Anberlin-Blueprints For the Black Market

I'm not sure why music aficionados like myself are so big on knowing about a band before anyone else does, but finding a great band before anyone else does is one of the very few bragging rights someone who listens to but does not contribute to music can have.

I first heard Anberlin at the Big Fish Pub sometime in late 2002 or early 2003. The Big Fish Pub is a tiny bar/music venue (yes, in that order) that was down the street and around the corner from my apartment. It is by no means a prestigious place to play. It can probably only hold about a hundred people before the fire marshall needs to get involved. I had friends with bands that had absolutely no local following other than me and they had no problem getting booked at Big Fish. Anberlin was there opening for a terrible Christian rap-metal act called Pax217 (think P.O.D. without all the good songs. Wait. P.O.D. has no good songs. Exactly). Also on the bill that night was AM Radio, who needed a stopover gig for gas money before joining Ben Kweller as the opening act on his national tour. I was actually there to see AM Radio. Anyway, Anberlin laid down a great set that I was one of the only people to watch. Because of the late addition of  AM radio, Anberlin took the stage at a ridiculously early hour. I was one of five people near the stage and everyone else (probably only five other people) was at the bar.

Several months after this show, I found Blueprints for the Black Market on a listening post at the now defunct greatest record store in the world: Hoodlum's. I listened to the first two songs and was completely blown away. Due to the poor acoustics at Big Fish I had no idea Stephen Christian had such a nice voice, and there was no way the pop sheen Aaron Sprinkle put on the album could come through at that show. I had liked Anberlin live, but I loved them on the album.

The bragging rights came into play when my little brother and his friends heard Anberlin's subsequent albums and became big fans. Then they got to hear all about how me and five other people watched Anberlin in a tiny room back when they didn't even have an album out. No, it's not like being one of the lucky people who watched The Beatles play at The Cavern Club, but it's one of the few, "Oh, I knew about them way back when" claims I can make.

A word of caution to the would-be "I knew them way back when" claim staker: Pick your spots. Though the "I knew them when" card can be a powerful one, it will be significantly weakened if used too often. Also, if you lie about knowing a band way back when, your friends know about it and talk about you behind your back. They all hate you and are looking for ways to ditch you for good. Your parents are none too pleased with you either. They're going to buy you luggage for your next birthday as a hint for you to get as far away from them as possible. Also, your dead grandparents are planning on haunting you and telling you what a horrible disappointment of a grandchild you are. You will eventually die alone in a gutter somewhere and passers by will look disdainfully at your rotting carcass. So yeah, don't lie about knowing about something from way back when. If you jumped on a bandwagon, admit it. I'm listening to The Three EP's by The Beta Band right now. How did I find out about them? Like everybody else, I watched High Fidelity. I'm not cool enough to have known about them on my own, but I'm not the guy who pretends that he came by everything organically. Sometimes you're just another guy on a bandwagon and there's no shame in that, unless it's the rap-metal bandwagon.