And I’m also a writer and rock music aficionado. In fact I’m much more than that. To explain my decision to open with something rather irrelevant to my current personality (furthermore, my blogging personality); during my 9 month (and counting) stint of abstinence, I’ve wanted to start a monologue like that but AA’s simply not my cup of tea.  I also do more things than write and like a lot more music than rock.  Anyway, I digress.

My parents (whom are aged 44 and 41 respectively) took me to my first concert at age 5.  I think I slept through Tesla but enjoyed Poison.  The next year I believe I wet my pants somewhere between Sebastian Bach and co’s hard rock (don’t be an ass and call Skid Row hair metal) performance and when my parents held me up near Jon Bon Jovi’s catwalk.  Hopefully I didn’t have piss stains showing to ol’ GOV.

As the years went on my mother grew into her 20’s and decided it was now necessary for my father to re-record my cassette version of Appetite For Destruction with “pauses” over the swears.  If only the fucking woman (whom I cherish deeply) knew I’d be tattooing the Robert Williams monster from the original cover art years later.

Dad took me to more concerts over the years than I’ve been to with anyone else and presumably more than I’ll ever attend with anyone else since I often now simply go alone (though not always).  This list includes Guns N’ Roses in 1992, Paula Abdul w/ Color Me Badd, Snow (I’m obviously human), Edgefest and Warped Tour festivals, The Misfits (obviously not with Danzig but a very enjoyable American Psycho tour nonetheless.  If you claim you saw The Misfits at any point after 2000 you’re full of shit.  Most notably they are full of shit), Danzig, Buckcherry, AC/DC, Aerosmith, Less Than Jake, Green Day, No Use For A Name, NOFX, Rancid for two nights in Calgary, shitfaced together at numerous more (especially that fucking Motorhead show).  The list goes on.  I’ve been to hundreds, though right now those are the ones that stand out with him.

My Mom loves Madonna.  I’d sneak peak after peak at that aluminum Madonna sex book as a teen, hoping she couldn’t tell it’d been moved.  Vanilla Ice, your ass is unfortunately burned into my brain.  Good job.  My mother flew from Edmonton last year and took me to see Madonna in Vancouver for our birthdays.  We’re Libras.

I write for, maintain and administer a music review site @ www.westcoastweasel.com.  In the past 48 hrs our writing staff has grown by 150% (any keeners will notice that I changed it. I layed in bed realizing I don’t do math well).  If you go to the site and figure out how many we are now without asking someone for help/confirmation (like I did prior, but then still went with my initial instinct), post it below because I’m always looking for intelligent conversationalists.  While my focus is mostly punk or rock, collectively it has now grown to include indie, folk, roots….whatever we want really.  There’s some great reviews and killer interviews.  See you there.

Steve “Weasel” Roland