Blogs

• July 23, 2009

  Third Eye Blind gave me a boner.

  posted by ShesARedStar

  There are few things in life that give me a "boner"...
  1. Third Eye Blind
  2. Trivia
  3. Delicious, NW-brewed beer.
  
  (Yes, there are a few more but for the sake of this blog I'll keep my list short).
  
  Though I'm a born and raised Portland girl through and through, I've come to enjoy my time in Seattle over the last 3 years. It wasn't until the frequent trips to Capital Hill became too expensive (who wants to sell Plasma solely to drink booze and get with chicks? Okay, okay..I do too buuuut there's only so much Plasma one can donate) and the lesbian drama became too much to handle that I took full advantage of what Seattle's Trivia has to offer.
  
  Trying our luck with local bars, a group of my friends and I set out on our journey through Seattle to find the Trivia night that would best suit our needs. A Neurobiology Major with a knack for all things scientific, mathematic and environmental, a crazy English Major with a distaste for the real world and an obsession with nonsense information (including History, Geography and Sports) paired with my undeniably sick knowledge of Pop Culture made for a decent team.
  
  We've recently moved/changed neighborhoods, opening up our "within drunken stumbling distance bars" opportunity. We decided to check one out last night, and that brings me to the whole point of this blog: Third Eye Blind gives me a "boner".
  
  We were halfway through the night, rocking our categories I might add, when I got the bonus round: identifying band and song title of a clip shown ("Beds Are Burning"-Midnight Oil). That signaled the end of the round, which meant point adding and copious purchases of beer. As the grumbles of "I KNEW it was that, why did you make me change it?!" crawled through the bar, my heart stopped.
  
  Had I really heard it? Naw...it was just wishful thinking. But as I sat there frozen, beer glass half-raised, I heard it again. The faint sound of those guitar chords I had heard a million times before, the steady pace and climax that makes my blood rush and head swim, Third Eye Blind. Jumper. After my initial realization had broken through it's utterly shocked phase, I shook several of my roommates violently in a desperate attempt to make them understand the importance of what I had just heard. As the song ended, I felt it. The detox. The adrenaline wearing off. This incredible 3EB moment slipping away, sending my otherwise monotonous Wednesday evening back into the lull in which it began. Just like I do with any Third Eye Blind song, I started to hear (in my head) the track that follows - in this case "Graduate". Waiving it off as a simple reflex, I turned my focus back to my Trivia-driven friends. Then, as the crowd was growing restless for Round 4 to start, I heard it. Again, stopping mid-drink, I heard it. Graduate. I was right. I had heard it. It wasn't just in my head. This bar, the little hole in the wall that I had overlooked for 3 years, was playing Third Eye Blind's self titled album, IN FULL! Not just "Never Let You Go" and "Jumper" that saturated every 90's radio, but the entire album in all of its tragic, underground glory.
  
  My jaw was dropped. My mind was blown. And I had a "boner".
  
  It's crazy what something as simple as hearing their music in a public atmosphere will do to me. The physical reaction from hearing their music is unheard of and an experience all in itself.
  
  No one else in the bar looked up. No one else in the bar had heard what I heard or realized what I did moments before. No one else had a grin plastered to their face the rest of the night simply from a few recognizable guitar chords, a handful of deeply ingrained lyrics, and an intense love and understanding that goes so deep it is a part of my body's chemistry. But I knew you would understand. I knew I could come home and try to put into words the elation I felt and that even if I failed miserably, you would understand.
  
  So thank you Third Eye Blind for giving me a she-boner. And thank you for giving this otherwise tedious day-to-day living some meaning.