| Saturday, March 9th at Luke's Barn with Radio Shock, Wet Bandits, Transformers, and Shatter Today I woke up at 5:15...after going to bed at 5. Long story short, I was helping a friend. I get home from my friend's house around noon, to find that Sarah had been looking for me. I get a hold of Sarah, and we meet up at Mars Music, where we learned that they did not have the equipment they had promised us. Fuck. After arguing/negotiating, Sarah managed to get most of what we need, and what we thought were reasonable substitutes for the other stuff. Meanwhile, I'm picking up David, all the way out in Perrysburg. I drove David, along with my equipment and the key to Luke's. Being that I'm broke, I had to borrow my mom's soccer van, yea, loser, I know. So anyway, I drop the van off at home, and walk a mile back, in the rain, to Luke's, where Sarah has yet to show up with the sound system. After shootin the shit with Dan of Shatter, Sarah shows up. By now it's 2:30...we were supposed to be there around 1:30, and Blake had yet to show up. I end up taking Sarah's van to head out to Blake's to see what's going on. Upon ariving there, I see Blake's van, completely unloaded. As I get out of the car, Blake comes out of the house. Apparently the landlord tried to arrest him, or someone in his house, for having people over. Needless to say the police just left, as they pay rent and can have whoever over that they want to. Blake, David, and I start to load up equipment when the rain comes. This wasn't any normal rain, this was we're-headin-for-a-tornado kind of rain. Luckily by this time all we have to transport is cables. After getting everything together, we take off and are back at Luke's. We arrive at Luke's, where we are met by only Sarah, Ryan, Dan, and Chris, the sound guy. Apparently we don't have everything we need for sound. Dan, David, and Sarah all go back to Mars to attempt to get some monitors and another power amp, while Blake realizes he doesn't have drum sticks. Now the only people left at Luke's are me, Chris, Ryan, and a guy who's name I don't know, screaming into his cell phone at his girlfriend. By now we're only about 2 hours away from doors, 1 and 2/3rds bands, and a piece of shit sound system. I decide to do whatever I can to keep busy, and put chairs out. After a good half hour of chair-setting-up....Ryan and his angry friend take off to pick up Mike. Nothing really happens for another half hour, until Dan, David and Sarah return with the monitors and power amp. Shorty after they return, Radio Shock shows up, we now have 3 bands accounted for. We help set up the sound, then get Radio Shock's stuff up on stage. Dan calls the Wet Bandits, no answer. I realize that we don't have a set list, and frantically look for some paper, I end up making a set list on an old paper bag I found in the garbage. Sound is now up, Radio Shock is set up, and it's time for doors, we realize we have no markers. David marks people's hands with pen. We're about 5 minutes away from Radio Shock's set, so I decide to give Alan from WB a call, they're on their way. Wet Bandits show up just in time for Radio Shock. I spent most of the time that Radio Shock was on with Dan in the kitchen tryin to sell some kids CDs, no go. It's finally time for us to go on. We played our best set in our short career, highlighted by a circle pit. I also got a fruit roll-up thrown at me. I stuck around for the Wet Bandits set, which rocked, before leaving for my soccer game. We lost 14-12, fuckers. Ah well. Upon returning to the show, I was told a fight broke out, among other things, and the show was shut down. Overall I had an awsome time, and thanks to anyone that showed up. |
| Brian's Show Diary |
| Friday, May 17 at the Paulding Kiwanis Center with Selery and Ingrained Where to begin? Let�s start with me getting ready for the show. I�m getting ready to clean out the tarp so I can stick all Blake�s shit in the back of my pickup, when I�m told I can just take the van. Cool�until my parents take the van and don�t get home until about 5:50. I have to be at Blake�s by 6. And I have to pick up Josh. Josh is coming with to record. Fast forward to 6:15. I am just now showing up at Josh�s house. Fast forward a little more and it�s 6:30ish�maybe a little before�at Blake�s. Everything was ready so that saved tons of time. I hurry down to the basement and grab the tape deck. Once in the car, Josh and I realize that we have no tape. Well shit. After nearly destroying the interior of the van looking for a tape to record over, we come up with the following: Eddie Rabbit, A Disney Christmas tape, and Reba McIntire. None of them worked for us, but we did get to destroy a tape. After an hour or so of mindless chatter, filled with scat, beavers, and god knows what else, we arrive in Paulding. Paulding is a cool city. Just an everyday town like you�d see on some movie. Anyway, we show up and Josh and I have yet to find a tape. We met up with Selery outside of the club, (club, as in small gym), along with their friend, who�s name I did not pick up. He went with us to a local store (Alco) to pick up some tapes, along with way too much candy. We return to the show where about 5 more people showed up. Josh gets hungry and we get a phone number for a Marco�s. Head out to a pay phone and wait for a few minutes to get it. Josh points out that Paulding has an Apothecary. Good work. So we hang out on the steps of the