“For the encore, Dave and drummer Taylor Hawkins did a backstage skit on camera where they pretended to argue about how many songs they would perform for the encore. They then came out on stage and said they were a gin-soaked bar cover band, and performed a bunch of classic hits by other bands before closing with ‘Everlong.’ It was the best Firefly performance of all time, and a little bittersweet with the recent passing of Taylor.”
Firefly has birthed a number of legends. But not all of them are musical acts.
One of them was the huggable Sober Bear.
Joe Meier, 33, of Philadelphia, is the guy who carries the Sober Bear totem, a cartoony sign of a bear’s face. To newcomers, the bear might be a cute random sign. But to those who know, the Sober Bear is a beacon of light like the Bat Signal.
Meier has been to every Firefly since 2014. That year was a low point for him.
“I was severely overweight, depressed and struggling with addiction. The energy Firefly brought into my life inspired me to get healthy and clean so that I could do it again.”
Meier said he’s now sober and has lost 160 pounds over the years.
His favorite memory is from 2019, the third year carrying his Sober Bear totem, and the year someone at Firefly lifted his phone from his pocket on Day One, he said.
“It put me in such a bad mental space that I considered leaving. But for the entire rest of the weekend I had people coming up to me and my totem and telling me how glad they were to see it there,” the software engineer explained. “A lot had heard about my phone being stolen and offered condolences. Those people really saved my whole weekend.”
