SHOW LOG: Newest to oldest, ending with January 1, 2001 (Many of the older ones are written quite a while afterwards, so they're more a reflection than an immediate impression).
11.08.02 / 6:00 / The Cornerstone / I Am Disaster, the Eleventh Hour, the Skeptics, Infamous Jake
One of the best Cornerstone shows I've seen... so many heads that night. Even Elsie came. Left Out opened, Infamous Jake ruled all, I Am Disaster and the Skeptics did their thing, and the Eleventh Hour were excellent as always. They let me sing "Simple Plan" a second time (they weren't even gonna play it, but I got Jamie some duct tape). When we finally found Bemis (which is no big deal, we never know where Bemis is), it was our time to play. Not a bad set at all, sooo many kids. My dad even came. How weird is that? I look up and see my dad. Anyway, it was great till I broke Chris' chord, but we came back and closed the night with an NFG cover. Cheesy? Yeah, but everyone knows the words. Jess and Matt from Scattered came up and played with us, I sang a lot of it while Dan jumped around and crowd surfed in a 6 foot radius, but he did get up. Lots of kids, lots of fun, good times.
-Greg
10.27.02 / Berlin Veterans' Club / 1:00 / The Skeptics, the Halo Jump, Kids Drown Quick, more
Coming soon...
-Dan
09.26.02 / Fitchburg State College / 8:00 / TBA
I originally thought Fitchburg State College was a place with a decent draw... I mean it's a fucking college campus for Christ sake, and also a place where bands such as Junction 18 had played. I thought it might have been a big show. Holy shit, I thought wrong. Wow. We played for (literally) six kids, all of whom sat down, and didn't so much as bob their heads or nod in appreciation. I could even hear the guy at the snackbar making fun of us. It appeared our style wasn't really flying with this crowd. A jam band came on and played after us, which I thought was pretty cool, and they got about as much support as we did. Then some indie rock band, who really wasn't even very good played, and the place filled up and everyone stood up and loved it. Nothing against indie rock, but these guys just weren't that great. Most of the fun happened on the way home, in Matt Samble's van when we got lost for about an hour just trying to find the highway in Fitchburg. We kept ending back on Bemis Road, and Dan Gibbs was totally convinced that Bemis would lead us to the highway or to salvation or whatever he kept talking about. Every five seconds, it was like "are we on Bemis?" or "we need to find Bemis!" Finally, we decided to stop at a gas station and ask for directions. When Kevin came back out, Bemis sits up in the backseat and says, "What did the clerk say? 'Bemis is everywhere?'" He continued this till we found the highway, with stuff like, "Bemis surrounds you." This is why we often call Dan Gibbs "Bemis." We got home at like 4 in the morning, and I had to get up at 7. It was heavy duty.
-Dan
Just wanted to say: they were not an indie band, they were one of the million punk bands who want to sound "vintage," and yet another band tryin to reinvent the Ramones, but still think they maintain an artsy rock edge because they worship Morrisey (Brand New, cough, cough). They even opened with "Big Mouth Strikes Again," now that I recall, heh. Although a lot of indie rocker dudes were present, this is to be expected: it's colledge (I cant even spell "college"), but the college music of their local radio stations in the past have made for some of the best rock and roll ever. I suggest all you kids at home listening to the Get Up Kids, worshipping Something To Write Home About, enlighten yourselves and explore the world of abstract-yet-genius rock and roll known as indie rock. Try Pavement's Slanted and Enchanted (it'll save your life).
P.S. The only reason I wrote this was to tell Dan he's an ass and they weren't an indie band, but I thought I'd preach to you while I'm at it. Oh yeah, I have nothing against the Get Up Kids, just an example.
-Greg
If you want to hear Greg reiterate the same lecture on the bands he'd gladly be molested by over and over again, then read his queer ass column on Music Elitist.
-Dan
09.07.02 / The Flywheel / 6:00 / Hey Vern, Blind Luck Music, Smackin' Isaiah, Infamous Jake
Ah, The Fywheel. Here's what I can say about this place...Great atmosphere - If you headline. We here in Sixfinger wouldn't really know about that though as we have never played there without opening. Coincidence? We dunno. We don't really care. But hey, a show's a show. Some are just better than others. This place gets crazy toward the end of a show and the kids there are great. The atmosphere is awesome and the pizza joint next door is so good. About the show though. This show had your everyday classic Flywheel lineup, except that we were playing, so it changed it up a tad. We had a larger crowd when we opened han the previous two times, but nonehteles, it was opening. Afterwards w hung out with IJ and ate Pizza. I developed a huge ass migraine and we decided to take off early yet again. It was a typical day at The Flyheel for 6F.
