I am not going to embellish the truth and say that I am a tight or close friend with Hunter, the bassist for AFI for the last 13 years. I will say that he and my brother were good friends and were in a punk rock band in high school, Little Seizures (I think that’s correct).

I have been following Hunter on Twitter for a while now and noticed a tweet of his referencing Boston in August. I contacted him, he replied, and after a few more DMs I had two complementary tickets to see AFI and Green Day.

I then invited my friend, Nick, who was flying back to Boston from California that day. He agreed to come and after picking him and his family up at the airport, we left for the concert. That is in large part why we were a bit late to the show. We showed up about half way through AFI’s set and then spent the majority of the remaining set in queue for tickets, security, and being ping-ponged about by ushers telling us where are seats were located. It turned out that we had tickets to the pit. You will notice from the photo of the ticket (see below) that both “GAPIT” and “Section GA8 Seat 19” were listed, hence the confusion.

AFI sounded great. In truth I preferred their sound to Green Day’s. It was more balanced, whereas Green Day’s kick drum was over powering.

The sound aside, the show was awesome. I tried to ignore the vulgarity and over the top religious mocking and I did so successfully. Green Day has been together for 22 years and it only shows in good ways.

I really enjoyed the show, but I more thoroughly enjoyed conversating with Hunter, who is a very friendly and gentle soul. We discussed AFI’s songwriting process, and other professional developments that I may not be at liberty to divulge. I am sure it is nothing that anyone who cares would already know. So talking with Hunter and also his friend, now our mutual friend, Jenni was by far the best part of the show.

So, thank you, Hunter, and I will keep my eye out for AFI in the coming years. I hope for great things for you.

All photos taken with iPhone 3G using Camera+ app.
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