connected Ari and I though? Haven't seen her since then, strangely enough.
It was finally time for The Profits to take the stage though, so I positioned myself near the front stage-right and pulled out my camera. Here's a few of the better examples of what I got from the show:
Pretty crappy photos, eh? I was a no-talent nobody without a clue and a crappy point-and-shoot, but I had a lot of fun and thought they were pretty awesome pics at the time. One actually did turn out kinda cool though, and it was a photo I made a point to show the band after the show.
The band was blown away by this photo in particular, and I was amazed that they actually put up every photo I shot at the show on their website. But there was also one last moment that really sealed the deal and convinced me to keep checking out their shows in the future.
About halfway through the set, a pair of girls who I hadn't seen since the previous semester randomly wound up beside me in the crowd. We recognized each other and remarked on the fact that it'd been a while, something like 5 months I believe. They spent the rest of the show by me cause I told them I knew the band and I'd even introduce them afterwards.
Almost immediately after The Profits finished, I snuck the girls backstage at The Varsity and we ran into the band. They were a little bit shocked by this obviously, plus sweating a bit after their performance. I introduced the girls to them and they all obliged in a group photo.
It wasn't my first concert ever or anything like that, but it was my first experience in being at a small show, knowing the band, and thus being cool to some people as a result. To me, it was a very big deal and something I hoped to repeat. After all, I took some pictures that the band liked (and even used!), and also got to hang out with a pair of cute chicks who I hadn't seen in months. "Hey, I could get used to this."
Though I only got to see The Profits 11 times (they broke up about a year later; JP and Ben now continue on in We The Living while Mike and Scott play in Mike Droho & The Compass Rose), they left an indelible mark upon my life. To me, they were like The Beatles. A pair of dynamic singer-songwriters fronting a band with a unique and intertwining back-and-forth style to their music. The Profits never got to be bigger than a midwestern college buzz, but to me, they're where it all began and what prompted me to see more local shows.
(Sidebar: "Sex at Six", their song you will never hear live again, was a kind of college anthem that everyone knew and chanted at the band endlessly, even well after their breakup. I personally am partial to "Atlantic" as their best song though, as the back-and-forth between amazing vocal and lead guitar lines combined with epic lyrics was nothing short of perfect to me. And sorry guys, but WTL just can't do it as well as The Profits did. That first recording is untouchably brilliant.)
Now, exactly four years later, I'm still doing it, albeit a lot more and a heck of a lot better than when I first started obviously. Since 2007 I've been to 600+ concerts, spanning the entire gamut from dead local dive bars and acoustic private shows to being VIP at Lollapalooza and shooting the likes of Rage Against The Machine, Radiohead, and Nine Inch Nails. And all points in-between.
Yet all of this happened simply because a little unknown four-piece semi-acoustic act played a show at my dorm, I thought they were cool, and they thought I was too. Seems to be a bit of a stretch, but at the end of it all I'll know I can trace my roots in the Twin Cities music scene back to a single Madison band that is gone but will never be forgotten (and I'll remember every September 28th):
The Profits.
No comments:
Post a Comment