Ten years ago, we released this album. I remember this night so well. We had rented Foam City for the show and the space was basically just a blank stage. We could do whatever we wanted with it.

Our friend Dallas set us up with all the sound equipment needed, and we got there and started setting up on a ridiculously hot day for May in Indiana.

We bought a lot of balloons and Adam had the idea to put LED lights in them, fill them with helium, and have them float above the crowd during the show. It took quite a while to tape the batteries to the LED lights and get them in the balloons and fill them, so we started early. They looked amazing. BUT, as the day wore on and the heat took over more and more, they started falling back to the ground. So we strung them up on strings. It didn't matter, we laughed at it, we were just so excited for the show.

Adam and Duane had made some really amazing DIY lights for the show, including a globe logo and the very 2010's YEARS logo that was just the consonants. It looked amazing. I really think we were doing things most local bands don't do. I'll admit a bit of bitterness that we never felt accepted by the bands in Indiana that seemed to get the most respect, but it also kind of gave us some fuel to keep moving forward.

We put so much work into our sets as well. I always fought with Adam to try to play less. I felt like no one really wants to watch a local band play for an hour and a half. He felt like why go through the effort of playing a show if you're only gonna play 25 minutes. I think we found a good compromise. And then we worked to make them as seamless as possible. Nothing says amateur to me more than a band talking between every song. Also, the less talk, the less opportunity for me to lie in bed that night embarrassed about some dumb thing I'd said. As Duane said a few weeks ago, "The transition between Rumi (the inter-band title for A Deserted Place) and Pretty Girls holds up," and I think he's right (although I stole the idea from mewithoutYou, so duh).

John Davey had helped us write Stay Inside, and I had played with him for a while, but full band shows weren't a normal thing for him, so we were excited to have him opening with a full band, as well as High School Girls, who were just really fun.

As for the show itself, I remember smiling a lot at Adam, Duane, and Tory. I remember intentionally trying to make eye contact with them all. Just a small way of showing appreciation for what they had and were doing for me, for us, and just for being such great friends. I remember my sweat getting in my eyes a lot and stinging. My fingers pruned halfway through the show from all the sweat, and there was literal fog in there air at one point. It was pretty crazy.

Anyway, I'm rambling here, just to say, it was a very special day. I have specific quotes that I still say that began on this day just as we were setting up. They're nice little memories we get to keep.

But for a long time, those were the only memories we had, aside some short videos.

Thankfully, I had asked Dallas if he could set it up so we could multitrack record the show and he was more than happy to do that for us. He's just such a swell guy.

But, the prospect of mixing an entire live show seemed particularly daunting. Not to mention, when I went back to listen, I noticed there were a decent amount of technical issues: Mics cut out in certain spots, my guitar cable shorted during the second song...

So, here's my confession:
This recording has been sweetened a bit, as most live recordings are. It wasn't so much to protect us from embarrassment, although there is probably a fair amount of that as well. But mostly, I wanted to have some sort of record of what were playing like when we were close to our prime. We had worked really hard to record the record as close to live as possible, and we were playing shows almost every weekend.
This makes it maybe a little embarrassing to listen now and see how sloppy we actually were. But honestly, we were having a great time. I remember how important it was for me that we actually enjoyed playing these shows, so dancing around and laughing and loving each other was more important than always being the most tight band.

Anyway, if you liked our band, this record, or just us as individuals, feel free to listen to this and re-live a nice night in our lives.

Thanks

Jordan
on behalf of Adam, Duane, Tory, Zach, Tyler, and Luke. The collective that has over time made up what we call YEARS.

YEARS is dead
Long live YEARS