John Michaels was the guy that used to book shows at this dump. He was a cool, honest (pretty much) guy who was really interested in music and making money which although is not always a good thing to combine wasn’t so bad with him. Hilger must have found out about this place by reading IE or something. It was always 21+ and they were cool about us being underage. At one point John pitched us for like 2 hours about being on a compilation. It was totally not worth it for many reasons, but Hilger still has the unsigned contract on the wall of his apartment. Crime was a crazy type of metal thrash band and one guitarist had a real weed leaf taped to his guitar. They rocked but had little lead or solos and what little they did have was played exclusively with a cry baby. The singer poured beer all over himself and got pretty crazy. They were from Indiana but they brought some cool metal groupie chicks along who totally dug them. They were real nice guys. The Tom Moratta Project was off the wall. It was Tom Moratta on keys, percussion and vocals and another odd looking dork on guitar who played a dope vintage Les Paul. It was like a weird synth pop thing. A drum machine played the drums and it appeared to be hooked up to a home stereo that he brought along. They set up a bunch of shitty TV sets hooked to a VCR that played random images while they (attempted to) jam. They opened with an original called ‘Rebecca’ . I can still hear the melody — “Was it really me, Rebecca?!” We brought Phil Henkle along as a roadie and he got in for free. He was cheering for these guys and John Michaels gave his a real hard time and even threatened him or something. He gave me a super hard time too and I hated him. Strangely enough, he was very cool during future shows. The Tom Moratta project at one point played a cover by a band I never heard of and introduced it by saying, “Here’s one by a band we all know and love, The Spider Monkeys!” They said they were playing at a club called Fitzgerald’s and I’ve heard of the place. It’s definitely much different that Uncle Snorkey’s and I still can’t figure out how that got that gig.
Category: suburbs
Show #2: Jackhammer’s, Schaumburg
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.