If you're wondering what a Mike-ism is exactly, what I'm about to post here is a perfect example. Below is an email I got from Mike a few days ago regarding a name for the band... and more.
hey came up with a cool band name, The Demons. That and I liked the Zero spelled with an Xero. What ideas did you have? Have you ever danced with the devil on a pale moon night. Zombies are our friends, they're just a little sensitive of their looks, thats why they become violent when made fun of. Did you know that insects are miniature aliens in disguise, I found that out the other day when I toured Area 51. Thanks for your support buddy, we appreciate you in every way.
This is the kind of stuff you hear everyday that you're around Mike. I'll be posting some more Mike-isms as well as some random stories and other crap every now and then.
Back when yours truly was in a band called Gakudan with Mike and someone else named Beau, I managed to get the band a show in Lebanon, IN. Lebanon is several hours away from Peoria, but it wasn't Peoria, so it had its benefits. Anyway, the show was at a legion hall or something like that at 701 N. Lebanon Rd. (I think that's the address.. if not, lets just pretend that it is, ok?). Using our powers of navigation and directions from mapquest.com, we managed to find Lebanon Rd.. We drove up and down this wonderful road in this wonderful town looking for 701. We finally decided to park behind a church that was in the vicinity and see if we could walk around and find the damn place. We found 699. We found 703. What we didn't find was 701. Where 701 should have been there was a church. The church we parked behind, in fact. Well, I know that punk shows are, occasionally, held in churches so we walked up to the doors of the church to check it out. There was a couple of pieces of paper taped to the inside of the doors, so we read them just in case they pertained to the show which, of course, they didn't. We then looked inside the doors to see if anyone was inside which, of course, they weren't. Then we decided to do the last thing we wanted to do. We walked down the street looking for a place where we could ask for directions. About two or three blocks down we came across an insurance building so we sent Mike (the social one) inside to ask where the hell this legion hall was. While he was inside, I decided to kick back in the empty parking lot, so I just stretched out in the nearest parking space and put my head on the parking block. Not a minute later my rest was disturbed when a police car pulled into the insurance company's parking lot. Now, since I've mentioned that I was layed out in one of the parking spaces, and that every other parking space in the lot was empty, where do you suppose the officer decided to park his car? That's right. As he approached, I could see that he was being an ass and parking where I was, so I sat up on the parking block, lit a cigarette, and watched him pull in as far as he could get with me sitting there. The conversation started with something like "Can I see some ID?" and pretty much went downhill from there. Beau and I cooperated and asked what the problem was, and the officer was extremely helpful in filling us in by not telling us a damn thing. In the course of the background check, two more police cars pulled into the parking lot and four more waited nearby on the street. That's roughly twelve cops for two punks. Why only two punks? Because Mike was still inside the insurance building watching what was going on. Apparently with it being twelve to two in their favor, the cops still didn't feel safe because when Mike finally did walk out, the cop in front of me looked like he was going to shit himself. So, after a few more minutes of being harassed, Mike coughing up his ID, and Beau almost getting us arrested due to the fact that he wouldn't shut up, we finally found out why we were being invaded by the entired Lebanon, IN police department. We tried to break into the church. News to us, but apparently a loyal citizen phoned in that we were breaking into the church, so they sent the troops out after us. Then we were harassed a little more by being asked what our business was in town and being told by one of the cops that "I don't know how people dress in Peoria, but here in Lebanon you stick out like sore thumbs." When we told them that we were there to play a show, one of the cops laughed and said "Oh, we had that shut down." We found out that the legion hall's address was 701 S. Lebanon Rd., not 701 N. Lebanon Rd. and that the cops had indeed made sure that the show didn't happen. Chalk up another victory for the good guys.. it'd be a damn shame if kids were allowed to have fun, after all. We also found out later that the cops had removed the piece of paper from the doors of the legion hall that mentioned that the show had been moved to a neighboring town. So, after checking out the legion hall and not seeing a piece of paper that would have helped us, we stopped into the local Steak and Shake to eat, where we saw plenty of cops driving by.. probably making sure that we weren't going on a killing spree, and making sure that we left their town.
I guess the moral of this story is that if you are ever harassed by cops, remember that it could be worse. You could have to drive for four hours to get harassed by cops. Either that or the moral is just the fact that cops everywhere suck.
Someday, there will be another Lebanon story posted here.. I've already decided that I'm going to get The Victims a show in Lebanon, IN just as soon as we have a set list prepared... and this time we'll be ready.
