There are no goodbyes, only see you agains

January 15, 2005 was my 18th birthday and instead of “hitting a club” or something lame like that, I decided to head out to Chain Reaction to catch Hellogoodbye and Never Heard Of It play.  Little did my friends and I know that we were going to find one of our favorite bands playing this night.  That band was A Change of Pace.  We liked them so much that we decided we had to see them again.  We headed out to LA the next night to see them at the El Rey and that’s when we met Torry, Adam, Johnny and Jon.

Got this poster at the El Rey show, 2005

(And I bought a shirt. It says "Arizona Heartcore" under their name, haha)

From that moment on, it was a band that continuously brought my friends and I together.  Whether it was a summer night out to LA to see them play at the Knitting Factory, at a coffeeshop in the middle of San Diego during Spring Break that brought 3 friends closer together, or if I had to drive down from college in Santa Barbara on a Wednesday night to catch them play a 30-minute set.  ACOP was our band.

2005 was our senior year and when it came down to our friend Alexis to make her Valedictorian speech, she ended it with, “there are no goodbyes, only see you agains” and only we really understood.

From losing friends, drifting away, and ex-boyfriend drama, ACOP was there for us.  There are so many songs and lyrics that were a soundtrack to a certain time of my life and I have memories upon memories attached to certain lines from Change is the Only Constant’s “Sellout” (the song that line of the speech comes from), An Offer You Can’t Refuse’s “Death Do Us Part” (“you have no need for such a useless thing, broken forever more”), Prepare the Masses’ “Weekend Warriors” (“i’ll stay young forever”) and “I’m Alive” (“just another checkmark on my list of things that I regret”), to Just No Better Way’s “I’ll Be There” (“your senior year, you and your friends went crazy but then you found out who your friends really were”), and It Could Be Worse’s “The Other Way” (“so I spend some nights just staring at the sky wondering why I am even here”) and so many more!

My favorite ACOP song:

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I have seen this band over 15 times, over half of them at Chain Reaction in Anaheim and every time, it was great.

It’s always weird when you think about how much an effect someone’s songs and music can have in your life and how close you can feel to a band.

Well, all great things come to an end and unfortunately, A Change of Pace was one of those great things to come to an end.  After the announcement, I quickly looked to my best friends to see who’d be crazy enough to drive out to Arizona for their hometown farewell show.  Sure enough, Ale, Anita and I jumped into the car and headed out.

The Clubhouse was filled of fans with high hopes of catching Torry singing the songs we all fell in love with and bittersweet feelings about the night.  The band hit the stage and played a mix of songs from all the past LP’s.  I really couldn’t even give you a setlist because I was just enjoying the night and soaking it all in.  I felt like that same 18 year old at Chain Reaction.  As they came close to an hour performance, my heart became more and more sad as there was no Torry in sight.  As much as we love Micah, it’s hard to accept your band with a new singer, singing old songs you loved but without that same feeling.  ACOP left the stage and the crowd chanted “Torry, Torry, Torry!” and out comes Micah with an acoustic guitar.  Then, he introduces “one of his best friends,” Torry Jasper and they begin to sing “Safe and Sound in Phone Lines”.  The crowd went absolutely nuts, more craziness than the entire performance had already had, and they continued playing for a couple more songs including “Asleep At The Wheel” and “Weekend Warriors,” it really was a trip to see Torry on stage again with the band I fell in love with 6+ years ago.

As cheesy as it sounds, I will admit that my eyes filled up throughout the performance as it signified a closing of a chapter for me.  I’m coming to the end of my education and it’s time to move on, grow up, and get a job.  It’s scary shit.  At the same time, I guess it was a similar situation for A Change of Pace, to close a chapter in their lives.

As Blink best put it, “I guess this is growing up.”

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“Asleep At The Wheel” – part 1

“Asleep At The Wheel” – part 2

Thank you to my best friend Ale for the videos!