An Indie Christmas - Part II

Hi again. I know I've been distant lately, but that's because I've been working on a tattoo project for a local Boston website. It's been a wild ride, and I lost track of time pretty quick.

But I was able to take a break from all that last weekend to join the festivities for this year's Record Store Day. If you remember back to last year, I spent the day running around north of Boston with a friend of mine - we'll call him Joseph, hitting a few independent record stores for deals and free swag. Well since then, April 17, 2010 has been on our radar.

And this year didn't disappoint. The same deals were in place - 30 percent off used CDs and 20 percent off vinyl.

Joseph and I were up bright and early. In fact, we were at Newbury Comics in Burlington (a great starting point, might I add) a few minutes before it opened. We found ourselves 18th and 19th in line. As soon as doors opened we made a dash toward the table of free swag, while the rest of the crowds hit the newly released vinyl bays.

We ended up making out with a whole bunch of nice garb from the first stop including the Terrible Things 7-inch release (Fred Mascherino's new band), a signed CD booklet from The Almost and a few pint glass decorated with sugar skulls. Dia de los Muertos, what?!

From Burlington we headed to Boston. Being Record Store Day, it would have been a sin not to hit the original Newbury Comics on, you guessed it, Newbury Street. So much free swag there. We both scored some sick Anberlin posters as well as a ton of free sampler CDs. I even splurged and bought myself a used copy of Saosin's self-titled album. What a treat.

Next was a quick stop at the NC near Faneuil Hall where we loaded up on more free swag. Some more pint glasses, a few guitar picks and a poster or two and we were out the door.

It was lunch time so we decided to hit Spike's Junkyard Dogs and try our hand at their eating challenge. Let's just say a half hour of straight eating salty hot dogs wrapped in sub rolls was enough to make us immobile for a while. But we beat the challenge, got our pictures on the wall and earned our free t-shirts. Score!

By this time it was late afternoon and we had one mission left. Hightail it to NC in Norwood for the free Circa Survive performance at 4. We made it there in record time. After scoring some free swag, vinyl hunting and using the bathroom once or twice, we were ready for Circa.

As we were waiting by the side of the stage, Joseph noticed some guy touching his shoulders and apologizing for "crop dusting" us. It was none other than Anthony Green, Circa's dapper lead singer. Joseph was in shock, as was I.

Seriously, who gets farted on by Anthony Green? Only us.

A few minutes later and Anthony... er, Tony was back to apologize again. He hung with us for a few minutes and we had quite the deep conversation. We talked about everything from the hot dogs we just murdered to treating people fairly. Oh, and we posed for a few pics with the rock god himself. It was wild.

Circa killed it acoustic, of course. And after that was over, well, we couldn't top that. Our holiday was finished and we retreated to the comforts of my apartment complex to organize our swag, make fun of each other and watch Panic(!) Room. Perfect ending to a perfect day.

I can't say I'll be living up here in Boston this time next year, but I can promise that no matter what I'll be making the trip back for Record Store Day 2011. Only 360 days left!

Oh, and if you're interested in getting your hands on some of that swag I grabbed, keep checking back to Backstage Press. I'll be giving some of it away in the coming weeks!