Last week I was able to do something that I didn't think I would ever be able to do: I went to a PM Dawn concert. This story starts a few months ago... actually... about a year ago... no... I'd better start from the beginning. Skip to the last paragraph if you don't like long stories.

This story starts in 1991. A hip hop duo called PM Dawn skyrocketed to the top of the charts with the first single from their debut CD. The song was "Set Adrift On Memory Bliss", and it sampled "True" by Spandau Ballet. I saw the video for it, and kind of liked it, but not enough to go buy the album. Besides with a name like "Of The Heart, Of The Soul, And Of The Cross: The Utopian Experience", it couldn't possibly be good. Right? Luckily, my sister Emily decided to buy it. In those days I was heavily into computers, but there was no internet or MP3's or iPods, so I used to just listen to my tapes over and over for hours on end while programming or gaming.

One day I got a new game called "Duke Nukem" (not 3D... the original), and I decided to play it all the way through. I was sick of all my music by then, but I noticed that Emily had left her PM Dawn tape on the table, so I put it on "Auto Reverse" and started playing. After just a few listens I was completely mesmerized by the lyrics. I already knew that music could have a message, but this message was completely unlike anything I had heard before. It was actually a religious experience, and wound up acting as the final push from christianity to atheism for me, but I won't get into that now.

When their second album came out, titled "The Bliss Album...? (Vibrations of Love and Anger and the Ponderance of Life and Existance)", I bought the cassette right away, and loved it. Over the next couple of years, I bought the subsequent two albums "Jesus Wept" and "Dearest Christian, I'm So Very Sorry For Bringing You Here, Love Dad", but wasn't really thrilled with either of them. Unfortunately, by this time the radio had stopped playing PM Dawn, and their record label claimed they were no longer relevant to teenagers and dropped them.

As one of the few people who actually owned all of their albums, you might think that by now I would have been a true PM Dawn fan, but not quite. Then, one night while I was studying for my fourth year Algebraic Number Theory final, I put "Dearest Christian" on repeat and after a few listens it suddenly struck me that the entire album was pure genius. I had listened to it many times before, but I had never understood. Now I "got it", and I had to have more. At this point I considered myself a true fan, and I often name PM Dawn (Prince Be) as my favourite group (artist). Tragically, very few people on the planet understood that album, and nobody has come forward to offer PM Dawn another record contract.

A few years later, they did put out an album "for the fans", and I was lucky enough to get one of the few available (and one for Alix too, who had watched me play "Duke Nukem" all those years ago and who I encouraged to listen to all of the other albums as well.) I was not disappointed: In my opinion, this much sought-after CD is Prince Be's finest and most personal work yet. Alas, due to some copyright issues with some samples, they had to stop selling that album.

For a few years, nothing happened. Prince Be worked at raising money for a new album (tentatively titled "The Jim Sullivan Syndrome", after Prince Be's grandfather and a suggestion from Vernon Reid), and us fans only got to hear an occasional new song on PMDawn.net. At one point, Prince Be thought the album was about to be released, and put out "Amnesia" as a single to raise the hype, but radio stations never played it and funding dried up, so the album was shelved again.

Then, about a year ago, PM Dawn were invited to appear on a TV show called "Hit Me Baby One More Time". The premise of the show was that they would get five "one hit wonder" bands from the past two decades. Each band would perform their hit song, plus their version of a recent chart topper, selected from a list provided by the TV show. Then the audience would vote for which band is most deserving of a second chance. PM Dawn performed "Set Adrift On Memory Bliss" and selected "Blurry" by Puddle Of Mudd as their cover. They put on a great show and won the audience vote.

With just that extra boost of visibility, they were able to get their name out a bit more, and things ultimately culminated in the "Summer Of Bliss". When they announced that they would be doing a full US tour this summer, I bought tickets to the closest show, at the Icon nightclub in Buffalo. If all goes well, the new album will be released in a few months, with a new title: "PM Dawn Loves You".

So, last Wednesday, Alix, Angela and I headed down to Buffalo to see PM Dawn! The crowd was a little small (actually there were only seven of us in the audience!), but we were very enthusiastic, and PM Dawn put on a great show for us with hilarious stories and great music. Apparently the following night's show in Detroit was packed, so I guess that just means that they will probably never come back to Buffalo! On the upside, we got to chat with Prince Be and Dr. Giggles before and after the show, so that was super cool. I also got to take some photos. This is a shot of Prince Be singing away.

Technical details: This was shot with my Rebel XT + 50mm 1.8 Mark II, ISO 1600, f/1.8 for 1/40th of a second.

Comments

Still to this day whenever I hear a song off that first album, I have visions
of Duke Nukem.

Now *that's* what I like -- a nice long story to go with my weekly dose of
POTW!

Very cool story and a very cool picture.