I sort of have this thing for writing, so this story tends to get lengthy when I tell it. You don’t have to read this, I know it’s long, it’s for all the bored people out there that want to know my history with TAI. Every few months I go in and edit it, because things change. The history of it all doesn’t change, but my so-called fandom has definitely evolved over the past six years.

As far as the history of how I started listening to The Academy Is..., it goes something like this: My friend Kayla and I were fourteen-years-old and it was the summer of 2004 in Grand Rapids, Michigan at the Intersection. There was this show, it was a weird one. There was roughly ten bands that played that day, more or less. Some of the other bands that played were Halifax, Spitalfield, Senses Fail, Funeral for a Friend, My Chemical Romance, Less than Jake. It was a pretty great line-up for the times. The Academy Is...were just openers (I think they played second, not sure). Anyways, I was standing in line with my friend and these two guys came up to us. One of them was William, the other wasn’t Adam, so it was either one of the real old members or Mike Carden. They came up to us and were basically freaking out asking us if we had tickets to the show. I think...actually, I know they were excited, you could tell. They expressed a lot of concern for the people that didn’t have tickets, because the show was sold out. I really thought nothing of these guys. When they played, I obviously realized they were in The Academy Is...

Looking back on that show, it surprises me in a lot of ways. After going to hundreds of shows, there are so many small bands that I shrugged off, even though some of them are probably the best out there. I think the fact TAI didn’t try to shove their band in people’s faces made them different. William's stage presence, or perhaps the dance moves he used to incorporate (okay, so he still dances). I remember the dance moves though, I’m sure it had something to do with that.

Fast forward a few months, I started checking the TAI Purevolume and their official website a lot. That’s how I found out about Almost Here’s release. I’m pretty sure the first song I fell in love with was the Season demo. I recall having the lyrics to the song in my AIM profile (yes, I am a loser, but I was only fourteen!) before Almost Here came out. Okay, so skip to February, I bought the album the day after it came out at Borders. I listened to it a lot, and I obviously liked it. The first time I officially saw TAI was July 2005 at the Intersection and it was a particularly sweaty show. I think that’s really what did it for me. I saw them three times in the summer of 2005.

I have now seen The Academy Is...seventeen + times (July 25th, 2004 - July 10th, 2005 - July 31st, 2005 - August 25th, 2005 - December 20th, 2005, - February 1st, 2006 - March 24th, 2006 - July 29th, 2006 - May 27th, 2007 -November 14th, 2007 - November 18th, 2007 - July 18th, 2008 (+acoustic) - November 9th, 2008 - December 14th, 2008 - April 7th, 2009 - September 25, 2009 - September 27, 2009). I still keep track, again, I’m a loser.

Obviously this is my favorite band, and they’ve sort of stuck with me for a long time. I think it’s sort of different than most fans, because I can’t say that I always LOVE them. People ask me this all of the time, so I’ll just say it. Yes, I do get sick of them. Sometimes I get sick of hearing about them. Yes, I sometimes also get bored with posting news about them. I do like other music and I can go weeks or months without listening to TAI, although they always remain my most listened to artist in iTunes. It happens to the best of us. I still love TAI, but not in the same ways I did when I was fourteen. They’ve changed, I’ve changed. At the end of the day, these guys are my favorite band, I love their music and have for six years, and that’s not changing. They are some of the most genuine people I’ve ever met. They love all of their fans and they seriously deserve their success. I wouldn’t sit here and continue to do this if that weren’t true. They have given me every reason to continue supporting them, so I will continue to do so.

I told you it would be long. Thanks for reading (if you did).

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