i'm so tired of running away...

i think i'll put on my war paint
and make a stand where others have before

i know two dudies out there who will be happy to hear that jenn and i saw the samples on tuesday night. those two dudies will also be happy to hear that seany boy's new lineup is sounding pretty darn good, and he finally has a keyboard player that can actually play.

if you're unfamiliar with the samples, they're the band you love that never quite made it (but you still pull for them anyway). after some serious buzz in the early nineties, lots of rotation on college radio stations, and an appearance on the jay leno show in '94, they had hit their zenith and began a slow and disappointing descent.

well, i should define descent: in spite of every original member trickling away from the band over the ensuing years except sean kelly, sean continued to write music, replaced those wayward members, and toured endlessly to support new albums; their original record label - WAR (What Are Records) - screwed them with one of those music industry nightmare contracts that just make you grimace; the band went bankrupt and in an unprecedented move actually asked their loyal fans to help them get out of debt (i think this actually worked in a small way).

after the fans helped sean out of debt, he put together a pretty good band and released a pretty lackluster album. still a great live show, though. three years ago, the members of that band trickled away, and sean put together his current incarnation, continues to tour, and put out a slightly better album last year.

a freeway never seemed so strange
rushing back and forth from a life
that i can't explain

sean kelly is the samples. and the samples are a great live band. i've seen them at least a dozen times, most of which have been with jenn, or timmy, or jamie, or robbie, or some combination thereof. in fact, mine and jenn's history is pretty firmly wrapped up in this band.

another day fades away
into the midwestern haze
a duster plane flies away
up over pastures of cattle

* the first concert jenn and i saw together was the samples, at mabel's, in 1995

* the first concert we saw together after we were broken up for a short time in the spring of 1997, was the samples in bloomington, il

* the first concert we saw together after living apart for a year in 2000/2001, was the samples in jackson, wy

* the first concert we saw together as a married couple was the samples, the day after our wedding in 2002, at mishawaka in colorado

jenn and i and our group of friends love this band. sometimes sean's lyrics can be overly sappy, sometimes they'll blow you away with their stark simplicity, but they are always a great live show. catch them if you can - who knows how much longer they'll want to grind it out on the road.

whoever stops to really smell the rose
where the columbine and the wild river flows
oh how i love her
i smile above her

postscript: if you want my opinion, the two strongest samples albums - from start to finish - are this one and this one. but don't buy the last drag, because that one's on WAR and the samples won't see a single red cent from its sale.