[Shillelagh]

I do miss this place. In its prime, it was a verdant oasis in the brutal desert of internet message boards. It’s the only place I still come back to from time to time. I’ve now been listening to his music and reading this board for 15 years. That’s just incomprehensible to me. Time is eerie and cruel.

I can still remember the first time I heard his music. It was spring of 2004, I was a freshman in college and was lying in a too small twin bed with a girl I thought I loved at the time. We were smoking a joint and downloading music on Napster or Limewire or Kazaa and came across The Blowers Daughter. It changed my entire music world from that point forward. Then I got to see him and The Frames live in Chicago. It blew me away again. I had never or have never since that point been so moved and connected to a musician or really any form of art. Damien’s brutal honestly and integrity has a lot to do with why it feels so personal and intimate to me. Since then there of course has been ups and downs and ups. But I still come back and feel that connection. And feel what I felt those early days after discovering him. I can almost smell or taste it. It’s very strange. But I like it.