RIP Between The Trees

This is the only picture I have of the band and its just before their set, all of my polaroids are back on the Big Island. I found this one in the deep dark corners of my old photobucket account.

In 2007 my friend Colleen and I strapped on our most rockin outfits and took a bus, a train, a subway, & our own two feet to The Knitting Factory in New York City. From the look of the outside you'd think that this place is tiny but inside it's three floors of stages, bars, and music goodness.

We ventured out for one reason and one reason only to indulge in a show by Between The Trees. We ran into them the Summer before our second year of college at Bamboozle, a large outdoor rock concert with 9 stages all with bands playing at the same time- it's sheer rocktastic bliss, people were finally realizing who they were and they were no longer playing on the teeny tiny stages at Bamboozle but on the in-betweeners. We spent a few hours helping them market their band name with large chunks of chalk and the ground. We wrote Between The Trees what stage they were playing on and what time ALL over the once empty lot in Jersey [I know...Jersey] and it seemed to help draw quite a crowd. From then on Colleen and I swore to go to every show they played in NYC; never had we met such a nice rad down to earth band like this, most of them could give two shits but not these guys. They hung out and thanked us for helping and well, never forgot who we were.

We were so relieved to finally make it to The Knitting Factory and were even more relieved when we saw the band unloading; they missed the last show they were supposed to play so we were hoping they were making this one. It's a very selfish special feeling when a band you love so much walks up to you and remembers who you are- I was on the phone explaining to my sister where we were and how we were gonna see BTT play when Ryan, the lead singer, walked up said hey and proceeded to somehow carry on a conversation with my sister. RAD.

We spent the next two hours in music heaven forgetting about the rest of our lives and just enjoying good ol fashion music.

I'm not going to lie, I loved them more live than I did their albums but that's the case with all bands I've seen live. It's not just music, it's an experience. We always left their shows on a natural high as we got lost trying to get back to Grand Central Station.

No, they're not The Beatles but they gave me an escape from a life I was unsure of in New York. For two hours I would get to be free and live in their music, living vicariously through their passion for performance; it was invigorating.

I'll never forget these sweet guys from Florida. I'll never forget the sweat drenching their foreheads as they closed their eyes and let the music happen. With the end of Between The Trees as a band I feel a piece of me has been boxed up, marked Music: The College Years 2006-2008 in wet black sharpie and thrown on a shelf in the attic.