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Conservative Chaos started in June of 2001, after drummer Dave Chaos answered an invitation from former bassist Joe Grandinetti (in a chat room or something) to join a "punk band." Now, Dave has been my best friend since about 1998, and, honestly, after knowing what people think of when they hear the word "punk," I was a bit skeptical when I heard about this. But I figured "Hey, at least he's in a band." After the first few practices, I attended a couple, and while I didn't like it as much as I do now, (they had a completely different sound then) I knew they had potential. Since I had to work a lot, I was unable to attend the first two "shows" they had, which were, in essence, simply small parties that happened to have a band there. Once I quit that job, I had a lot of time to waste, so I decided to drop in on a practice or two. I was pleasantly surprised with the enormous turnaround that they performed. I listened to every note they played with great interest. I started getting more involved, telling them what I like and what needs to be better. To my surprise, they actually listened. So I began to attend every practice, help set up, listen to them for a couple hours, help them take everything down, and go home. I became essentially an unofficial roadie. I became so dependable that I would get there before the rest of the band just to help out. One week, guitarist/vocalist Nicholas Palmenterrorist's cousin, Danny (aka Roscoe to the Chaos Family), tipped us off that there was a "Battle of the Bands" at some church in Stow, OH, which is about 45 minutes from home. So we said "we're in" and on November 22, 2002, Conservative Chaos played their first "real" show, playing second of six bands, with me as head cheerleader, of course. Here's a journal excerpt from that show: "Good sound, a few screwups but good overall. Got in trouble twice for slamming." Soon after this, which I was satisfied with, Joe had to take several weeks off for hockey, so myself, Dave, and Nicholas just kinda jammed for a few weeks, which was cool. We came up with some cool stuff. Once Joe came back, I basically started to help the band progress. I tried coming up with ideas for songs, like the drum "stomps" in "Tonight" which were my idea. After a few on and off months, with missed practices left and right, and lack of ideas from all of us as to how to promote, etc., I got a break. I contacted Peabody's Down Under and let them know we were interested in a Battle of the Bands spot. After a month of relentless practice and promotion, we finally made our "big stage" debut on May 10, 2003. We were the fourth of six bands, and we rocked the fucking place. I was the most pit ringleader, as always, and the guys were damn near flawless. When the votes (cheering for who you like) came, Conservative Chaos had one of the loudest reactions in the damn place. There were definitely more people chering than who we sold tickets too. Even though people were saying "You guys got screwed, you got more than anyone else" and stuff like this, I viewed it as a moral victory. We had such a great reaction from that show, we STILL have people contacting us about it. From there came the almighty June 15th show. We had done so well at the BOTB that Peabody's "second stage" club, the Pirate's Cove, wanted us to play at a show for them. I said "fuck yeah" and it was on. I personally took care of all the details (picking up tickets, creating flyers, finalizing the setlist, etc.) while the guys practiced their asses off (I mean that literally; Dave is still looking for his) to make it as perfect as they could. At practice a couple weeks before the show, they told me the news: I was going to guest vokill on a couple songs. So I was getting all geared up for this, which would be my first time on stage. So I took any extra time I could to practice vokills. I would be screaming along with the songs as I drove around, I would scream along at home, I would scream 'em at practice. I was screaming so much simply to know that my voice would hold out. Then comes the 15th. (Quick background: June 15th was about a week before I had to move out of Ohio and come over here to New Jersey, where I currently reside. That's why they let me sing, and it's also why I hold it in such regard in my heart. The guys were fucking great. Then I got up there and fucked my voice up on the first line of "White Minority." Lovin' it. I screamed through White Minority (Black Flag cover), Attitude (Misfits cover), and Risking The Inevitable (Chaos original). In-fucking-credible. After that came the Pit show, which we headlined (played last), which is alright, but if you know anthing about local music, when 12 o clock starts to get around, you get some crowd drop-outs. It was nice because it was one of the few shows that we played with bands that had like-minded musical interests. And then... "The Bloodbash." The Bloodbash was the most incredible musical experience of my life. This thing was my brainchild. I thought it would be cool to have a Halloween party and have Chaos play Misfits covers. Then, I started writing down what might be cool to have/do, and the whole thing snowballed. I was thinking "we could have horror movies playing, decorations, costumes, food, pop, and then we could have the band play Misfits covers for a while." Awesome. Wrote it down, talked to the band, they loved it. Sweet. So then, from early August till the day of the show it was constant phone calls trying to get everything set. When the day actually came, I was nervous as hell. (I conveniently forgot to mention, I was on stage with them, both on vokills and guitar.) But, we played good, long, and hard, and I personally had a fucking blast. I loved it. And now, after Joe and the band had an amicable split, no hard feelings there, we have to find a new bassist before we tread any new ground. So keep an eye out, kids! |
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