“The Best Gig I Ever Saw” is a weekly column that will see us ask a musician to chat about their favorite concert thus far. This week it’s singer/songwriter Julia Nunes…

I searched my soul and the best show I’ve ever seen was definitely in high school. It was Say Anything, an emo-punk band I had been obsessing over. I knew allllll their lyrics, had bootlegs of all their old unavailable albums, demos, alternate versions of songs. Max Bemis, the lead singer, had an Elvis in 1956 effect on me.

The show was in Buffalo NY, an hour from my home town. I went with some of my equally obsessed friends, one of whom I had a huge crush on.

We stood front row, in front of what I was hoping would be Max’s microphone. I was RIGHT. He was 3.5 feet from me, singing all my favorite songs. It simultaneously sounded just like the record and something brand new, angrier and happier. Max went so hard and so did we, at one point he grabbed my head and spit the lyrics of, “Wow! I can get sexual too” in my face. Truly a treasured memory.

I’ve seen some of my favorite artists of all time: Stevie Wonder, Anderson Paak, Ben Folds — they put on incredible shows. But there’s nothing really better than loving a band that much, feeling that personally connected to the person singing, and being there with people that matter that much to you, getting sweaty and scream-singing in each other’s faces. That might just be me though.

Julia Nunes plays with Chase Burnett at 7 p.m. on Thursday, December 19 at Hotel Cafe.

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