01-12-08: Ben & Ari's - Fishers, Indiana

Saturday night at Ben & Ari's. What a way to end the tour. Call it a homecoming, if you will, and maybe even a reunion. And it was definitely one of the best experiences on this trip. I'm not even necessarily talking our performance itself, because things just aren't the same with Dave on drums, but instead I'm talking about the feeling of bringing everyone together after years of not seeing each other and being united and reunited by music. Everyone that attended were all friends of ours, whether they were from high school, relatives of friends, our own relatives, peers from other bands, etc. Not only were we excited to see them, they were all excited to see each other. Even on top of that, we met a lot of new people who were all very, very supportive, and we can't thank our old friends and new friends enough for all of their support.

Right before our set, John Deluca (manager of Ben & Ari's) introduced us, touching upon the subject on how they started these "student nights" seven years ago, where Zach & I were their first band to ever perform there. (We were called Crash at the time.) I never really realized we had began there so long ago, and were the first to start off their years of student nights. For us, as a young and beginning band, it was an amazing opportunity to perform regularly for our friends and meet new people. For Ben & Ari's, not only a great business move, it was also a way to give teenagers a safe place to go with a great environment. Ever since that first show, all of us have grown and learned through so many experiences that may have never happened if timing hadn't been right.

We performed a split set again, kicking off with All Because of You, Runaway, El Scorcho, and Same Things. Then we broke it down to play Get Low and Cold acoustic. We finished off with The End and Untitled. It was a great set and we had a great time doing, but it went so fast. Oh wait... at the end of it all, we performed Dammit (Blink 182) unplugged style on guitar with three part harmonies. Brought me so close to tears...

After everything was over... well that was a chance to meet a bunch of new people who hadn't heard us before. We signed some cds and shirts for these new faces, and just spent time talking to everyone and thanking them for all their support. I really don't think I've ever said thank you more than I did these past several shows, but it's true that I am so thankful for everyone who came to see us. A few friends and family from Ohio; my mom drove up from South Carolina; and several different people from colleges all over Indy. It was just such a great feeling.

In the end, I am sincerely going to miss everyone, because it's not every day that we get a chance to visit our hometown of Carmel. At the same time, I'm finally back to my apartment and in my own bed. I probably slept on the floor way too much, and a couch here and there, but my bed feels so much better. I'm looking forward to the next trip.

Oh yeah, I'm still behind on photos. I didn't actually get anyone to take pictures on my camera for the last show but I'll do what I can when I find some. In the meantime, I finally found some pictures of Common Grounds. Yes... that's me on drums. My cousin posted some photos too at www.ria6677.blogspot.com.

Here's a few photos from Ben & Ari's, courtesy of Hannah Commeville:










From Common Grounds, on my camera: