Editor's Note: BLOGGER FAIL?

Sometimes it’s a hard thing for someone to admit that they’re a little burnt out. It’s not really socially acceptable or professionally acceptable, because the notion of realizing that someone is burnt out should come with an equal realization that a person has likely put themselves in the situations that they’re experiencing the burnout from.

See, all of a sudden I realized that I may be a little burnt out on the whole live music scene. Over the past year I’ve gone to see a bunch of shows that I never really ended up writing about, and as of late I’ve been a bit more critical in my approach to seeing shows and it’s taken a bit of the fun out of it for me. With the exception of seeing !!! (Chk Chk Chk), I’m not sure any concert has fully excited me lately. Outside Lands was pretty exciting, too, I guess. I just started to feel “over it.” I think I was just overexposing myself to it.

I went to see Built to Spill on Tuesday night at Slim’s, mostly on a whim when I knew a friend of mine had an extra. I had heard enough of their music (I thought) to know I would like to see what they do live, but after seeing a marginally interesting but mostly boring noise-rock opener — Quasi (with the drummer from Sleater-Kinney) — my patience for taking in live music for the uninitiated had mostly run out. I stayed for maybe half the set and just took off. Then last night, right before heading out to see The Bad Plus, I realized that I really did not need to go see The Bad Plus again after seeing them a few months ago right here in San Fran. I asked myself if I thought it would have the same feeling or even the emotional effect that I hoped to get out of a concert experience, and the answer became immediately clear to me — “No, it probably wouldn’t. Maybe it would, especially if they played “Tom Sawyer,” but it probably wouldn’t.” So I opted to skip the show. GG Justin’s brain.

I’m taking this as a sign for me to slow down a bit. Plus, I think it’s just a good excuse for me to get more involved with the actual publishing side of the house again instead of trying to live my life like a live music junkie. The problem with being a junkie is that you’ve always got to feed the monkey. I’ve hit my rock bottom. I need help, people! I want to want to love live music again, just like the 15 year old kid that used to catch rides with his older friends to Fireside Bowl to see bands like The Vandals and Earth Crisis. I want to stop being such a critic and I want to make this site all about having fun again. And so it goes on living and learning and cultural burnout and blah blah and blah…

Expect to see some great updates on the site over the next month or so as I let my attention shift back to being the man behind the scenes. I may not see you in the beer line as frequently, but you can always find me right here at Live Music Blog. Thanks for continuing to hang out with me.

Very sincerely,
Justin