So, after repeated signs of insanity from Eugene(mainly self-mutilation and constant talk of stomping and stabbing people),
we decided to kick him out as well. Shortly after that, we finally had our first practice. Instead of actually writing music,
we just jammed until we came up with something we thought sounded cool and went from there. At the first practice,
Patrick came up with the little riff that you hear when the homepage loads. It seemed like nothing could slow us down.
Except one thing, our own singer, Scott. It wasn't long before Scott started no-showing practices. At one point, he actually
missed 6 straight practices. Some of his excuses included: "suddenly got called into work"(he used this one several times),
"I suddenly got a flat tire while swerving to avoid a HUGE accident in front of the DMV", "I don't feel like it because I
tried to kill myself last night"(which was maybe the fakest suicide attempt ever), and he even used a story about having
skin cancer to bail out of a practice. During the time that Scott was in the band, we probably had about 25 practices,
give or take a few. Scott showed up to probably 5 or 6 of them, and even when he did show up, he rarely contributed.
It took 3 months just to get him to sing at a practice. You may ask, "why did you put up with this shit for so long?".
Well, because he was my best friend at the time. I was hoping he would get his act together, but it just never happened.
Finally, after cancelling another practice where it was obvious he was using several different lies at once, we cut all ties
with him. Around this time, Patrick met Tracy, who would become a guitarist for us. Shortly after that, I was talking
to a guy we knew named Seth, and found out he was looking to join a band. The first time we practiced with him,
it didn't even take him 5 minutes to try and sing one of our songs. That's how eager he was. For the first time in
as long as I could remember, it felt like a complete band. After a few practices where we kept coming up with
new material and perfecting it quickly, we found out about an opportunity to play live at Wor-Wic at their
9th annual Variety Fest on April 15th. Things kept looking up for us, but would take an ugly turn. The night
before our audition for the Variety Fest, we decided to have one more practice to make sure we had the song
we would playing down. Our singer, Seth, never showed up that night, and to this day I still don't know why.
Immediately we decided that this was too fucked up and that he couldn't be allowed to stay in the band with
us. We also figured, "so much for the audition". But, the next day, Patrick and Tracy called me and said
that they wanted to do the audition and play the show anyway. I didn't want to, because to me, without
a singer it wouldn't have felt like we were a real band. So they ended up hanging up and I figured that
was the end of that. Well, in the next week or so, all of a sudden I stopped hearing from the rest of my
bandmates. My assumption was that they were so mad about me not wanting to play the show without
a singer that they had kicked me out of the band. So one day I went to our drummer's house(where we
always left our equipment because thats where we practiced) to pick up my bass, and I noticed that
my bass was the only thing in there, all the rest of the stuff was missing. I asked Ksenia where it was,
and she told me that it was at school, and that they had not only auditioned behind my back, but they
were planning on playing the show without me and not telling me. Understandably I was pissed, but
instead of blowing up completely I ended up talking to Patrick about it, and once he explained to me
why they did it, I understood. So we worked it out, and not only did I end up playing with them at the
show, but Eugene(the same one we kicked out before) ended up singing for us that night. By far this
was our best moment as a band, and we really lit that place up that night. That night we wanted Eugene
back in the band, mainly because we were on such an emotional high, but in the ensuing days we decided
he wasn't the long term solution for our lack of a singer. We never did find another singer. After the Wor-Wic
show, we didn't do much of anything. Weeks went by between practices, and our last practice was
pretty much terrible. Now it's the middle of May, and we've only had 1 practice since that April 15th
show at Wor-Wic, and finally I decided that enough was enough. I got tired of waiting for things to
happen, and I've just grown impatient with it all, so I decided to step aside. I'm not throwing blame on anybody,
because there were things I should've done too, but at this point all I can do is step aside. I'm not saying it's all
over. Who knows? I could end up rejoining someday. If I've learned one thing in life it's to never say never.
Either way, I wish the rest of my former bandmates luck with whatever the future may hold.