The Start......

     Some people come into the world with different abilities that exceed the normal populace, the young boy who played with toy cars grows up to love racing or the little girl who sorted out her Skittles by color goes through life loving numbers and becomes a talented accountant. I have always found a love for music. But, it would seem that I am in somewhat of my own nitche as I am not great at any one particular thing but I'm more ok or decent at a bunch of things collectively. These latter days I'm discovering that my love for technology (mainly video games) was really a colossal waste of time and did absolutely nothing but hold me back from learning how to play an instrument or do something much more productive and I'm hating myself for it.

 As far back as I can remember music and the arts have been a huge part of my life. My mother once told me that she would sit me in front of the television, turn on MTV, and I would be completely focused on it for hours. Keep in mind that this was when that channel wasn't an absolute shit pile.......they played music videos, actual music videos! As it turns out the video for J. Geils Band's Centerfold was one of my favorites.

     It would be in these younger days that I would start to sneak down into the basement and go through my parents vinyl collection. I loved everything about it especially the musty smell and the album artwork. One that still particularly sticks out in my mind is Elton John's Captain Fantastic & The Brown Dirt Cowboy. There are a shit ton of awesome things happening in the album's artwork.....I still find myself pulling it out of their collection every now and then when I am at home visiting.

     Fast forward a few years and I'm fifteen years old and about to see my first concert "on my own". By this I mean that my folks took me to the venue and dropped me off with a friend. The bands.....Goldfinger and The Bloodhound Gang. I've written about it before here and there but this will always remain a life changing night for me as it would give me an absolute love of seeing a live show that I will always have and I met people who to this day remain really close friends. After that, I was hooked and would go to a live show at any chance I would get even if I didn't even really enjoy the bands that were playing. At that time it was one of the Madison Theater's hay days and there would be a live act playing damn near every weekend. A couple of years and a string of Madison shows later I would learn of local bands playing at places like Tiamat Records, The Vineyard, and the East Peoria Legion Hall. Being the wise young lad that I was, I picked up my first job and thought it would be a great idea to work later hours so I could sleep in. I missed alot of shows because of this decision but went to them when I could.

     Since that time, I've gotten married and started a family but I've always tried to keep my eyes and ears open to the local scene. My love for music still remains as strong as ever and I have no doubt in my mind that one day I will be the creepy old guy that still goes to concerts and hangs out in the back and I couldn't be any happier about that. In fact, it is that driving force that has made me step back out and revisit the talent that Peoria has to offer. With thepeoriacollective.com my goal is to have fun while passing on information. Even with today's social networking abilities I consistently run into people that would attend local events if they knew when and where they were. Thats where the site comes in......we are just a few like minded individuals that want to shine a light on the somewhat hidden talents of the area in which we live.
    
    Thanks for taking the time to read my own little lame history. This will be the first post of many and I hope that this site will continue to grow. If you have any input at all please do not hesitate to let me know good or bad I would love to hear from you.