Why Does It Take a Tragedy to Bring Us Together?

I recently received word that Small Towns Burn a Little Slower, the band that defined high school for me, are calling it quits after five years of making music together. These are some of my favorite moments surrounding them and the impact they had on my musical identity.

I remember the first time I ever Small Towns, and I still consider it one of the best shows I’ve ever been to. It was back in early 2004 at the Triple Rock Social Club. It was only the second real show I’d ever been to (the first was Motion City Soundtrack and Rufio with this opening band that I’ve never hear of again, what was their name…oh yea, Fall Out Boy). The show was a benefit for three sisters who had been killed in a car accident. They had been involved in the Twin Cities music scene, and so a bunch of bands got together to throw the benefit. A friend of mine in high school told me about it, so we showed up. I still remember the lineup. We showed up a little late, so we caught Eastside Heroes, December’s Last Words, Small Towns, and Motion City Soundtrack. I remember being so impressed by Small Towns that I went back and bought their EP, at that point a CD-R in a black metal tin with a sticker on it. I still have that same sticker on my portable CD player.

Once, my friend Mike and I drove to some far out suburb to catch Small Towns for free in the basement of a church. They played Peewees Big Adventure in the background for the whole show, which was amusing as hell. Before their set, Danny (vocalist) did a little solo set, in which he played “The Freshman” by The Verve, a Springsteen song, and admitted that he had completely forgotten how to play “A Flower Cross,” the acoustic track from their first EP. Great stuff.

I remember the kick off show for their first big tour with Farwell My Enemy and Ever We Fall. Ever We Fall blew me away. Then, I remember the same bands playing in the back of the Fallout art gallery in Minneapolis. Small Towns closed it down with an acoustic set, meaning me and my pals (Grinaldo, Tim, Mike, and I, affectionately known by the band, mainly Ryan, as the Small Towns Man Groupies) pulled a couch towards the front and chilled for their set. During the show, Adam from Ever We Fall asked Danny from Small Towns to write him a song, so Adam sat on a stool right in front of Danny while being sung to. That was the first time I met Danny’s fiancé. After the show, my mom picked us up (I was young, shut up), and after yelling at Ever We Fall, Adam chased down my mom’s car and gave us all high fives.

Warped Tour, 2004. That was amazing. I remember that we ran into a girl that we saw at a bunch of Small Towns shows right away, and she, in a sugarhigh manner, told us that Small Towns would be playing one of the small stages. We immediately found a couple posters that bands were handing out. One we ripped into what seemed like hundreds of pieces and the other we left whole. We wrote, both on the pieces and the poster, the time and stage that Small Towns would be playing, and roamed around handing out our makeshift flyers and screaming. Their set was amazing and absolutely packed. I still have pictures. Tommy (guitarist) did his trademark “mic stand as a guitar slide” move. My buddy Mike also jumped up on stage at one point and rocked out with Danny.

The video premiere show for “Answers” was intense. They taped a bed sheet to the wall and projected the video onto it. Small Towns absolutely tore the place up afterwards. I don’t know if I’ve ever been to that roaring of a show in my life. That was at the Toybox in Minneapolis. I don’t remember if it was the same show or not, but I saw them their once when Joel (guitarist) had just gotten his Transformers tattoo on his forearm. He was so excited, it was adorable.

The Ascot Room at the Quest was always interesting too. They played a show their once around Ryan’s (bassist) 21^st birthday, and I remember him being absolutely wasted, but funny as hell. They played their with an amazing band called The Exchange once as well.

The record release show for Mortality As Home Entertainment was great too. They had someone introduce them and they entered to the hidden, techno remix of “It’s A Death Curse.” Funny as all hell. The Lifestyle played that show too. I took one of my senior pictures wearing their shirt.

There are so many more memories that are still locked in my head along all of the English Literature that’s trying to take its place. The countless times we screamed along to “Wait For Me Abbey Bernstein,” “Alias: The Beekeeper,” and “Last Blast Off.” All of the times we shouted for “Churches and Hospitals” because it is still one of the best rock songs of all time and then going absolutely ape shit every time they played it because it meant we could feel like we had actually known them from the beginning, and not just since the release of Mortality As Home Entertainment. All of the times I got comments from friends, relatives, and complete strangers on my “Small Towns Stole My Girlfriend” t-shirt. The time I ran into Tommy at Target shopping for hoodies, or the time I saw Ryan and his girlfriend at Kohls with my mom and he was excitedly showing me his new track jacket. All the times I’ve had Danny’s sweaty hear in my mouth because he sought me and the rest of the Small Towns Man Groupies out to sing the chorus of “Wait for Me Abbey Bernstein” with him. I remember the first time that happened and how important I felt for that time because a guy in a band I LOVED had shared the mic with me. How cool I felt a couple summers ago when Tommy invited me to their rehearsal space so the whole band could sign a poster and CD for a cancer benefit gift basket I was putting together. All of the awesome conversations I’ve had with Tommy that have changed my perspective on what a scene can be, not to mention how back home he makes me feel every time I read his MySpace blog, even though I’m four hours away in Iowa. All of the shows I’ve ran into guys from Small Towns at, everyone from Motion City Soundtrack to Rocky Votolato.

These guys made me feel like I was a part of their band’s progression and honestly made me see how important it is to support the local music scene. I will always associate the Triple Rock, the Ascot Room, the Toybox, the entire warehouse district of downtown MPLS, and my musical roots with these guys. To Small Towns, you guys consistently made me feel euphoric at each and every one of your shows, but even more than that, made me feel like I was part of something, be it a band, a scene, a city, a lifestyle, a camaraderie, or a real friendship. I love each and every one of you guys and I thank you for making my high school days the most amazing they could have been, and for showing me that five friends can change the world through their music. As sentimental and heart warming as this is, “Churches and Hospitals” just started playing, and I gotta jump around. Thanks for everything.