I am a slightly elderly audiophile-53 years old. In June of 2006 I drove from my home in Red Lodge Montana to Chicago (1300 + miles) to see Tom Verlaine-I'd do it ldagain. The previous June, drove to Portland, Oregon for Interpol- that was a great show but the band or at least Paul Banks was visibly nervous and a bit reserved- but to see even a pensive Paul Banks in the Crystal Ballroom on a warm June evening, yeah, I'd drive a cool thousand miles. Went back to see Interpol again last fall in Salt Lake City, LIARS opened. Paul Banks was Mr. Cool that night; turning his back to the audience and puffing clouds of ciggy smoke up into the blue lights. LIARS were brilliant with Angus decked out in a white suit and Julian in a flourecent pink hoodie which made him look a little like the pink reaper on a drumstool-I'd definitley make that trip again. Last August we drove to Puyalup Washington to see Devo's 45 min. set at the Puyalup State Fair. That one almost broke us.Drove from Red Lodge to Portland in one go, stayed with freinds there and then up to Puyalup next day. We arrived at the fairgrounds an hour before showtime and this place is huge, like several hundred acres and we can't find the venue. Alot of people had heard of Devo but no one knew they were playing there that night- not even fairworkers or security. I kind of hit the wall at this point; when I left home two days earlier my Dad was feeling quite poorly and he'd said "I hope I'm here when you get back." He was joking but there was something in it. The long drive and crashing with freinds and everything else kind of lead up to this weird moment with me and my Son standing on this giant midway with total sensory overload from the fairground sights, sounds and smells. I was thinking I'd made a mistake driving 1,200 miles to see a moldy old band at a hideous fairground in Podunk Washington, I started having palpitations and then BOOM! I hear the drum intro to "Satisfaction" solidly drowning out all other sounds-DEVO had just started their sound check and no kidding it was freaking thunderous. All heads on the midway turned toward the direction of DEVO and we were the only ones who knew what it was. The show began on time to the second and so did the rain. But I'd do it again-please go see DEVO if you ever get the chance!!! Postscript to that story- my Dad passed away about a month later. Last April, was our first rock and roll rat race to Salt Lake City Utah, where we saw three musical things; We saw Wolfmother!!- they are instant rock history! Type O Negative- horrible sound- horrible crowd- Horrible show. We also went to an organ recital at the Mormon Tabernacle- I almost cried!!! But I saved the best live for last which was our third Salt Lake trip- made just last week. We heard that LIARS were coming back to Salt Lake on Jan 31 with a band we'd never heard of before "No Age"-who is now a band we'll never forget. We wanted to go but since my son is only sixteen we felt we'd have a problem at the Urban Lounge- a 21 and over private club so.....I sent LIARS an Email and asked them to help us. I don't want to mention any names but we heard back from people who could help us and was given the go ahead to drive down. We left Red Lodge at nine thirty am and headed west to Butte Montana where we turned south toward Salt Lake. All was well until the Montana/Idaho border where it began blizzarding like mad. We had just switched drivers and my Son was now driving. The conditions were so bad that there were cars and semis off the road everywhere. This was an interstate highway, but there was only a narrow pathway made by previos cars and nowhere to pull off. It went on like this for about 8 hours until just north of Salt Lake where it suddenly became clear. I was worried we were going to be late so I called my LIARS contact and found that they too were making their way through the same storm still en route to the venue. We got to Salt Lake, found the club went to the back and called our contact. They came out and told us to get a giant canvas bag of "merch" out of the van and walked into the club-where my Son was promptly ask for his I D. "Oh, He's with us" said our contact "I still need to see his I D." My son told me later that upon hearing this he almost peed into the merch bag!! "Look, you don't understand, these guys are friends of ours who drove all the way from Montana to see the show." "I'm sorry but it's a $10,000 fine, if we get caught and we know they're watching cause we've had some problems, but there's the manager over there, you two can go talk to him but he'll have to wait here." motioning to my son. The manager graciously allowed Riley, my son, to hang out in the foyer with the bouncer and watch the show from there-it was very cool, not the best seat in the house but way better than no seat at all. The bands were really bummed and showered us with merchandise, pizza and bottled water. Coolest of all were No Age dedicatiting their set from the stage to Riley and vowing to play extra hard just for him and LIARS frontman Angus giving us a shout out with "Pure Unevil" a song they dedicated to Interpol at the previous show. We were also given a very cool handmade silkscreened gigposter commemorating the event from Nick and Erin from Potter Press in Salt Lake. It was a great show considering that the bands had been 18 hours in little vans crawling along some highway through terrible white out conditions, slice of pizza and on stage. I was doing good just holding a conversation and these guys were electrifying a whole room full of people. I, before my son grew up and became a music lover and musician himself, made many such sojourns to see important artists, sometimes with fellow worhipers, sometimes it's a solitary pilgrimage to gather shoulder to shoulder, front to back, back to front with the faithful in clove smoke filled temples whose overbearing PA systems bore out our cochleas with fire and brimstone and amazingly it always seems to be worth the trouble. I don't regret most of the crap I put up with to see my golden idols. Although I wish....nah, that's a whole other topic.