Category: bar

We had jammed with Mike Farmer live many times to do Misfits encores and they were very popular with the crowd. We decided to actually rehearse and play a full set with him as a cover band. We did so at a place very far away in Aurora. It was a Battle of the Bands and there were about 10 bands so it was a very long show. To save time, they told us not to bring equipment. When we got there it was a little different though. They had told Rob not to bring drums, only cymbals. But he didn’t bring a high hat. No problem, someone was nice enough to borrow him one. Me and Hilger brought guitars only. But I guess that we were supposed to bring amp heads. Well, we play combo amps so we don’t have heads. The management was pissed but they found us something to use. It worked out nice since Hilger played out of like a 400 watt 8×8 cabinet and I had a nice Peavey 5150 half stack. I played my strat as my main guitar which I rarely do and I put 11’s on and it nearly broke my fucking arm. We planned to open with ‘Return of the Fly’ and we were going to start it and Farmer would walk out and sing in the nick of time. So we were in this little dressing room right before we were going to go on. Even now I still get a little nervous before the shows but Farmer hadn’t played in a while and he’ll probably deny this. We were putting black circles around our eyes with a lipstick and he was shaking like crazy. I offered to do it for him and he refused. The shit head sound guys refused to give us 2 backup vocal mics so we did with one but they put it on Hilger’s side. My cord was barely long enough for me to reach and it was stretched across the stage like a trip wire which Hilger had to jump over. On a similar note, did his usual jump into the floor and his cord was pulled so tight it almost pulled the amp over. Luckily, everything was all right. I remember being very depressed at this show after it was over and sitting outside during the other bands. Well I was later told that I missed the fun.

The other bands: Sans Everything was sans drums and they played 3 piece with a frontman and a drum machine and they almost won the damn show although they sucked. (which was based on crown applause at the end of the show — 4 hours after we had played and everyone of our fans had went home). The last band was called Quixotic like Don Quixote and they were total noise core and I’ll give them a prop although they were musically inept at their instruments. The only band who was cool personally was called Grady and they was all much older then use (around 29 or so) and had two guitars. Their frontman was cool and at one point he pulled out a mini tape player and put it to the mic and played to kind of a little girls voice talking and it was very sick and scary. Bonesaw opened with Tool’s ‘Sober’ and later played ‘Four Horseman’ by Metallica. They were heavy and pissed off. The band after us was called the Circus and I was outside when they played. Some shit went down I was later told.

The Circus plays blues rock and its very high energy. They are all right (coincidentally we later played with them at the Fireside and I’m still trying to figure out how they got a gig there). Their frontman was wearing cowboy boots, a T-shirt, flannel and fur lined jean jacket. On the hot stage this is insane and he sweat everywhere. He later told Rob that his inspiration is Iggy Pop and he would throw himself on the stage and get real crazy. He threw a chair and it almost hit one of the crazy headbangers in Bonesaw. It’s pretty much of a bad idea to fuck with these guys. They start yelling and in the end, security threw The Circus out which was about the only good decision they made all night. Also, I think that Bonesaw one the competition (which had a $100 prize). The Circus also made some stupid comments about us playing only covers and how we sucked but I definitely set the record straight at the Fireside (See that show for details).

This was a very fun show. An old lady named Lou ran the joint and its since closed down and reopened as a country bar. This was an all ages show (maybe 18+?) but they served alcohol. Since the place was one big room with the bar right there, there was a piece of tape on the floor that you couldn’t cross. How stupid.

We opened with ‘Got to Throw Up’ by Satanic Surfers and we still joke about that one. The song is pretty hard and I barely even remember how to play it. I can’t really figure out why we would even play it live, much less open with it. We must have thought it was pretty good at the time. All the bands canceled including Racecar who sounded pretty damn good by the demo I received from Brad their guitarist who I briefly had some classes with at Columbia. I remember putting my amp on a chair which comically accentuated its smallness. The Impostors (R.I.P.) were a fun band and they had a chick drummer. I remember her trying to impress me with her clout and she told me and Hilger about how she had played the Fireside a few times (she asked if we had and I was embarrassed since we hadn’t, but I didn’t lie and just felt dumb by a 16 year old girl having more experience than me) with this band and her ‘side project’, Three Dollar Bill. Cool name, though. They were a very mixed crew — the bassist was Asian I also remember.

Before we got Low Profile together, me and Hilger responded to a few ads in IE for musicians looking for others. I responded to a guy who I can only remember as JKLEMMY@aol.com (email him!). I forget his name but he was about 35 and lived at home. He was a drummer and obviously was into Motorhead and other metal. We never jammed but spoke many times via Email and we met at this show. Guess he wasn’t impressed with my styles since I never heard from him again.

And of course, the infamous Tacit story. Tacit is a band that plays some weird type of instrumental 10 minute song shit. Hilger knew the bass player Lorian (nice fucking name). He came out to see us and seemed like a cool guy. Since all these bands had canceled, somehow he volunteered to play with his band and somefuckinghow I agreed to even let him use our shit. Well of course, our guitars weren’t good enough but he said he’d call his band members and have them bring guitars. The Impostors were going to play first, then Tacit, then us. Well the Impostors played and Lorian’s buddies were still not there. So we decided to tell him to fuck off and we were getting pissed. He started making excuses and I told him that he had ought to get out of my face and he told me not to yell at him or something. So I said, “What part of “NO” don’t you understand?” I wrote the song ‘Outspoken’ about this incident. We played our set and we were yelling at them and shit the whole time. I told the management that they had no permission from us and although they were free to let them play, I did not want them to. I guess they got the last laugh because they played anyway despite us yelling at them and shit.