(note: I just stumbled across this article that I'd written a few years back. I guess it kinda relates to (and in some cases, contradicts!) the "moments" I talk about in the Sixpence Review)

Somebody once said that there's a very fine line between a hobby and mental illness. I moved a step closer to that line back in 1978. One night during high school I returned home from work (LaVerdiere's Drug Store, Madison ME) with a copy of Van Halen I tucked under my arm. When I dropped the needle in the groove I had what I like to call an 'Oh My God' moment. The sounds that poured out of my speakers shattered my idea of what a rock band could be. It wasn't like their lineup was out of the ordinary: guitar, bass, drums and vocals. It was the guitar. There were surely many guitar heroes back then: Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Richie Blackmore...but what Eddie Van Halen did with that guitar....I had never heard anything like it before. Nobody had. The twists and turns that his solos took practically defied logic. His rhythm work was something else too. A unique blend of metal riffing with a punk twist. That record stayed on my turntable for weeks. Even now, over 20 years later, giving Van Halen I a spin transports me straight back to that night (when I was so damn mesmerized by the music that I had to hang up on my girlfriend and call her back after it was over!)

I've had quite a few moments like this since. All of them have been cathartic in their own way, either driving me deeper into this obsession or taking me down a new and unexpected area of interest. So here are a few more of the high points in the history of my, uh...hobby.

The Pat Metheny Group - Live at the Capital Theatre. Concord, NH

On the tour supporting First Circle I had my first chance to see the Pat Metheny Group. At this point in time the only PMG record I owned was American Garage...so I'm not sure I knew what to expect. The band entered from behind the crowd...some with marching snare drums, others with various percussion instruments. Pat entered from behind the stage playing his red guitar synth controller - from which emanated sounds that I have come to describe as 'elephant guitar'. The group launched into a raucous version of Forward March. This is a tune that sounds like your average slightly-out-of-tune high school marching band. (Pat has described it as the marching band from Ornette Coleman High). From that point on I was hooked. Fifteen years (and at ten albums later) I still have not tired of the PMG sound.