Afternoon Scene: Dashboard Confessional

I first heard Dashboard Confessional during my senior year of high school, 2000-01. Just a guy with an acoustic guitar and I hadn't heard anything like it. There were nights where I slept on the couch downstairs, so I could fall asleep to this album. On the last day of high school, I remember writing the lyrics to the end of "Swiss Army Romance" on the chalkboard in calculus class.

We're not twenty-one,
but the sooner we are,
the sooner the fun will begin,
so get out your fake eyelashes,
and fake IDs,
and real disasters ensue.
It's cool to take these chances.
It's cool to fake romances.
And grow up fast,
and grow up fast.

I remember seeing him live--as an opening act--before he became popular. After his set which no one was really singing along, I was buying one of his shirts and he came over to the merch table. I told him, "I know the rest of the crowd wasn't really into you, but we came to see you, you were great." I really meant it as a compliment. But he responded "the crowd wasn't into me?" Whoops.

Years later, and countless late night conversations where his albums were the soundtrack, I proposed to the song "Hands Down." And then a year after that, our wedding ended with that same song.

"Swiss Army Romance" (2000 song performed live in 2002)


"Screaming Infidelities" (2001)


"Hands Down" (2003)


"Stolen" (2006)


"So Long, So Long" (2006 fan-made version)