Sweet Catastrophe

As I’m listening to the new single (that we weren’t told was coming…thanks guys) I think it’s finally time to unleash my Lifehouse love on the blogosphere!

Lifehouse. Lifehouse is my favorite band. I’ll never forget when I discovered them. Just a few months before they hit the radio, my boyfriend at the time found the song “Storm” by a band called Blyss. I was hooked.

Fast forward a few months to Hanging by a Moment’s release. My friend Jeffrey and I fell in love with it immediately. We’d listen to the radio on the phone together constantly and bug 95.7 to death with requests for it. I got the cd the first chance I got the week it came out and I remember taking my walkman with me just so I could listen to it all immediately. I knew Jason Wade’s voice sounded really familiar, but they were a brand new band so I wasn’t really looking for a connection. It wasn’t until I ended up with Storm and Hanging by a Moment back to back on a mix cd I made that I realized it was the same person, and with a little internet digging, I finally found out that I was right!

Concerts were pretty much out of the question when I was still living with my dad. But the summer before my senior year of high school, I spent some time in LaGrange with one of my best friends at the time. One night she called me to talk about our plans and she asked how excited I’d be if I could go see Lifehouse in concert, knowing that I’d probably piss my pants since they had been my favorite band since day 1. Turned out, they were playing Aquafina On The Bricks in Atlanta during my stay with her….for THREE BUCKS! So on July 11, 2003 I made it to my first Lifehouse concert.

I’ve since been to 7 other shows, met the band, even had contact in a way that some fans can only dream of. I’ve definitely not had the ultimate experience that some of my fellow Lifehos have had, but my experiences haven’t been anything to scoff at.

Did you catch the nickname there? Mmhmmm, I’m also the original Lifeho. No, it has nothing to do with groupies or whatever. It’s a funny play on words that occurred during one of my exciting Lifehouse experiences and it was adapted into a term of endearment for us super fans. We’re not obsessed. We’re dedicated.

I think my iTunes library currently holds just under 250 Lifehouse tracks. I have every song we have a recording of, including their songs as Blyss, and the FKA songs. I own a genuine copy of Diff’s Lucky Day–their Blyss album, and there were only 1,000 copies produced. I own three copies of the T.E.A. ep, Bryce’s other band (Lifehouse bassist) I own a copy of the exclusive Stanley Climbfall DVD, and I went to 15 stores the day the Everything DVD was released to find it. I even got up at 9am on a flippin Saturday to go to Best Buy for the release of Lifehouse’s cover of “Silent Night” on the Reward Zone Sweet Tracks cd release that month. I’ve got guitar pics, setlists, pictures and signed stuff galore. I’m a ‘Lifer’ on THE fan forum. The official site’s mb is ridiculous. We Lifehouse fans are like the CIA. If it’s out there, we’ll find it. In fact, last summer the guys were copy/pasting the tour lists Kristi compiled to the official website.

And now here I am. The new single was released on the radio in California today and instead of doing my homework or even writing this blog post all at once, I can’t concentrate because I’m listening to the song on repeat, talking to some of my Lifehos about it, and discussing it on the forum. Ahhhh!

New album is supposed to hit in June. They’re touring with Goo Goo Dolls right now. Go see them!

EDIT 4/25: They announced today that the working date for the album release is June 26th! Two months!!!! Can I just have some tour dates now?