Category: chicago

Show #15: Fireside Bowl, Chicago

This show was with the Circus — a band we had played with before. In short, they had insulted us and also started a fight they couldn’t finish with a wild metal band due to their frontman’s antics. I was ready to confront them and fight if need be. As we waited outside for the doors to be unlocked, their singer saw a sticker that had been freshly put up about 1 minute ago by Hilger. He commented to one of his band members, not knowing that we were the band, “Low Profile…wait a minute…I remember this band”. Then he turned to us and I said that that was us. He seemed shocked and said nothing else. During their set he wore the same crazy outfit and sweated up a storm. Musically, I cannot deny that they were tight, original and overall professional. I had no respect for their singer because of his past bullshit and his ‘shocking’ antics which did not fly with me. He punched himself a few times and I stood in the near empty club right in front of the stage egging him on for more self-destruction and other taunts. He ignored me of course and tried to impress and bunch of girls who had come to see us and eventually jumped into the ‘crowd’ (what little there was) and landed on them. The rest of the set of uneventful.

During our set, we played ‘All Hell Breaks Loose’ last by the Misfits especially for him. Hilger commented live that we love the Misfits and we will play them every fucking time whether anyone likes it or not. Not suprisingly, they were not up to the challenge and stood quietly in the back then left.

The other bands were mixed. Farm Team was a local band who played absolute noise and I really dug them. The Aldermen were 1950’s or something and the guitarist even pulled up outside on a huge chopper. He had plenty of tattoos and a greased handlebar mustache and hair.

Show #10: Kraft Bowl, Chicago

At this show a lot of people showed up and we got paid a lot — $71. I’m sure it was supposed to be $70 but was miscounted by Washburn who put on the show. I remember him holding a huge stack of bills and just peeling off so many that I couldn’t believe it. When he paid me I thanked him then we hugged which was weird. I was very grateful to him for putting on the show and it was just very successful overall.

Instead of doing a half assed job on the sound, we paid a bit more and got a great sound man named Bo. He made it sound great and set up and tore down VERY fast. The PA speakers were not very steady and were stacked up. Once of twice, they were wobbling and he warned us through his talkback mic to be careful. I admonished the crowd to do so and they didn’t listen. During “Problem Solved” the whole fucking thing fell over which could damage the speaker and also the person or persons beneath it. Luckily neither happened and Farmer caught the speakers and it didn’t happen again.

Tony Perry got a huge bass stack for this show and Joe got a crazy Dean Flying-V. They sure did have some great shit except for one thing — Joe had no guitar amp. Now don’t ask me why you would go to a show and not even bring an amp because I don’t know. Fact of the matter is that Joe technically did not (and probably still does not) have a guitar amp. So he asked to use mine. I had borrowed a bad ass Valvestate Marshall half stack from a good friend of mine named Andy and I was really trying to protect the thing. I told him that it wasn’t mine to lend out, much less that Andy might come to the show and if he saw that I let him use it, he would probably be pissed. He said that he would talk to him or pay him or something but I said fuck it and just let him use it. Its this type of unprofessionalism that made Pie in the Sky never live up to their potential and eventually stop playing gigs. Later on Half Stachon played for which Joe plays bass. Of course, he did not have a bass so he asked Hilger for his. We were both real pissed at this point but he gave it to him anyways. They could barely even finish a song. Mike came out and sang Misfits with us and the crowd went wild. He had on the full Danzig garb and eye makeup. Awesome as usual.

Show #9: Kraft Bowl, Chicago

The Kraft Bowl had always been an infamous gang hangout and it’s in a bit of a bad neighboorhood. Washburn knows the family that owns it and they played there twice before without us. Sluice the Worries was a band that had Dom Vallone from 88 Fingers Louie on drums. They also had a bass player who played some crazy type of slap shit and wore no shoes. This band sucked balls. They were very loose. The sound checked with a terrible version of ‘My Hero’ by Foo Fighters. They later butchered ‘Crazy Train’. I still wince thinking about it. The most memorable part of the show was when everyone left. There was a few of use tearing down the PA. We were all drunk and it was late. The bar tender wasn’t even charging at this point being that the tons of underage drinkers had made them a killing. They even were nice enough to cook up some frozen pizzas for us and gave them to us for free. They were very hot and burned my mouth. I was in the process of trying to lift this huge speaker and I asked Dom for some help. He is pretty fat and he just stuck the pizza in his mouth half way and grabbed the speaker. I looked over and the sight was hilarous and is now burned into my mind. On another note, when we were setting up, Dom just sat down at Rob’s drums and started playing like they were his. I guess he thought he was famous or something.