-Kevin
We also played without Bemis, giving me a quick night back on bass. It was a little nostalgiac, if you will. The other bands were great, and more than five kids watched us. Maybe not THAT many more than five, but more than five.
-Dan
09.06.02 / The Marconi Club / 6:00 / Left Out, Stinkbomb, The Eleventh Hour, Pull A Nutty, The 8-Bit Revival, I Am Disaster
Our first show of our last year of high school. Seems like forever ago when Jim and I sat next to each other in algebra 1 with Mr. Brown freshman year and I found out he played guitar. Those were the days, ha. Anyhow, this show was great and it even showcased a few bands I hadn't heard before. Pull A Nutty, a new band made of a few friends from school and Matt Bernadis (who for a short time was actually in our band... long story), opened the night, as it was their first show ever. They were fairly tight and covered a range of songs from The Hives to Nirvana as well as a few of their own originals. The 8-Bit Revival were awesome, awesome guys. They all worked the "we're a band on tour" look very well, not having shaved or had a haircut in what looked like months. Lumberjack style. I got a chance to talk to them all while running our merch booth (because no one else in the band ever runs it) and they were wicked cool guys. Bemis bought their CD and listens to it religiously now. As far as how our set went, we had talked everyone and there mom into going from shool and it paid off as we had one of our larger crowds at this show. We played great and the Eleventh Hour closed it out with us in a split set. This was a wicked fun show and I finally got to see the security guard guy's pink limo. Very cool.
-Kevin
I disagree with that, we played like shit. We got rushed, because the time wasn't planned well, and we were trying to leave time for the Eleventh Hour, and it was like "hurry up and set up your shit," and everything was out of tune. It sounded like shit. Thumbs down for our set, but fun night overall.
-Dan
08.16.02 / The Cornerstone / 6:00 / The Travoltas, Scattered, Sonny, Grover Dill, Agent Felix, Critical Condition
This show was Matt's noble experiment with a whole bunch of Fast Music bands. 104fest veterans Grover Dill were there, but no one really seemed to care. The bands that everyone seemed to love were The Travoltas, straight from th Netherlands (I think it was the Netherlands), and Critical Condition. We had fun, and we played "Autobiography" for the first time in forever because Bill from Scattered and Jay from Left Out like it so much. It was a good way to wind down the summer.
-Dan
08.11.02 / The Fat Cat / 7:00 / I Am Disaster, Another Tomorrow, Lost Inside A Rubix Cube, more
On day three of our action packed August weekend, we were hooked up by I Am Disaster and Lost Inside a Rubix Cube with a fun filled Fat Cat show, although we were never given tickets, and therefore didn't sell any. I don't think Scott, the guy who ran it, liked that very much. But we played pretty good, although we were all too tired to fully enjoy it. Kevin played without toms, because someone left his rack piece in the basement. But mad props went out to the Disaster and Rubix Cube kids for hooking us up.
-Dan
08.10.02 / Sad Cafe, NH / 8:00 / Scattered, Hold Everything, Low-Five, Dow Jones and the Industrials
Our friend Chris McCrimmons drove down with us to New Hampshire, and we used a lot of Scattered's stuff to save space. And despite the small crowd, we got a big show of support from the other bands (except Dow Jones, who didn't show up at all), and a live recording out of the deal. It was day two in a hard rocking weekend, and we were loving it.
-Dan
08.09.02 / 204 East Street (Kev's annual backyard show) / 4:00 / The Eleventh Hour, I Am Disaster, Lost Inside A Rubix Cube, Declined By Ryan, Rotten Fun, Scattered, No Intention, Another Lecture
Kev's second annual backyard show. Lots of fun, and we had a functioning BBQ this time. We ran short on time though, and had a few problems with local police. Scattered and ourselves played at the end, and were forced to cut our set down, to five songs between us. But we spent the day having fun, and seeing some really good bands we hadn't seen in quite a while, like Declined By Ryan and No Intention. The night's best moment: in an odd bit of irony, the cops showed up to tell us to turn the music down as No Intention was finishing up playing "Youth Vs. the Town," a western Mass classic about that very problem.
-Dan
08.02.02 / Monson Pavillion / 7:00 / Landis, Another Lecture, Left Out, Three Miles Back, more
This show was amazing. Greg was off at church camp in Rhode Island, playing capture the flag with a bunch of 2nd graders, and we were off playing in Monson, with the help of Bill from Scattered filling in on rhythm guitar. The crowd was amazing. The kids made this one, not us. Everyone was going nuts, jumping around, singing along, and just having an all around good time. There's nothing more satisfying than holding out the microphone during "Nice Guys Sleep Alone," and hearing a bunch of kids yelling the chorus into it. Most fun I'd had in a long time.
-Dan
07.20.02 / Monson Pavillion / 6:30 / Scattered, Another Lecture, Proven Authority, Murdock, Original Copy
This was a fun show. We played last, and it was a delayed performance because Tony from the Skeptics, in his attempt to leave, backed their tour van into mine, and punched in the driver's side door and shattered the windshield. We were all rather amused by this, but I had to take care of all the glass and stuff to make sure I could drive home. I drove that thing around for a while with no driver's side window and an indented door, but it was pretty funny. I had a lot of fun hanging out at this show, especially me and Matt's attempts to put a Sixfinger sticker onto Jess from Scattered's car without him noticing. It was messy, but it was good times.
-Dan
07.19.02 / Flywheel / 7:00 / Scattered, Proven Authority, Murdock, The Skeptics
This was another fairly boring Flywheel show. We played second, a little better reception, but not by much.
-Dan
07.12.02 / Cornerstone / 6:00 / Stricken, Scattered, Waterpistol, Lost Inside A Rubix Cube, Racing Daylight, Capgun Heroes, The Happiest Day
It was better than the night's before, aside from the fact that my camera got stolen. We closed because Matt wrongly blamed us for both Pennsylvania bands showing up when he thought they weren't, so he gave them our spot. Either way, it worked out, and we had fun. Waterpistol was amazing. This is all that needs to be said about this one.
-Dan
07.11.02 / Monson Teen Center / 6:00 / Proven Authority, Another Lecture (In honor of Chris the little man's birthday)
Ouch. This show fucking blew. We played without Greg, and it was horrid. Gibbs forgot half the songs and it was totally off, plus it all sounded naked without Greg. It wasn't the same, being out front by myself. We played first, followed by Proven Authority (good band, awesome kids). We had to skip out early, so we missed Another Lecture. But we were emabarassed, and prayed that the following night's show would be much, much better.
-Dan
06.28.02 / Marconi Club / 7:00 / Stinkbomb, Left Out, Eleventh Hour, Minus A Map
As with most Marconi shows, Left Out opened. Stinkbomb took the stage soon after, coming back from a short "hiatus" with a few new tunes and a very missed performance. Most of the night, the 6F crew was debating and arguing whether or not Dan Gibbs should make his debut on bass. You all know Dan was more than for the idea, but Jim and I remained skeptical. But after some practicing in the parking lot we came to a compromise. After we played our last two songs ever as a four-piece, Gibbs joined us and we were now an official five-piece band. Dan proceeded to go crazy with his new found freedom, maybe a little too crazy, but all in all I was pleased by our performance, especially "16 And Counting." We closed with that, and everything just seemed to come together so well. The Eleventh Hour closed out the night, and kicked ass as usual. It took some convincing, but I got Jamie to cave in and play "Simple Plan" for me, they even let me sing it. It was the best time I had in a long time, the song and its words just mean so much to me. I was rather pleased with my minutes at the mic, my life had reached its pinnacle (well, at least the biggest pinnacle since that I night I got Kevin's sister in the sack). That moment will stick out in my mind. It was good to have Gibbs, and all in all it was just another night of Marconi madness.
-Greg
06.21.02 / Marconi Club / 7:00 / Lost Inside A Rubix Cube, Left Out, The Happiest Day, Scattered, I Am Disaster, Room 237
We were offered this show the night before, so it was an interesting treat playing two shows in one weekend. Following in the precedent established by the traditional Marconi show, Left Out opened the festivities. Room 237 amazed people as usual with their unbelievable ability to be really good at music none of them listen to. Bill from Scattered let them use his equipment, and they all showed their appreciation by writing on their arms so that, when read from left to right, the three members in the front collectively spelled out "Bill Fucking Knaus." This was my first time seeing LIARC, who I thought were incredible (although I would later be dually amazed after seeing them play on July 12). The Happiest Day soothed crowds with sing-a-long accoustic songs, including Dashboard covers and the always popular "Sex In The Gazebo" song (although, I later learned, morbidly enough, that the actual sex the song is named after took place in a graveyard. Eerie...). And I Am Disaster, conspiciously missing Matt Davis (who, I later learned from a girl at work, packed his bag and moved out, and hasn't been heard from since, Mike Sinkovich style) had three guitars. Anyway, it was more Marconi style mayhem for the books.
-Dan
06.20.02 / Cornerstone / 6:30 / Left Out, Original Copy, Scattered, Landis NJ, Overlook, Fake ID
Our last show as a four piece. But it was an awesome show, although we fell a litte out of tune. We rocked out, and so did the other bands. Left Out opened, and the amazing kids in Original Copy, who, at for fourteen year olds, impressed the hell out of me, came on and definitely did their thing. Landis, a band from New Jersey, came out, and they totally ruled. I definitely would have liked to have them back. But Fake ID, Boston's greatest, closed out the show and totally kicked ass. They also played one of the best (actually, the only good) Saves the Day covers I've ever heard ("Please, please, please Mr. Hox!). But yeah, it was definitely an awesome night and it went down in the books.
-Dan
06.07.02 / Flywheel / 5:30 / Infamous Jake, The Grand Prixx, 5 Bucks, Blind Luck Music, The Skeptics, Big D And The Kids Table
This show sucked. We played dead first for like 15 kids. We didn't know anybody there, and no one knew or liked us. We left early, and we went home and slept.
-Dan
05.31.02 / Cornerstone / 6:30 / Scattered (Record Release Party), Left Out, Sonny, The Skeptics
Scattered's record release party. Well, it was definitely more of a show than a party, although it was all fun. Although they didn't even grow the balls to headline their own release show, they used the answering machine sample from their CD to kick off with "Nobody Else" complete with Bill Knaussian harmonies to boot. Everyone bought a Scattered record, except me, cuz I had had my copy for over a month at that point. The Skeptics closed out humbly for a significantly smaller group of kids, but were very cool about it, and invited us to play with Big D the following Friday at the Flywheel. We played one of our better shows in a while, and experimented with tuning to E Flat, a trend we've continued to this day...
-Dan
05.24.02 / Monson Teen Center / 7:00 / This Side Down, Another Lecture, Never The Heroes, Original Copy
This was an interesting show. A lot of younger school bands on this one. Not a bad crew though. We played with our young pals in Original Copy for the first time here, and when we did get on stage, we were rocking out like we hadn't in a long time. Unfortunately, some piece of shit decided to set off a fire extinguisher, and the room filled with whatever it is they put in fire extinguishers. Our set got cut short, and we were pissed.
-Dan
05.17.02 / Monson Teen Center / 7:00 / Third Season, Scattered, Skarmy Of Darkness
Dan Gibbs (our new bassist in training) came with us to this show, and spent most of the time behind the video camera screwing around with us. Monson has always been one of our favorite places to hang out. I tend to have the most fun there, because it's so low pressure and it's a very accepting atmosphere. Between random ball-tagging and "credit card swiping," the Scattered boys and ourselves managed to get our sets in and play halfway decent shows. Skarmy of Darkness showed up near the end, just in time to close out, minus about half their lineup, but as always with Skarmy, it was all about having fun, and everyone who stayed around did. Such is the way of Monson, and such it will always be.
-Dan
05.10.02 / Marconi Club / 6:00 / Left Out, Playback, Scattered, Eleventh Hour, Minus A Map, Stinkbomb
This show, although pretty well packed with decent bands, seemed to drear on. The nu-metal cover band Playback opened, with a singer who really did sound just like that guy from System Of A Down. Left Out was there, and Stinkbomb played minus their bass player. The Eleventh Hour played before Scattered and ourselves. They had the biggest crowd, by far. A lot of kids left after they played, but we went on. Anyway, I believe this was the night that Scattered had played two shows... they played well of course, but they seemed a little tired. This set the stage for us to close. A lot of kids came back in, and donning wirelesses, we totally had tons of fun and just rocked the place out, going nuts and jumping into the crowd to play, as members of the crowd grabbed the microphone and began to sing along to the point where Jim and I didn't even have to anymore. It was probably the most fun I had ever had a show at that point. It was also our first time playing "Sixteen And Counting" live, and I was very impressed with it. I think a lot of people were.
