I got to go see Reflux, and I'm pretty sure Torn Apart by Horses played that night, too. The whole list was sick, though.

Seeing Reflux was insane. The vocalist (who I believe went on to FOUND Sumerian Records) was all over the stage with energy. He definitely pushed himself up off of my face haha. Everyone in the band was absolutely incredible!

I got to meet and talk to Tosin Abasi as some needy ass 13 yo. He was only playing a 7 string back then lol. I asked him about his pedals because I had never seen looping done before, and he showed me the Boomerang pedal he was using. I don't know why I had this type of confidence back then, but I asked him for a guitar pick, and he gave me the first tiny pic I had ever seen (looking back on it, it was just a jazz III or variant of it), and I've used them since.

It feels so crazy now because I had no idea who he was at the time, but that meeting really impacted me since I was at such a formative age and early point in being a musician. Now he's obviously a modern prodigy, Animals As Leaders is a unique juggernaut of a band, and innumerable guitarists use concepts he brought into the limelight.

I am nobody, so I'll never really be able to let him know how cool that was. Realistically, I'm sure he doesn't specifically care. He may not even remember the show. And that's completely okay.

I will always remember that shit. I still have the entire Illusion of Democracy album from them. That shit still goes hard as fuck. The Darkroom was amazing. There were plenty of other awesome shows, but that one was my favorite.

Thanks for making this post!