We rented sound equipment and tried to hook it up ourselves. It sounded decent. We played ‘Pathetic Individuals’ and during the bass only breakdown I read the words to a poem called “The Jabberwocky” by Louis Carroll. I sure got a lot of blank stares on that one. It was great. It was either this show or the other Kraft Bowl show that Washburn had the radio stolen from his car out side the place.

Show #8: Smiler Coogan’s, Chicago

This was Leo Toal’s (the drummer for Eternal Bliss) birthday. Looking back, we still sucked pretty bad at this time. I have the video and we are very boring on stage, or at least I am. Of course Farmer played with us and that got the place screaming. Yellow Snowmen were totally nuts with 2 singers. Since then they have become more ‘punk’ and got rid of Tony Ridzon who was one singer. Bad move on their part. But they’ve played the Fireside and other shows with bigger bands like Apocalypse Hoboken and Operation Cliff Claven so what do I know.

We opened with Raymond and Rob’s snare was loose and fell apart right away. I never have really felt stupid on stage before but that was pretty fucking bad. I wanted to yell at Rob and still do but I guess it’s not really his fault.

Eternal Bliss played their last show that night despite numerous attempts to get back together. Personally, I hope they never do. Rob made the very good analogy of trying to get back with an old girlfriend so many times and you just break up again and argue and fight. It’s very true.

At the end of the show, we wanted to get paid and a lot of people had showed so we figured we would. Sabu told me that he needed a certain amount for himself which I have no problem with and that he had only made $15 over that amount so he wouldn’t pay us. I still know that he was lying but I told him to give me the $15 and split it $5 a band and although he was very shocked and pissed off, he gave it to me. We bought 2 Gatorades and a Snapple or something and it was gone. Joe and Washburn from Pie in the Sky also came to this show which I thought was weird. It was cold and Washburn didn’t wear a jacket for some reason so I gave him my sweater and I still laugh when I see the photos with him in the crowd wearing my sweater.






Show #6: Fireside Bowl, Chicago

Some great bands played this night. One was Magnetic. They were a three piece and they played some real heavy shit. Their guitarist sang and their only down side was that these heavy riffs are jamming and he just didn’t yell enough. He had a dope set up and a huge floorboard that must have cost about $1000. They offered to play some Warzone at one point and I called out a few titles but they didn’t know those. I yelled “Raybeez, rest in peace!” and someone else in the crowd cheered me on. Everyone else was silent. Not a lot of hardcore kids that day. After our set, their singer/guitarist gave me props on ‘Brown’ saying, “Anyone who has the guts to sing about a Cleveland Steamer is OK in my book”. If you aren’t familiar with the expression Cleveland Steamer as I was not, read the lyrics to ‘Brown’.

The Hysterics and Poonanies were poppy and sucked. Pie in the Sky was good but a little sloppy as usual. They still rocked though. I don’t think they’ll ever admit it, but I was probably their biggest fan.

Show #3: Fireside Bowl, Chicago

At this time, we were squabbling big time with Pie in the Sky for assorted shit and this was our first time at the Fireside. They had played once or twice already and we had been trying to get a show forever. Hilger came over to my house and gave me the good news — a band had canceled and we were going to fill in on 2 days notice or something. I immediately knew that Pie in the Sky was scheduled to play that night and when I told Hilger we couldn’t believe how ironic that was. So we showed up and the show rocked needless to say that they were a little fucking shocked to see us there. They probably thought we payed off the Fireside to try and get the show and fuck with them. I wouldn’t blame them.

Show #1: Smiler Coogans, Chicago

Our first show. I remember putting all of our equipment in a back area of the bar and watching over it until we played. It was interesting that Sabu (the East Indian owner of the bar) had told us not to even be there until 12:00. None of us were 21 either and he could have not let us play. The bar was packed and the only band I watched was Damaged Justice who was a Metallica cover band and a pretty good one at that.

I remember that when we played our set (which was pretty fucking bad, being that it was our first show) I pulled some jumps at some very inopportune times. I only had the one guitar at the time and luckily I didn’t break any strings. I started the ritual of lying down on the ground in front of the stage and playing in a rage. It was especially fun because the ground was very filthy and sticky and I could feel myself being peeled off when I got up. We didn’t even get to start until about 2:30 AM and we didn’t get home until about 3:30. A few people did come to see us though. We made a great flyer with a picture of a guy smoking crack.