311 Fan Spotlight – 3/5/18 – Adam Palkowitsch!

Hey all, we are back at it again with the latest edition of the 311 fan spotlight. This week let’s read the story of Adam Palkowitsch!

The year was 1993 and Adam was really into Guns N’ Roses when a friend of his made him a mix tape that had the song “Visit” on it. “He brought it over and I listened to it once and was hooked. There was just no one making music that sounded like that. 25 years later and it’s still one of my favorite songs.”

Show count for Adam is 38. “This question always makes me laugh because people always ridiculously over estimate how many shows they’ve seen for some reason.  I remember in like 2010 someone asked me this.  I could have sworn it was easily like 50.  Then I looked, and it was like 20.” Adam does know a weird statistic about a show he saw. “The last show I saw, the 19th song played was the 1000th live song I saw 311 perform. It turned out to be Sick Tight which was pretty cool I guess.” First show he saw was May 16th, 1996 at the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis.

There are many moments at shows and events that stand out to Adam, like in 1997 when they were doing the curtain drop into “Hive” as the opener. Then the sail away show during cruise one was amazing. “But I gotta say, nothing tops that beach show on cruise 2. Standing in the ocean listening to Strong All Along…I can picture it like it just happened.”

Song that means the most to Adam he says really depends on his mood, like so much of their music does. Some songs that really stand out to him are “Six,” “123,” “Strong All Along,” “Sweet,” “Uncalm,” “Jupiter,” and “Sun Come Through.” He said if he kept going he would end up naming all of Grassroots. “Can I go with that? Yeah…all of Grassroots.” Some lyrics that stand out to him as favorites are: “The jaded ones will wither while we optimistic grow,” “Savor the sun, but when the clouds come, make animals,” “Be sure that the dream’s alive, there are only short bursts in life, are you able to be satisfied? Do you expect fun all the time?” and “You can make a mean hand outta what you’ve been dealt.”

St. Paul, Minnesota, is where Adam grew up and still lives. He’s really only ever lived around the area. “I’m like a living version of that meme that says, Hey, it’s me, your friend from high school who never left our home town and still thinks Olive Garden is fancy.” Adam grew up playing hockey, he started at the age of 5, which he said is kinda like a given in St. Paul. “It’s kinda like Texas football or whatever.” He’s also been skiing and snowboarding since he was 3. His dad is ski patrol so he and his family always were able to go for free.

How does Adam fund his 311 habit? “Credit card debt. Massive, massive credit card debt.” In all seriousness though, Adam works for Wells Fargo in the mortgage side of the business. “Before you freak out about how my company steals from people, I do not work in retail banking; the mortgage side is a separate business.  I earned a BS in Biology with a focus on cellular bio and genetics, and I work for a mortgage company.  Neat right?  Basically what I do is data analytics within the property loss department.  I help people learn what they need to do to get their insurance proceeds to rebuild their homes in disaster events and act as a liaison between them and their insurance providers.  So, I’ve been pretty dang busy in the past few months.  I analyze our procedures and identify problem areas for our customers and then implement things to make it less painful for them.  That’s the short version, minus all the coding and systematic stuff I do as well.  So there’s that, and also I put 20 dollars in a drawer every single Friday.  That funds cruise cabins and it works awesome.”

Interesting fact about Adam…he beat Apollo in Rocky 2, haha. But he said for real, he can bend his second toe and keep all the others straight. “It’s banay cray.” Something that makes Adam unique? He’s a world class buffet line stander. “Like, I’m supes good at standing in line.  I’ll be all standing in line and people will be all, “dang, that guy knows what he’s doing.”  I’m so good at standing in line, that sometimes I stand in line when I don’t even need to be standing in line.  Ask Preston Pearson.  I thought about going pro last year.”

Other artists that Adam loves include Full Service, the Dead, Lagwagon, Sublime, LTJ, RBF, Wu Tang Clan, Dirty Heads (before sound of change), Zappa (kinda), Raffi, Yanni, Squidward, Nickelback, Johnny Karate, and Blood Dumpster. Adam said his hobbies and likes really aren’t guilty ones, but he used to play competitive fighting games and won some tournaments, so he thinks that counts. He also said he has unpopular opinions about bands that tons of people like and he doesn’t. “But I’m not sure that counts.”

Adam’s message to the band: “Like most people, it’s usually just “thank you.”  I’ve only had a couple times where I had the attention of the band members in a candid setting, like outside of a set meet and greet, and that’s usually about all I manage to say.  It was super awkward last time I talked to Nick.  I kinda looked at him and went, “woah.”  Then I just stood there like an idiot.  Thankfully my wife was actually able to say words.  It kinda helped to divert his attention from how uncomfortable I was.”

Now to all the other fans in 311 nation:

“In n Out is over rated – it’s just fast food.  Omelets are just egg tacos.  Put Doritos on your sandwiches.  Pineapple belongs on pizza.”

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Thanks Adam for sharing your story! I thoroughly enjoyed writing it and I hope you all enjoyed reading it. Thanks to all who are a part of this blog, either being a spotlight or reading each week. I love knowing each and every one of you! Until we meet again.

Much Love – The Runt