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Photo by Max Varkudal

Remember a couple posts ago, when I was talking about songs that make me cry? Remember “Pints of Guinness Make You Strong” by Against Me!?

I punched a dude in the kidneys to this song. It wasn’t a random act of violence–I was at an Against Me! show in Seattle back in October. Ever since the release of their latest album, New Wave, their fan base has grown exponentially and unfortunately it includes more than a few jerks. I had been shoved by hulking Cro-Magnons to the back of the pit and was separated from my friends, not to mention surrounded by huge jocky guys and their girlfriends, who more resembled child prostitutes than kids at a show. So I had to fight my way back to the front, elbows out and teeth gritted. After the show, Stephie said, “I hope some people piss blood tomorrow.”

I have this friend. Against Me! is her favorite band. When she was still at Evergreen, we’d sit around and sing along to our favorite songs. She’d pull out her guitar and begin to strum the familiar chord progression. I can never remember the words to songs, but “Pints of Guinness Make You Strong” is one of the few I know all the words to. So it became my song. The one I always had to sing in my cracking, off-key voice.

And of course, there’s the emotional response. I’m often accused of being an emotional void. This is totally true, unfortunately. But this song manages to melt my cold, cold heart and I usually end up choking back tears because it’s so sad–”I swear to God that I’ll love you forever, Evelyn / I’m not coming home tonight”. It gets me every single time.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 7th, 2009 at 3:07 pm and is filed under Cultural Consumption Journals, Music, Pop Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.