A number of years ago, in the beginning years of college I was dating a guy that played guitar in a punk band based out of Pittsburgh. Living the life of a musician’s girlfriend was fun and busy. Very very busy. We were driving the two hours each way every weekend for practices and shows, I can’t even imagine how many miles I actually put on my car while I was with him.
During shows, us girlfriends would get to man the merch table, hawking cds, shirts and bumper stickers to various audiences around the state. I can remember being out on tour one summer in the van that the band had finally managed to acquire, we were on our way to a show at a skate park in the middle of nowhere. I also know that on that trip I read Harry Potter for the first time. Maybe Harry Potter isn’t exactly what one expects from a girl in the punk rock scene, but I was addicted.
I suppose those sorts of differences are the reason I never actually moved to Pittsburgh to live with my friends and to continue dating the guitar player I’d been with for almost two years. I stayed in my home town, finished college and continued to listen to punk music through it all. I was just no longer on tour with the boys. The next summer they found themselves playing on the Warped Tour and on a major West Coast tour. I’m glad I stayed home, that’s a lot of driving and not enough Harry Potter.
