Gin Blossoms Deliver

Hey Jealously was the Gin Blossom's biggest hit to date at a time when I felt music could do better, this group seemed to come out of nowhere and revitalized my faith in the industry.

I was probably a junior in College when I got to see them at Ripon College, in Ripon Wisconsin(famous for being Harrison Ford's alma mater, though he usually is quick to say he hated school altogether, as I've heard). Five of us packed into my friend, Kris' tiny, tiny Aquamarine Blue 1990 Pontiac Lemans. We holed ourselves into the seats, nearly on top of one another for the 40 minute drive,excited to see the Gin Blossoms for the rock bottom price of $15.

The Gin Blossoms ha just put out New Miserable Experience, an album written by their late lead guitarist, Doug Hopkins.It was at the time of the Clinton administration, so my friends and I liked to sing, "Hey Chelsea" to refer to Mr. and Mrs. Clinton's young daughter, Chelsea, at the time.

Robin Wilson came out and he had what looked like to be a stiff drink in a plastic cup in his hand. We could nearly hear the ice cubes as they melted and twinkled as he sipped not a foot from the microphone. The guitarists began playing and lit cigarettes they had been smoking were stuck at the head of their guitars wedged in between the wound strings and a tuners. This gave an Ace Frehley effect of the "Smoking Guitar" he so proudly used as a trick onstage.

To us, barely out of our teens, this was so cool! Later, I remember trying to play my acoustic guitar with a lit cigarette stuck at the top of my tuners. It was darn near impossible without having ashes drop all over the place. The drinking, I could handle.

At the concert, we danced the whole time. I danced with girls I didn't know and never even spoke with(I guess I was just in the right place at the right time). People were body passed.I made friends with the security guard so he could keep an eye on my glasses which I took off. He laid them on the stage behind him. Robin Wilson would come down to the front row and high five everyone within reach.Robin then belted out Hey Jealousy and I always remember the lyrics seem to fit how we were living our lives at the time, in transit:

"Do you think it would be alright/If I just crash here tonight?

You see I'm in no shape for driving/ And I got No Place to Go."

It just seemed to be the type of song that really got to my friends and me, since we, too were crashing at each others' places/dorms/apartments, we were still in school, and we had no real jobs lined up.We didn't want to ever leave our wonderful Bohemian ways, and grow up. But eventually we did(well, sort of).