It was bitter sweet watching one of my favorite bands thrash the stage in Dallas, Texas one last time.

Lets rewind a little bit. The year was 2004. During my early years of high school, lost and trying to figure out who I was, the things I was into, etc. I found myself playing Greg Hasting’s Tournament Paintball on XBOX. One of the soundtracks on that video game happened to be Reinventing Your Exit by Underoath. Outside of my father’s metal (AC/DC, Metallica, Skid Row, Steel Panther, etc.) that was the first time I had heard music of that genre and I was instantly hooked. 

This was the pre-Myspace days. I had at this time also discovered PureVolume.com and began frantically searching for screamo/heavy music. I started going to shows at the local skatepark and eventually filled in on bass in a band with some of my best friends that I still have today. At this point in my life (and mostly now, as well) my life revolved around music. 

After a couple of years of being a constant show-goer around the DFW local scene and after having my parents consent, my best buddy Tyler and I attended our first Vans Warped Tour in ’06. The first festival that I had ever attended and one in which Tyler and I made fake lamies to get into the show. Believe it or not, it worked. The fine people at DHL Event Security aren’t the sharpest tools in the shed. 

It was at that point that everything I had known about music, the music business, shows, and festivals would be forever changed. Most people that go to large festivals know that a part of the festival experience is the vendors. Tyler and I met a Rastafarian by the name of Inoch who sold random merchandise and trinkets. After some small talk and a nearly sold out crowd at that year’s Warped Tour, Inoch asked us to help him sell his merchandise for the day. It was that action that helped build a mutually beneficial relationship for the last 6 years of being able to work nearly EVERY music festival, tour, and radio show in the country. 

Through meeting Inoch, I have been able to network and meet some of the greatest people ever, travel the entire country in a haggard van and eventually a tour bus. 

All of this really hit home for me as I stood in a sold out Palladium Ball room surrounded by people that I had met over the years at all the local DFW shows. It was a very emotional, humbling experience. It was a little heartbreaking to see over a decade of influence come to an end, but when I look back and realize everything that Underoath had indirectly done for me, I couldn’t have been more happy.  Thank you for the memories

Below is a link to my YouTube Channel where just about the entire set from Underoath’s Farewell Tour can be viewed.

ENJOY!