Forgive me, while I scream like a little girl

Chris Carra-who? I don't even know who you're talking about.

Rediscover. My Toledo powerpop band. That's what I'm talking about. Last night, all my dreams came true. We all met in Madison for what I like to call the "Rediscover missed Erin" tour. I think it's technically called the February tour, but ... that's unoriginal.

Last night was the ultimate fan/I-have-a-job?-what?? night ever. My fiance and two friends from work went to Madison (which is sort of like Ann Arbor, Mich., from what I saw) (Ann Arbor is the only good thing about the state of Michigan, so that's a compliment). College-like, a bit artsy-hipster in parts, a bit more capital-like.

We ran into the band in their van (not as tragic as it sounds) and got the tour of the bus. Yeah. Go ahead, read that sentence again. The inside of a tour van is kinda cool, for a small space that holds four men on cross-country trips. It had a TV and a video game console, and smelled of men.

The band and their roadie/manager/friend with no job went to a restaurant across the street and ate with us. I have three other people who can verify this.

Then, we went to see them play at King Club. Well, technically, we hung out with them for another hour and a half while some Gwen Stefani-sounding, Garbage-looking band sang, but "hanging out" is really something too special to share And by "too special to share," I mean it was your typical hanging out -- talking, etc.

And then Rediscover played, and it was magic. Or powerpop. Whatever. It was glorious. We danced (and I can't really dance), we sang along, we took pictures like the paparazzi ... sigh. And I'd like to reiterate: We came as friends, not as those scary, obsessive groupies you normally see at small venues who follow the band around and talk as if they know them. We do know them. Clear? We are not scary.

The show was like Toledo, only in Madison. I was homesick, but I didn't want to be anywhere else at that moment. What an odd little feeling. When we said goodbye, I wanted to both go back to Oshkosh, and go back to Toledo with them. It just felt so good to go OUT, and to see good, live music, and to be with friends. I felt like myself.

And yes, we all had to work the next morning at 9 a.m., and yes, we got back to Oshkosh at 2:45. But it was worth every missed hour of sleep.

The only bad part is I don't really have anything to look forward to now, except getting my new Rediscover T-shirt out of the dryer, and seeing Rediscover's April tour stop in Chicago. I'm going to need a new band to scream like a little girl over. One a little more Fox Valley.