"Let's tune out..."

Nina says...

"Oh haven't we heard this song about a thousand times before? Oh well! After a while it all sounds the same. I guess it's better than silence and better than shame."

I'm wearing my Format shirt today. I find myself feeling entirely too nostalgic. I miss that band so much. Some of the best moments in my life involved their music.

The first time I ever kissed a boy was because of The Format. He sang On Your Porch to me while we sat in my Buick. It was raining. "...and we talked all night about everything you could imagine. 'Cuz come the morning I'll be gone. And as our eyes start to close I turn to you and I let you know that I love you." He was a terrible singer. But I fell for him regardless. He was the first and one of the only boys who made me feel beautiful.

When I met my best friend, Kelie, in college, our first bonding moment was when I introduced her to their music. We sat in our tiny dorm room and listened to them for hours, relating our lives to their lyrics and dancing our stupid dances to their catchy beats. I can't listen to The First Single without thinking of her. "So let's make a list of who we need. It's not much if anything. Let's make a list of who we need and we'll throw it away 'cuz we don't need anyone. No we don't need anyone!" The year I spent with her was the best year of my life. It probably always will be.

The first time I fell in love, it terrified me. I denied it to even myslef, claiming oblivion. Thinking he was just fun to me. One day the song Janet came up when I was shuffling through songs on my iPod. I was floored and I could no longer escape what I was feeling. "I'm falling in love with you. Balloons or no balloons." I called him up and told him to come over right away, that it was urgent! I told him how I felt that day, almost screaming my I-love-you's at him for fear I would lose my nerve if I didn't get it all out right away. He never did love me back and is to date my biggest heartbreak, the one guy I will probably never completely get over. But I didn't and still don't care. The song made me realize that I loved the disaster in our so-called romance.

I will never forget or recreate the high I got from seeing them live. They were just as good if not better live as they were in their albums. I would sit there surrounded by people--in the beginning a hundred or so of them, in the end a thousand or so--and just lose everything. It was fabulous. Sometimes I would intentionally go to their shows alone just so I could feel like I had them to myself.

They were only together for 6 years, I followed them for 5. But what they made can never be made again by anyone else. At least not for me. They were my youth. My crazy, care-free days. My first love, the good and the bad.

It's funny how a little band can mean so much.