One of my favorite bands and one which I guess surprises some people based upon the bands I play/have played in is Denali. The first time I saw Denali I think was in 2002, when they were touring on their first record. The show was in the Douglass College student center at Rutgers, a small weird space where bands would sometimes set up and play in the small lounge. I knew nothing about them, but a friend's band was opening the show, and a girl I had a crush on at the time had mentioned that she would be there.

The way they sounded in that strange room with the lights turned off is something that I've never really replicated. At that point I had never before seen a band come across so powerfully without screaming, yelling, and jumping up and down. It was an incredible experience and an eye-opening one from a musical perspective.

You can download their original demo for free from JadeTree:

http://www.jadetree.com/mp3/Denali-Demonstration.zip