Death From Above 1979, 3/17/2005

posterized n – 1. North American slang derived from an action in the game of basketball in which the offensive player “dunks” over a defending player in a play that is spectacular enough to warrant reproduction in a printed poster 2. to be humbled, shamed, and exposed as an inferior athlete 3. a blog series on BDWPS.com that revisits various concert posters collected over the past ten years by contributor Android50

On first glance, this poster for a SXSW show back in 2005 doesn’t seem worth discussing in my “Posterized” series. It’s really more of an advertisement for MTV2 than actually a poster promoting a concert.  Most shows at SXSW are sponsored by someone (a record label, an online streaming outlet, a beverage company, a natural gas/fracking conglomerate) but rarely do the posters feature much about the sponsor other than a small watermark logo in one of the corners.

The second reason this poster doesn’t seem to deserve much attention is the fact I didn’t even go to any of the shows listed on the poster. They were all day parties, something I wasn’t even familiar with in those early days of SXSW.

No, this is far from the coolest concert poster I own, and no, I didn’t even attend these shows.  But despite these two admissions, it’s still one of my favorites in the entire collection that adorns my walls because it reminds me of one of the best concerts I ever attended.

Arcade Fire 1/21/2005

posterized n  - 1. North American slang derived from an action in the game of basketball in which the offensive player “dunks” over a defending player in a play that is spectacular enough to warrant reproduction in a printed poster  2. to be humbled, shamed, and exposed as an inferior athlete   3. a blog series on BDWPS.com that revisits various concert posters collected over the past ten years by contributor Android50

When talking about music with friends, a common question that comes up is “What’s the best concert you’ve ever been to?” Many shows come to my mind (Elliot Smith, Propaghandi, Sleater Kinney, Bonnie “Prince” Billie, Man Man, HEALTH, Death From Above 1979, Jay Reatard, Times New Viking, Sufjan Stevens), but the concert that almost always pops up first is when I saw Arcade Fire in January of 2005.  Three months earlier the band’s path was altered forever when the influential Pitchfork.com deemed their album Funeral a 9.7 out of 10.

Posterized: HEALTH 7/14/2008

While I have some very artistic and interesting posters from shows I’ve attended over the years, some of my favorite are the most basic.  One of these posters would be the crumpled, basic album cover poster for the HEALTH show I caught with my friend Paul in Denver back in 2008. Not only does the poster remind me of the night, but it also symbolizes the chaos that went down in the cramped venue that night. Here’s how I remember it…

POSTERIZED: Baroness 6/5/11

On the morning of June 6^th, 2011, I woke up in an unfamiliar place. Like a scene from “Memento,” I got up and surveyed my foreign surroundings (although I didn’t have any tattoos for guidance). Beside the bed laid my pants in a disheveled pile; next to them sat a couple crumpled balls of one dollar bills and a pair of florescent orange ear buds. I stood up only to discover a pain coursing from my neck, up my brain stem, and into my cranium.  I brought my hands to my head and rubbed my temples to try and alleviate what was certainly one of the worst headaches ever. As I tried easing the pain, I noticed one of my shoes by the door and the other on the opposite side of the room by the nightstand.

Posterized: Elliott Smith / Steamboat / Austin, Texas

posterized n  – 1. North American slang derived from an action in the game of basketball in which the offensive player “dunks” over a defending player in a play that is spectacular enough to warrant reproduction in a printed poster  2. to be humbled, shamed, and exposed as an inferior athlete   3. a blog series on BDWPS.com that revisits various concert posters collected over the past ten years by contributor Android50

To be posterized is to be remembered – whether it be Tracey McGrady over the towering Shawn Bradley, Malik Rose humbling the finger wagging Dikembe Mutumbo, or Vince Carter shaming every unsuspecting European that got in his way during the 2000 Olympics.  The concept of being posterized began with the Airness himself, Michael Jordan, victimizing NBA rosters throughout the late 80s and early 90s. Guys like Patrick Ewing, Kevin McHale, and Hakeem Olajuwon will forever be immortalized thanks to their inclusion on iconic Jordan posters that adorned the bedrooms of every warm-blooded teenage boy between 1986 and 1993.   My childhood bedroom would be one of these many Meccas to Jordan thanks to my older brother who shared a room with me. I tried countering my brother’s yearning to be “Like Mike” with as many David Robinson posters as I could find in Northwest Iowa (as difficult as you would imagine).   I eventually held a dominate Admiral grasp on the room once my brother and his Jordan posters went off to college.