I’m a creature of ceremony, and on my way to Monster-Mania back in March ’09,  I picked up on a new ritual that’s become part of my pre-convention experience.  My mom was a few months from dying from cancer when I came across the Rave from the Cave.  And though I wasn’t even a Rolling Stones fan at the time, listening to “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” is now a vital part of any convention trip I take.

Okay, so it’s not like Joe Pilato put a gun to my head.  All he did was “star” in a Youtube video affectionately called “The Rave from the Cave.”  I won’t spoil a thing about it, because you need to watch it in full.  I will say that the crux of it involves Pilato singing one incredible Rolling Stones song that spoke to me at the time.  I couldn’t do anything to save my mom, but at least I had a few months to get all the time with her that I needed before she passed.  On that Friday when I took the long drive to Cherry Hill, NJ in my sister Sarah’s truck,  the Stones’ Forty Licks greatest hits collection I found on the passenger seat changed my life.  And it’s become a must on my iPod with every convention I travel to since.

Last Friday, as X and I sat in the airport several hours before our plane would take off, I listened to “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.”  Mick Jagger was speaking to me, and in the back of my  head, so was Joe Pilato.  As I spend the next few days assembling Death Ensemble’s convention coverage of the Mad Monster Party con, I just thought I would share with you.  So take a listen below, and know that every time I head out to a show, I’m still looking for the damned Cave.

-Phil Fasso