I grew up in a Connecticut suburb and had a very small group of sheltered friends. We liked being sheltered, because it allowed us to do our homework without the distraction of boyfriends and popularity. But the lack of boyfriends, popularity, and having any kind of interesting experiences started to weigh on us by the time we were seniors in high school. That year we started seeing bands, being slightly less responsible, and occasionally (twice) having parties where more than six people showed up. It was around that time, the year was 2002, that my friends and I went to a Rusted Root concert at a nearby college. It was so awesome. They played “Send Me On My Way,” duh. There was even a 25 minute drum solo that I dubbed, at the time “transcendent.” READ MORE