VINDICATED “They were a band on their own path, and I tried my best to give them shows, hook them up with tours, and they did the same.” |
For fanboys of a certain, oh, let's call it a distinguished temporal status, it was the emo-nerd equivalent of leaked footage from a new Star Wars installment showing up online: last August, the long-pined-for defunct Florida band Further Seems Forever released a video of themselves rehearsing their 2001 anthem "The Moon Is Down." Big deal, right? Maybe, but the fact that the band's original singer, Chris Carrabba, appeared in the short clip, which ended with the word "spring," was the best news people like me — I mean them . . . okay, us — could've possibly gotten, short of all of our high-school girlfriends showing up in a time machine to say sorry for breaking our hearts that one time.Carrabba left the band shortly after they recorded their first album, The Moon Is Down, and before it was released, he went solo under the moniker Dashboard Confessional. Further Seems Forever soldiered on, enlisting the vocal talents of Jason Gleason for 2003's How To Start a Fire, then Jon Bunch of Sense Field for Hide Nothing in 2004. The core of the band also went through various changes over the years, but this Friday, the original line-up will reunite for a long-overdue performance at the Paradise.
Although both How To Start a Fire and Hide Nothing were well received by fans, their success paled in comparison with Carrabba's solo efforts. And that could have fostered a lot of resentment toward a star singer who jumped ship. "There was a transitional period," Carrabba says now. "But they never made me feel that way. The first thing they did with the new singer was open for Dashboard, so it was that short." When the FSF members would get together after the break-up, they were always amused to hear news of their supposed feud. "We would be at a barbecue, like . . . 'I guess you hate me?' 'Not really, want a beer?' "
Still, he can't speak for everybody. "I did my best to include them in the ways that I could. They were a band on their own path, and I tried my best to give them shows, hook them up with tours, and they did the same. They were always looking out for me. I guess when you're still looking out for each other, even if there's a disparity in the success you might be getting, I guess you don't feel as bad. I'm not sure what their goals were. I'm not sure they were the same as mine. I wonder if they were even jealous?"
Today, it's as if he'd stepped out of the rehearsal space for a 10-year breather and he's just now walking back in. "That's not a bad analogy. We stopped playing together a long time ago, but we hadn't stopped being friends."
