Since graduating from the College of William and Mary, stuffing my life into a U-haul, and returning to Ohio for medical school, I had only seen audiostrobelight play one show, a small but amazingly fun bar show in Cleveland, Ohio. That show was a 2.5 hour drive which I gladly made, but it hardly served to give me the audiostrobelight fix that I needed. I hadn't seen a large-scale ASL show since College, and I had never gotten to see them rock out at the Norva, which was reputedly one of the best venues in the country, certainly the best in the VA Beach area.
Plans were made in secret, plane tickets purchased, and I was ready to fly to DC, meet up with Alex & Kelly, and drive the 3.5 hours down the coast for the show. I was absolutely pumped that I had pulled this off in secret and that one of my best friends, Adam Cohen (the violinist / mandolinist for ASL) would be shocked to see me there. Equally exciting for me was the chance to finally see one of their epic Norva shows.
Just days before my flight would have left, the "superstorm" Hurricane Sandy began picking up power and making its way directly toward VA Beach, predicted to strike when? On the day of the concert, of course. My airline offered to fully refund my flight a couple of days before it would have left, and my family and I felt that I had to take the offer. Flights were all cancelled anyways within the next couple of days. By the time the show was rescheduled, I was buried in medical school and had no chance whatsoever to go to the show. When the show finally occurred, I worked long hours all weekend, sad that I was missing out.
2. February 22, 2013
February 21, the day of my 26th birthday, arrived full of promise and excitement. SladBert 2013, the epic combined birthday party, had been delayed until the following weekend, and my schedule was clear for me to drive the following day to Washington, DC, meet up with Alex and Kelly, and see an audiostrobelight show with them.
Once again, I kept this a total secret. Having failed in my last attempt to totally surprise Adam Cohen at one of his shows, I figured that I could make up for it by totally surprising him at this show. I carefully planned with Alex and Kelly, and whenever Adam and I talked it was only to discussed how crazy busy I was with medical school (only a slight exaggeration on the truth, as medical had eased up slightly towards the end of my fourth year, but not all that significantly).
Then, as I was packing up clothes and generally making preparations, I received several concerned messages from my parents, telling me to look at the weather and rethink this long drive. I spent much time on my birthday and the following day watching the weather and debating with myself whether I could make this drive.
Unfortunately, the drive includes a stretch through the mountains of WV / PA, and this is an annoying / stressful stretch even in good conditions. Once they started talking about slick roads, ice, accidents in the mountains, I knew that as much as I wanted to see audiostrobelight, I didn't want to slide off a mountain in the process.
It turned out that the storms hit the mountains areas pretty hard, and there were plenty of cars sliding off the road / having accidents, so I felt justified in my decision to stay put in Ohio. But once again mother nature had blatantly foiled my plans to see audiostrobelight in concert, and in the worst way possible. Both times I had gotten my hopes up only to have them smashed at the last minute. That's just cruel, mother nature.
3. May 4th, 2013
For months, Adam and I have been talking about his epic CD release show that will take place at the Norva. Finally, a true chance at redemption for their several earlier Norva shows, none of which I had made it to. Much of May was wide open for me, with only the very first and very last weekends booked. This left three weekends in the middle of May in which I could have easily made it to an audiostrobelight show. Then came the terrible news that I didn't want to hear... the date had been set on May 4th, the first Saturday of the month.
I guess in this case you can't blame mother nature, but I think there's clearly still evidence of a conspiracy here. On May 2nd, I had my Commencement / Hooding Ceremony as a graduate of The Ohio State College of Medicine, and on May 5th I officially received my title of "Dr. Jonathan Sladky, M.D."
Two of our other friends, Will and Julia, made it to see me over that weekend, but needless to say graduating from medical school was not something I could skip to see a concert, not even for audiostrobelight.
4. The Immediate Future
For the next three years, I will work 70-80 hour weeks most months,with only 4 days off per month, 3 weeks off per year. The likelihood of me making it to any concerts is low, but I'm holding out hope. I feel like the universe owes me one here, so even if I have to travel to Europe or somewhere to make it happen, I'm gonna have to find a way to get my audiostrobelight fix. Maybe I can convince them to come play a concert at one of the Children's Hospital of Atlanta complexes where I'm working.
