As the title states, I am back to watching the “Backlash” video on repeat. I have watched this video so many times since Thanksgiving that I have every single thing memorize. Every flip of Joan Jett’s perfect jet-black 90s bob, the way the shadows fall on Paul Westerberg’s face, the hip-shake at 1:16, and at what point Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and Pete Townshend pop-up on the screen behind the band.

You can watch it in case you don’t have it memorized yet.

Have I mentioned lately how this video makes me so happy my eyes start to water, but not quite leak? Well, it does. It does even more so today because I am two days from leaving for Chicago, three days from seeing Ms. Joan Jett, and five days from The Replacements.

Every version of me that has ever been is stunned that in the span of 36 hours I’ll have witnessed Joan Jett and The Replacements in concert.

In fact, my brain can’t handle it at all. I can’t fall asleep until the wee small hours of the morning because my brain is singing a stupid version of “Can’t Hardly Wait” it calls “Can’t Hardly Sleep” and it features the horns section on repeat. It’s annoying.

And then when I finally do fall asleep I just have strange dreams of The Replacements in concert. Last night they played in my Aunt Jan & Uncle Art’s garage in Roseville. And even with my family connections I only had a decent spot to see them, but I did get a Paul Westerberg action figure and my friend Karlyn gave me a super-rare Liz Phair record that came in a pizza box. Also, after the concert Westerberg left me a bunch of demos on cassette, because I have a tape player in my truck. How he knew that, I don’t know. Then I had to take Wolfdogg home on the back of my motorcycle. In the snow. As if.