I remember the time when I came so close to you
Sent me skipping my class and running from school
And I bought you that ring cause I never was cool
What makes me think I could start clean slated
The hardest to learn was the least complicated

Indigo Girls – Least Complicated

Young love. Kathy was the girl that sent my head spinning in 1988. I can’t tell you at this point how we came together, but for the first time that year, I was in love, a new and often confusing feeling. We went to the same church, and as I fell head over heels, I couldn’t believe my good fortune to have this girl giving me the time of day.

The summer of ’88 was our summer, and we did everything together. It was also unfortunately in the summertime that my family would take our annual month-long vacation to the mountains of New Mexico. The New Mexico trip was a favorite trip on any other summer, except for this one where I found myself thinking every second of every day of that girl who was thousands of miles away from me.

We wrote letters to each other, and upon my return home, we took a church mission trip that was filled with great conversations, music, and a bike trip along the river. Sometime later in 1988, our “relationship” ended, and we didn’t speak after that. Lucky for me, we moved out of town in 1989.

Still, when you think about “the girl you can’t forget,” Kathy is that girl for me. She was so cool, and out of all of the people that I’ve re-established contact with over the years, I’ve never spoken with her. I could probably find out where she is with a couple of phone calls, but so far, I’ve held off. Perhaps some things are better left as memories? That’s my general thought most days.

Kathy came to my mind last year as a longtime relationship was ending. I had bought a house with this person, and as I moved back to the west side, I thought about all of the “house cleaning” that I had done prior to moving to the east side.

I wondered if I had thrown those letters away after all of those years, as I prepared to take the big step into “co-habitation,” and sharing a house with another. As I unpacked various boxes, I was happy to discover that I still had those letters from 20 years ago. Almost as if somewhere inside, some part of me knew that I should hold on to them.

They’re cool – I’m glad I have them, because they are a real snapshot of childhood innocence. It’s fun to look at what we considered to be problems at that point, versus the problems that we encounter and face today in the real world, as adults.

All of this brings us now to the Indigo Girls. I first got into Indigo Girls via my uncle (my dad’s brother,) who was listening a lot of the self-titled album, which of course more than a few people heard because of a little song called “Closer to Fine.” I was hooked by what I heard, and while I didn’t become a diehard fan, I bought or heard each Indigo Girls album up to Swamp Ophelia, which was the last IG album that I bought (on vinyl, no less.)

This past weekend, I was in a local record store (big shock,) and came across a CD copy of their double live CD 1200 Curfews for seven dollars used. I’m not sure why I didn’t buy it back in the day, but for whatever reason, it was a hole in my collection that I never thought about, until I saw it in the store.

That CD made me think of one of my favorite “bootlegs” on my Ipod. We’ll get to that in a second. First, let me tell you how I heard Indigo Girls live for the first time. It was via a local radio broadcast here in Cleveland in 1989 that featured Amy Ray and Emily Saliers performing together acoustically, many of the tracks that made up that self-titled Indigo Girls album release. It was one of many great nights of live music that I’ve been fortunate enough to hear on the radio here in Cleveland, and perhaps I’ll share that particular show with you all, one of these days.

But for today, the show I would like to share with you all is one of my all-time favorite downloads from the dear departed Jefitoblog. Jefito can be found these days at the helm of Popdose, with an entire team of Jefito-esque music fans. In the days of Jefitoblog, “Bootleg City” was a popular weekly feature that offered up a choice live show download (and sometimes studio demos/rarities) from a particular artist.

One particular week, the shared show was “In Cold Storage” by Indigo Girls. The original show description can be found here in archived form at Popdose.

One of the many concerts happening during the 2000 Gasparilla celebration was an acoustic appearance by Indigo Girls. The show was just Amy Ray and Emily Saliers with special guest Sandy Garfinkel. The concert happened at the Cold Storage Cafe on Saturday, February 5.

And that’s what makes this show cool. Just like that Cleveland show from 1989, this particular show in 2000 captured the Indigo Girls live and acoustic in Tampa. The setlist is a perfect rundown of the Indigo Girls’ career at that point. All of your favorites are here in a setlist that runs just over an hour, including the best version of “Least Complicated” I’ve ever heard.

My friend Rebecca noted that there are only two times that she called the radio station to find out what the song was that was playing at the time. The first time, it was “Whip It,” by Devo. The second time, it was “Closer to Fine,” by the Indigo Girls.

The Indigo Girls have written a number of songs that still give me goosebumps and take me back to where I was in life the first time that I heard them.

Check this show out, and you will enjoy it. As for that Cleveland show from 1989? I’ll share that with you sometime soon!

Track Listing:

01. closer to fine (4:36)
02. go (4:14)
03. peace tonight (4:20)
04. i don’t wanna know (3:17)
05. power of two (5:06)
06. ozilline (4:21)
07. least complicated (4:30)
08. chickenman (7:37)
09. southland in the springtime (4:36)
10. compromise (2:53)
11. get out the map (3:30)
12. kid fears (5:26)
13. galileo (4:39)
14. shame on you (4:28)

Complete Zipped Download

Relevant Links:

Official Website
Myspace

Shopping List:

Retrospective
Indigo Girls
1200 Curfews