A Band and a Fan.

Fan: Anonymous until he gives me permission
Group: A.F.I.
Upcoming Album Title: Crash Love

On my Facebook profile, I have listed some of my favorite music and groups. A couple of weeks ago I was, “friend requested” by a stranger, a young man. He found me because I was like him, a fan of A.F.I. Though I will admit to following book series a bit obsessively, I am no longer someone who hangs off every quote a rock star or celebrity regurgitates. Ever since I “accept”-ed this young man’s request I have been feeling a slight nostalgia for a time when I did.

I learned that this young man had started an online group, titled “Crash Love” named after the music groups’ soon to be released album. Back in the day I don’t recall there being things like, “release dates” though I’m sure there were. Back then, I would simply hear a song on the radio and if I liked it, I would purchase the cassette (yes cassette) single. Till this day I follow the same rules; I have to like three or more singles to buy the entire album.

This young man seemed to have devoted a great deal of time locating every A.F.I. fan, including myself and asking us to join his “Crash Love” group. At one point he commented “…100 people overnight…”. Like a host at a party, he checked in with me (and I assume everyone he befriended) to see if we had joined the group. Honestly, when it came to A.F.I. I was completely content to listen to their current album. It would have been two years from now that I would have stopped somewhere and thought, “…Oh, I wonder if they ever made another album”. But because of this young man, I now know all kinds of up to date stuff on them.

A.F.I. has some seriously devoted fans, some who do not have 1, but 5 or more tattoos dedicated to them. Fans, who band together on “Twitter” to earn the song titles from “Crash Love”. (Check out “Twitter Troubles” to see how I feel about twitter). When I was younger I found myself a little fanatic about bands like, “Information Society” and “The Cure”. I remember shaving lines into the side of my head I still have seven piercings in my ears and to this day my favorite color is black. Perhaps those bands somehow influenced the fact that I ended up “behind the chair” where I can wear all the black I want and are exposed to crazy cuts and funky hair colors.

The young man’s “Crash Love” group page had a link to one of the band members’ blog; I was curious to learn if the band knew who the dedicated young man was. When I logged onto the blog and read: I found it funny, commited to fans and now I follow it.

For me a writer who is apprihensive to fame, it was good for me to experience a dedicated fan, or fans first hand, and to remember what it was like to be one of them. It was also refreshing to read the band members blog and how he has positively embraced the good bad and ugly sides of fame: old pictures that made it to the internet, drawings and rumors that fans or “haters” made and how much his fans mean to him. It’s up to the fame Gods, weather or not I become famous, but adding this young man as a “friend” and reading the band members blog somehow made my fears of success-a bit less.