The title of this post echoes the song “My past life as a blast” by the Okkervil River.
I recently bought tickets for a gig at the Opiom Rooms featuring Okkervil River and The Antlers, who are coming to Dublin this October.
These are two bands from my indie snob past.
The word indie snob was first used to describe myself by I girl I briefly dated many years ago.
She meant to say that my taste in music was very snob and niche.
At the time, I remember protesting that I didn’t consider myself an indie snob but rather an indie fan or lover.
My friend Nicolas from France, who know lives in Berlin, was an indie snob.
During my first years in Dublin, we used to go to gigs together.
We would take turns at choosing gigs. He would often choose bands playing experimental music, which were too niche even for an indie fan – in my opinion.
I remember almost feeling sick at one of these gigs, Panda Bear in Vicar Street, which now has mandatory seating but back then it was all standing.
Anyway, the link between Okkervil River and my past as an indie snob / fan is that I used to write reviews of music albums as a hobby.
I would write for several webzines, like Indieforbunnies.com, and Okkervil River was one of the first bands I wrote an article on.
It was about their EP, Black Sheep Boy Appendix, released in 2005 by Jagjaguwar.
I also posted a piece of news about their (then) upcoming album on my own blog.
It was the year 2006 and I was a bit lost.
I remember living in Pontedera, Italy and travelling by train to Prato for an unpaid internship.
I also remember being in an unhappy relationship (I was engaged).
Indie music back then was a sort of shelter and refuge for me.
I would listen to it while waiting for the train on the station platform.
I would listen to it and hope things would change at some stage.
To be perfectly honest, I didn’t have much confidence in things changing but hope, yes I did.
It was also helpful to get involved with the group of music reviewers, mostly people the same age like me (at the time I was in my early 20s).
It gave me a way out of a difficult situation where I felt “stuck”.
I don’t remember reviewing any of The Antlers’ works, but I ranked ‘Hospice”, my favourite among their albums, as best album of 2009.
This was a very sad record. It was a concept album about an abusive relationship between a terminally-ill hospital patient and her visitor.
I am not sure why and how but it spoke to me at the time, and it still speaks to me nowadays, 25 years from its release.
Anyway, as an indie snob / fan, I look forward to seeing these two bands again.
I saw The Antlers once at The Academy, and Okkervil River once at The Grand Social.
It should be a great blast from the past!