I listened to kings of Leon before they became popular, when they were still a decent rock band instead of their current variety of milquetoast yearning for women. Also, beer. I was into beer as something more than an intoxicant since before I was legal. Now I get to hear douchebags talking about how they tried this really unique beer (like red stripe) and how they went to beer bistro and paired it with fuck knows what food. Oh well.
Oh, and I'm pretty convinced I was the first person to say "om nom nom" (or, at least write it out that way), and that "the awkward turtle" originated in my home town.
I saw Kings of Leon at a small bar when I was in college in the fall of 2003. The place was small enough that I used to play open mics and such there and based on the crowd, you couldn't tell if it was some college band or a touring group as they were. Few months later they first showed up on MTV, and then the waterfall happened thereafter. Related, I used to see Fall Out Boy back when I was a junior and senior in HS. Since I grew up in Milwaukee, they used to come up fairly often and in support of other tours. I got to know them and would usually go get Pizza Shuttle after shows with them. Back then, Pete Wentz was incredibly motivated, charismatic, and with vision for miles. Now he is just a scene capitalizing idiot. To see them as big as they became was kind of surreal, but I miss the band they used to be. I was also rocking dope Izod polos as a little kid back before they split Izod and Lacoste into two different brands and Lacoste became the brand du jour for pretentious douchenozzles. Totally ruining that badass little crocodile.
I've also been watching Louis C.K. since back before Dane Cook was accused of stealing his jokes. Speaking of which, I watched Dane Cook's Comedy Central special a few years before he became insanely popular. It was easier to like him when he wasn't ubiquitous among douchebags.
Yeah one of my friends got to watch an early Dane Cook spot on Comedy Central, where he talks about public bathroom defacings, this was three or four years before his first CD blew up. I repped Nom about it but I also remember seeing Patton Oswalt's HBO half hour way back in 98 and thinking he was fucking hilarious. The same series of HBO stand up at the time also had Dave Chappelle and Jeff Garlin. Before they really blew up, though Chappelle was still well known from Half Baked.