I Was There But Didn't Know It Yet | Allison Wolfe & Brianna Collins on Finding Perspective

Does watching Nirvana open for the Melvins actually feel significant while it's happening? Or does meaning only arrive later, after distance and time?

Allison Wolfe lived through Olympia's legendary '90s DIY scene. Bratmobile, riot grrrl, the moment when underground punk arrived on MTV. Brianna Collins carries a parallel story from Scranton's 2000s basement/indie circuit, where Tiger's Jaw emerged alongside Title Fight and The Menzingers in a working-class Pennsylvania town that bred its own urgency.

Two different coasts, two different decades. Hearing them unpack the parallels is wild.

What they discover is delayed recognition. Not just of cultural movements, but of your own participation in them. As Allison reflects on those Olympia years: "Sometimes it seems incidental in a lot of ways or just sort of happenstance." Brianna echoes this from Scranton, recognizing only now the gift of building lifelong friendships through music, marrying someone she's known since meeting at a show when she was sixteen.

Creative life is a pretty cool mess. One that only makes sense in hindsight. What they find together is that reflecting on what you were building actually helps clarify what comes next.

Watch them meet for the first time, out now on Just Press Record.