Mother Night will be playing our last show this weekend. I'll say a few things about that here, since things are so busy that soon it will be friday and then saturday and then it will be over. They're things I want to say because, although hokey and cliched, it's rare in life that you actually get to say goodbye to things you care about.

Mother Night was a band that I started with four people I loosely knew in the fall of 2002. I had been in a few bands before but nothing that had really stuck, however I knew at that point in my life that playing guitar, writing songs, and playing in front of people was all I really wanted to do. I also knew that what impressed me most about the hardcore bands I really loved when I was younger was not the fact that a million people liked them or that they played huge shows, but that they seemed to put all of their mind, body, and soul into the music they played. So that was really what I wanted to emulate from day one. The idea of playing music for it's own sake, and that being an end unto itself was at the same time confusing and exhilarating to my young mind, and I can happily say now, six years later, that what we did with this band is something that I would have respected and been into at that time.

When we started this band I was just entering my sophomore year of college. I turned 25 two weeks ago. It was in the context of this band that I learned how to really play guitar, and how to write a song. I went places I would have never imagined being and met people that now, I couldn't ever imagine not meeting. We created a family, not just of the people in the band but of the community of friends and relationships that formed around us. And though it irked me sometimes, the fact that we were as much about having a fun time as we were about the music is what I'll remember most, and the thing that will carry on the longest after I switch my amp off on Saturday afternoon.

We're ending this for no specific reason other than that it feels like the right time to do it. I doubt any of us will likely ever be done with music entirely. It goes without saying, but this band has been a major part of my life for the last few years. It's outlasted almost everything that I once thought would be a constant, and when things were at their worst for me the band and the people in it were alternately an escape from things I didn't want to deal with and a support system to help me keep it together. It's for all these reasons and more that after Saturday, I'll definitely miss it, but I won't ever forget it.