May 28th/29th, 1999: The final Sound Exchange shows

This is the flyer for the final two shows held at the Sound Exchange in Ellicott City, MD. SX was run by the genial Josh Greenbaum and staffed (I think mostly voluntarily) by a good group of Columbia/Ellicott City punks, notably Jon Falk and Aaron Fishbein (the Falsies). I found the place on a whim when I moved into a house in between Ellicott City and Catonsville and took a bike ride into old EC. To my surprise I found a little punk rock record shop nestled cozily amongst the antique stores and boutiques. I checked it out and found some flyers for some upcoming shows, one of which was for Kill Your Idols. Stoked that the place was doing shows for cool bands I became a regular there and met many of the people that I am still close with today. I saw and booked a lot of rad shows there. Josh lived in the apartment above the store and during and after the shows he would hold Tetris tournaments up there. Lots of rad late night hangouts. Josh was working on writing a book about those years of his life but I'm not sure if it's still being worked on or not. As you can see by the flyer, Josh was always super supportive of local bands and the store was really an important factor in getting a lot of Columbia, Baltimore, Annapolis, and College Park area bands some good shows. For those with poor eyesight, the line ups for the shows were: Kill Your Idols, Codeseven, Torn Apart, El Secondhand, Chernobyl Kids, Allied War Effort, Bullet Holes and Blood Stains, and Third Strike on the first day and Purpose, Two Man Advantage, Crispus Attucks, De Nada, Mendoza, East Liberty, The Falsies, Code Blue, and Third Strike on the second day. Josh now lives in Brooklyn working quite happily as a pet groomer. It's always good when I get to bump into him. Thanks for the memories and the friendships Josh.

BONUS TIDBIT: I used to live up the road from the Sound Exchange. Literally up the road. You went up a big hill from Ellicott City to get to my house, so I became known to those around the store as "Mike From Up the Street". If you read this blog regularly you know that I have a terrible memory. The time that the Sound Exchange was around was the time before everyone had a cell phone. I know most of the people I knew did not. I called the Sound Exchange so often to chat or book shows that it was one of the few phone numbers I had memorized. One night while driving some friends to the movies in Towson (on a suspended driver's license) I got pulled over for speeding and got arrested. I got taken to a police station somewhere around Reisterstown and the only phone number I could think to call was Josh's. He and his roommate Jason came to bail me out and from then on out I became known as "Mike From Up the River". That crew was the best.