Kiwanis club with some of the cool local kids, waiting for our cheezy bread (we had to order three, because they refused to deliver just one), while Ingrained continues their Blink182 songs. After eating way too much cheezy bread, it�s finally our turn to play. We set up our stuff, and do sound check. I�m noticing all the Ramones, Tie, studded belt wearing twelve year olds have left, and we�re down to a handful of people. We start playing, and the kids start going nuts right off the bat. These kids were by far the best crowd I�ve played for. Pound for pound Paulding is the most energetic city in the world. About halfway through our set, I talked a kid into ollieing 4 other kids. It was pretty cool. After an hour long set of stupid jokes, knocking mic stands over, messing up the songs, trying to get the crowd to take off their shirts, and counting to four in several different languages, we called it quits. After taking our shit down, I was really hot n tired, so Josh and I walked around town square, where we put CJ stickers up in random places. We tried to get some little kids to put stickers on stop signs, but they seemed confused about stop signs, which leaves me wondering if they have such things in Paulding. Meanwhile Blake is inside stealing skateboards and covering them in CJ stickers. Guerrilla publicity at it�s finest. When we return from the walk, Josh notices a cool chain hanging right by the door, and steals it. (We later on find out that it�s the lock for the club, and get yelled at for taking it.) Selery is just about to go on. Selery is cool. Played a long set mixed with covers and originals, all causing the kids to run around run into each other. During this, I got my ass handed to me by a guy in a Charlie Brown shirt. After Selery, we helped clean up, handed out a few more stickers, and threw basketballs at each other, (mostly just me kicking balls at Josh�s head.) We thank everyone for coming out, exchange phone numbers for future shows, and load up our equipment. On the way home, Josh and I recorded our conversation until the tape ran out�and for shits and giggles we listened to it on the rest of the way home, along with the set we just played. Right now it�s 3:06 in the morning and I�m exhausted and not remembering what else we did, but we had a blast. See ya later. Saturday, March 23 at Main Event,ToledoPunks.com Showcase The night before the show was yet another long one. I watched SummerSlam 1989, 1991, and 1992, all by myself. Despite how great old school wrestling is, I'd rather have been doing something else. For those of you that may be curious as to what were some of the matches, I saw The Ultimate Warrior defeat "Ravishing" Rick Rude to win the Intercontinental Title in '89. This was pretty much the only good thing to come from SummerSlam '89. The second tape I watched, '91 was a little better, I saw the Nasty Boys take on the Legion of Doom (the guys with the spikey shoulder pads) in a No DQ, No Countout match, but was disapointed to see the L.O.D win. The best match, in my opinion has to be Bret "The Hitman" Hart defeat Mr. Perfect. No one can wrestle like the Hitman. Lastly, SummerSlam '92. This could've been the best had my VCR not be a POS and had tracking, but I survived. I was very disapointed to see The Undertaker win against Kamala by DQ. I was also upset by the fact that the 45 minute match between The Ultimate Warrior and Macho Man Randy Savage be barely visable through all the jumping around my TV was doing. On a side note, ECW is much better than WWF. Anyway, I'm off topic. I woke up the day of the show sick as fuck. I was dizzy, couldn't breath out of my nose, and had the worst headache in recorded history. On top of all of that, I couldn't move. I slept really weird, my arms, neck, and back were all throbbing. I take a shower, a few asprin, then lay around, hoping like hell I'll be ok by the time I have to pick up Blake. Three O'Clock rolls around and I'm still feeling like shit. I show up at Blake's around 3:05. Blake's sitting in his basement playing his drums. I go upstairs to call Sarah, find out what time to be at Main Event, and meet Dean, the new puppy. After about an hour of dicking around, Blake and I pack up, and head out to the main event. We meet up with Sarah. After trying to bum money off everyone and their brother, I finally get five bucks off of Dan, of Shatter. Of course I have to be his bitch and pick him up something, but at least I get a chalupa. Here's where I get worried. Dan wanted Pintos & Cheese. Now I don't know about everyone else, but I've never heard of this before. I thought Dan was setting me up to order some imaginary product, either that or that they'd be expensive as hell and I wouldn't have enough money to get what I wanted. I show up at Taco Bell, order the stuff, and end up gettin to keep a dollar or so in change. Upon returning, I give Dan his food and hide in a corner and eat my chalupa. I'm feeling better, and semi-social at this point. I go back to the kitchen/backstage area, where Dan and George of the Wet Bandits were both trying their hand (foot?) at the Pee Wee Herman dance. The next few hours are kindof blury, just watching bands. Our set is up, and we have a handful of people watching, maybe a little more. We play a decent set, getting one or two pits going, but nothing special. Immediately following our set, I pack up my shit and speed all the way home to get some sleep. |