James Farrelly
In a not-too-distant past before I became the well adjusted, married and upstanding member of society, I was once a fan of anything acoustic, miserable and emo.
I remember the first time I heard the nasal warblings of the quaffed emo-troubadour known as Dashboard Confessional. I had just been dumped by the latest in a stream of girls who were more interested in the ‘hardcore type’, when I was handed a CD by said girl.
This CD included a song called ‘Screaming Infidelities’ – just over three-and-a-half minutes of sub-Dawson’s Creek clichés such as: “As for now, I’m going to sit here and hear the saddest songs and wonder, how you’re making out. But as for me, a wish that I was anywhere, with anyone, making out.” To top it all off it was sung by a man in his 30s pretending to be 15. And I loved it.
I began to quiff my own hair, wear thick black-rimmed glasses and stand at the back of gigs with my Morrissey T-shirt on.
I’m certain that it was around this time I began to write my own acoustic songs for girls I liked, complete with my own bona-fide South Florida accent via Norwich. I even managed to pass one of Dashboard Confessional’s off as one of my own to impress a girl, and it worked.
DC’s album (Places You Have Come To Fear The Most) became my heartbroken soundtrack to a miserable teenage existence that was somehow being replayed through my headphones for me note-for-note by a man who looked like the tattooed greasy version of the Milky Bar Kid.
I’m not sure if I’ve grown to regret this, but I was living with my recently divorced father around this time, and suggested to him that he check out some of Dashboard’s albums. He too became a massive fan, which has resulted in us going to see Dashboard play live a number of times.
Two heartbroken sad cases standing at the back of toilet venues around the UK, singing our drunken hearts out.
My dad still wears his Dashboard Confessional hoodie, officially making him the oldest emo kid in the world.
