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The Musician In Me Holds Tender Roots to the 90s Grunge/Punk/Metal Scene

Today I am about to take you on a long ride through the journey that I took very early on in life. To speed you up past the fact I held my first guitar at the age of 5 or the fact I found a love for piano at the age of 9, I will bring you to those coming of age years of my high school years and the person molded by the amazing sounds so many bands brought forth to my young ears.

Like any teenager, I had a few awkward moments in the early days of high school. Trying to find my place in the world and with my peer group. I was that strange kid you would see tooting around his guitar, long hair in the wind and a bit of a loner unless I ran with my small inner circle. Back then I had dreams of forming a band as I listened to bands like Pearl Jam and Nirvana, but more heavier due to my love also for Sepultura and Pantera.

I filled my room constantly with as many CDs as I could get my hands on. Unlike most listeners, I was picking apart the guitar tracks and thumbing along on my guitar to find the right chords to match. I was born with a talent for playing music by ear and in my early youth I was putting that to good test daily.

To embarace myself, this was me in 1993

Very early on I formed my first band, this was around 1991 when I was about 13. We called ourselves "Frizzy Lizzard" which to this day I cringe when I think about letting our singer call ourselves that but what they hell, long as good music was created then what does a name matter. Recently I found an old tape of this first band of mine, and honesty it was acutally pretty good for a first outing, good mix of alternative with heavier punk undertones, way before Punk came back on the scene again.

As with anything my first band was together for a couple years but as we got more deep into high school we all kind of drifted off to different scenes and cliques. Looking back though I am very fond of those memories during that time in my life, that was the stage I found my sound and voice in the music creation department, because as it turned out I was the songwriter of the group and through numerous bands in the future that was always the position I was placed in.

Gainesville, Florida 1994 was Seattle 2.0

After the break up of my first band during high school, I found myself more a listener and learner for most of my continued high school career. As I grew and got my license I would travel to Gainesville, Florida routinely every other night to catch live bands in the area. Gainesville back in the 90s was a great place to catch some amazing acts, a second Seattle to many in the area and luckily only 20 minutes from my home town.

During many adventures to old GVILLE as we call it down here, I would pop by a new friends work place called Knuckleheads back then that is no more now a days. Knuckleheads was a head shop, smoke shop if you might but they had that vibe in there for the kids to chill and gather before a lot of local shows. One of my good friends there was a guy named Roger, who happened to be the bassist for LESS THAN JAKE for those with a knowledge of the Ska Punk band.

Myself with Friends at Harvest Fest in Gainesville, FL around 1994-95.

Roger was to me just a good friend, little older than me but always kind of took me under his wing whenever I came in town to kind of keep me out of trouble. I would sit in on their jam sessions a lot and jammed with the whole of LESS THAN JAKE a few times. Hard to believe now how famous they got but in the early days I don't even think they expected that.

Gainesville would host a music festival every year called Harvest Fest, which I attended religiously. George Clinton aka PFUNK would be the headliner usually. Just a great 3 day weekend festival and most of the bands were locals that ended up becoming huge for our area. I remember so many great times at these festivals, and looking back I seriously feel lucky to have had such great music around me growing up.

Some Change When They Grow Up, Some Of Keep That Inner Kid Core With Us

The rest of my youth was spent diving in and out of bands, some had great local success, others fizzled out before even the first note was played. In the end though I will say if it wasn't for the music locally and on the radio in the 90s I wouldn't have gotten on any stage and lived the dreams that I did.

Today while out running errands we were listening to XM Radio on a Grunge station and all the memories of my youth came flooding over me. That is what inspired me to share little snippets of my past with you today and its so funny how powerful music can be where it takes you back to that kid you once were.

The music scene has vastly changed since my youth. In some ways that was bound to happen but that rebellious spirit of the 90s generation seems to be a silenced voice in the history of time. Maybe I am just getting older and I don't relate to the new stuff as much but it does make me feel sad for the youth that missed out on such a great era in music and may never understand its messages. I will say this though, I am proud I still keep that 90s kid within myself, that I know where my roots come from...I may grow older but I will always retain that youthful boy looking for that band to make me a rockstar. Just now I don't chase that dream because in my own way I found my place on the stage of life with my family and kids, that is stardom enough for this ex-Flannel wearing grunge kid.

~sflaherty

Follow me @sflaherty

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In Tribute To All The Great Bands That Touched Me During The 90's....Thank You: Less Than Jake, Bloom, For Squirrels, The Pixies, Fugazi, Sublime, Sepultura, Tool, Deftones, Stabbing Westward, Marilyn Manson, Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails, Pearl Jam, Tad, Alice In Chains, Janes Addiction, NOFX, Green Day, The Offspring, Collective Soul, Counting Crows, Dig, Korn, Marcy Playground, Stone Temple Pilots, Bush, Butthole Surfers, Green Jello, Gwar, Megadeth, Slayer, Metallica, Soul Asylum, Hole, Pantera, Misery Loves Co., Soundgarden, Ministry, Psychic TV, Skinny Puppy, The Breeders, Fear Factory, Beck, The Cranberries, K's Choice, The Melvins, Primus, and the ongoing list of many more bands that worked hard to make my youth filled with song and joy!

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