Being a newer SP fan (MCIS is barely younger than I), I officially fell in love with the band thanks in large part to a killer October 2011 show (“Siva”, “Window Paine”, “I Am One” were all played) and to the Gish reissue that dropped that year.

My love for the band was cemented with Oceania, but I had such admiration for the confidence the band had in its new and old material alike.  I loved the deep cuts so much, and something about the beautiful simplicity of “Crush” in particular always enthralled me.

I felt that the song was long forgotten, but I lucked out when my wife and I stopped at the original Madame Zuzu’s on our way to Chicago and we saw WPC himself playing acoustic songs for a live stream.  Taking requests, I almost couldn’t believe it when he responded to my request that “Crush” would be “a good one to do”.

To my great surprise he played it like he wrote it yesterday.  It still feels surreal to have seen that in person!! Long live Gish!!