Saturday, November 20, 2010
Meet Your Blogger: DirtyFrankDahmr
WEBSITE: Twitter.com/DirtyFrankDahmr
REAL NAME: Jed
LOCATION: New York, New York, USA
DAY JOB: Entertainment Attorney
FAVORITE ALBUM:
Ten
FAVORITE SONG(S):
Release
FAVORITE BAND MEMBER:
Mike (he’s a rock legend and a great guy)
HOW MANY SHOWS HAVE YOU ATTENDED?
61
INTERESTING TEN CLUB MEMBERSHIP FACT:
My Ten Club number is 61,XXX from way back in the day, and my running total in the Goods section since 2003 is over $7000 (mostly spent on tickets and posters).
IT'S SAFE TO SAY THAT PEARL JAM IS YOUR OBSESSION. WHY PEARL JAM?
It started in high school. In 10th Grade my friend Stew and I caught on to the Alive video and then Ten. When Pearl Jam came to our area, we missed out on buying tickets and had to pay $100 each to scalpers. For a couple of high school kids that was an unbelievable amount and our seats turned out to be in the upper rows at the back of the arena. We ended up planning to go with two other guys in our class who had also gotten into Pearl Jam.
We counted down the days to the show with decreasing numbers posted on our lockers. I found myself bonding with these two other guys as we talked more and more about the show and got increasingly excited.
On the day of the show, April 8th, 1994, we sat in traffic on the way to the venue and that was when we heard on the radio that Kurt Cobain had died. It was a huge blow and very sad.
The show opened with Release and the band was clearly distraught and emotional. After a few songs Eddie said that they weren’t sure they could go on and they would probably play one song and that would be it. But they played on, and I felt like we all grieved in that room that night as a family. I think we also celebrated a bit of the power of music and the incredible effect Kurt Cobain had on all of us in the short time he was around.
That show has had an everlasting effect on me. It was the best Pearl Jam concert I will ever attend. The show was in April, and by December my concert buddies and I were an inseparable gang and the whole school knew us as “The PJ-4.” We had bonded over the joy we experienced at that show, and the grief, and most importantly, the music. I became obsessed with the music.
These days my interest in pearl jam is based mainly on the euphoria I get from the live shows. I just cannot beat going to a Pearl Jam concert and singing my heart out, relating to the lyrics and dancing with the band and the great friends I’ve made over the years. The PJ-4 are still the best of friends. We go to shows together all the time, we all talk almost daily, and I consider them family. My friend, Josh, recently had a daughter, and they gave her the middle name “Pearl”. Sixteen years and over 60 shows later, I’ve also picked up many new and cherished friends along the way.
WHY DID YOU START YOUR TWITTER FEED?
For years I have spent hours a day searching for new Pearl Jam news, new music, new bootlegs, new posters, etc. I would always send mass emails to my friends with whatever big announcements I could find. There would be 8 or 9 people on the emails and that was it. It’s very time consuming to have a Pearl Jam obsession and law school and a new career, so I could never make the time commitment necessary to be a real blogger, and I was never interested in getting too deep into the forums communities because I just didn’t have time. I did have a few failed attempts at trying out Pearl Jam blogs and Pearl Jam podcasts with friends, but the momentum would fizzle out. Twitter is perfect for me because it reaches more than 8 people, it’s always required to be brief, and it takes me a few minutes every day. There turned out to be the added bonus that it was super easy to post set lists and picture from shows… so for me, it just happened to be the perfect platform to get involved and give back to a community I have always wanted to be a contributing part of.
WHAT WAS YOUR GREATEST PEARL JAM EXPERIENCE?
First and greatest, April 8th, 1994.
HOW EXTENSIVE IS YOUR PEARL JAM COLLECTION?
Collection of what? Obviously I have a ton of bootlegs. I have just about every vinyl they’ve done, but my prized collection are my posters. My collection is extensive and includes every show I’ve attended, a few other 96’s, most of the 98’s and pretty much every Pearl Jam poster since 2000. Truth be told, I’m obsessed with poster collecting because of Pearl Jam. I have been an active member of the Red Black Yellow Pearl Jam forum for poster fanatics for years. These days I collect concert posters of all sorts. My dream is to one day open a gallery or poster shop in New York. When I was in college, there were a few great concert poster shops, mainly in Greenwich Village, but now they are mostly gone.
IS THERE A SPECIFIC LYRIC THAT MOVES YOU?
Every time I listen to a bootleg something new touches me. I’ve always really cherished “If I knew where it was, I would take you there, there’s much more than this!” from Breath. Lately I’ve been very into Supersonic’s “truth be told, I wanna live my life with the volume full.”
WHAT ELSE IS ON YOUR IPOD RIGHT NOW?
The Features and The Upwelling are my two other favorites. I’m also very into British radio – I listen to BBC Radio One every day and love Biffy Clyro, Marina & The Diamonds, Jenny Lewis, Ray lamontagne, Need To Breathe, The Thermals, Elbow, Muse and I could go on...
WHEN YOU WALK AWAY FROM YOUR COMPUTER, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?
I'm an entertainment lawyer in New York. I go to a lot of show and hang out with my girlfriend. I run a website that promotes and produces events in New York, http://www.myopenbar.com. I also help with a local charity started by 25 New York music bloggers who have come together to produce an annual summer music festival in Brooklyn called After The Jump Music Festival, and the proceeds from that are donated to local school’s music programs.
WHAT PASSIONS DO YOU HAVE BEYOND PEARL JAM?
Music is my main passion; it keeps me sane and gets me through the day. I see a lot of non-Pearl Jam shows.
WHAT IS YOUR GUILTY PLEASURE?
Food, travel, and tv shows like Lost (R.I.P.), Community, Modern Family, True Blood, Dexter, Friday Night Lights, etc.
OTHER BLOGGERS IN THIS SERIES
KathyTFT, TwoFeetThick.com
Donny, All That's Sacred
Jason Leung, This All Encompassing Trip
Jed, Twitter.com/DirtyFrankDahmr
Matt, Gremmie.net
Stip, The SkyIScrape.com
Victor Nogales, PJCollectors.com