-Dan
04.26.02 / Monson Teen Center / 6:00 / Stricken, Scattered, Honkey Dorey
Monson shows ruled. I don't remember very much from the actual show here, but I do remember having fun hanging out with .
04.06.02 / Marconi Club / 7:00 / Left Out, Scattered, Stinkbomb, Eleventh Hour
So this was a brand new venue. I had been here for sweet sixteen parties and the like before, but I never thought this would be a place that'd let us have shows. Anyway, it was a nice refreshment from the Cornerstone and the Teen Center. We were... second, if I remember right. Definitely a decent all around performance with minimal screw-ups on all our parts. Having a fourth guy on stage really added some presence and gave it all a new feel. Playing out was fresh and fun again, and it wasn't as boring to watch having a member that wasn't tied to a microphone. The PA died during Scattered's set, because one of the members of Left Out left something on top of the unit's vent, so the air couldn't get out, and the thing overheated. Bill and Dave proceeded to kill time by playing covers of everything from Linkin Park to Puff Daddy. It was rather amusing to watch. The Eleventh Hour closed things up and tore the place up like no one I've seen in a long time. A good way to end the night.
-Dan
03.16.02 / Monson Teen Center / 6:00 / The Disposables, Scattered, Atreyu's Last Words
Okay, we showed up late for this one, but it's because we were practicing with Greg (this was his first show). So we missed the Disposables. I apologized during our set, because I like to be known for supporting other bands and watching, and the Disposables were a new band on the scene. I wanted to see them. But we didn't. Anyway, we played, a little bit better on the stage presence, but rather poorly on the music (Greg had a little ways to go before he knew all the stuff). Scattered blew us away as usual, but the four-fingered Sixfinger was definitely a wholer, fuller sound and feel. It was a milestone for the books.
-Dan
03.08.02 / Minnechaug Regional High School / 7:00 / Scattered, Honkey Dorey
Man, we had some fun with this one. Dead Legend was also scheduled to play this one, but backed out saying, "We're like 40 percent better than all those bands anyway." Gotta love it. So, we all made t-shirts with different expressions on them all focusing on bashing our new favorite band, DAD Legend. We wear them occasionally at shows. We were also reunited with good friends, Honkey Dorey. Kevin, the guitarist in their band is a nut. He did all these weird techno moves while dancing along with all the bands' music. Funny kid. During our set, everything that could go wrong with my drum set pretty much did. That all caused quite the delay, but we finished strong. We also met a lot of new people and made a lot of new fans. This show also started the short-lived trend of going to Friendly's and blowing all our money on food after shows. It was always fun though, just kinda expensive.
-Kevin
02.15.02 / Cornerstone / 6:00 / I Am Disaster, Stinkbomb, Scattered, The Ska Band, The Wolverines, The Bazookas
Our second outing at the Cornerstone, and one of the last shows we did as a three piece. I don't specifically remember the order, or who went when, or what. But I just recall the night went very well for us. We hadn't played or even practiced in over a month, but we played a tight-as-hell set, and received an overwhelming amount of compliments from friends, fans, and band members alike. This was kind of like a shining moment for us, or for me anyway, as I felt like we were finally being accepted as a major part of the scene. In fact, this would be the only time any member of Stinkbomb would ever acknowledge our existence. We had watched our heroes in bands like Pointless and CJB so long before, we had fought our way up the ladder, and we were finally getting to that spot where they had always been. The show was more harmonious than the following Cornerstone show in March (we didn't play it), where I Am Disaster battled an angry group of hardcore kids from onstage as they ripped up their posters and cracked their CDs. During Stinkbomb's set, one of their guitarists left the stage and punched one of the hardcore kids hard in the face, then later dove into the crowd and swung his guitar around, splitting the skin on the side of one kid's head. No major injuries were incurred, but Samble and ourselves began to realize that we needed to have more control over what went on at these shows.
-Dan
01.18.02 / Cornerstone / 6:00 / I Am Disaster, Scattered, The Grand Prixx, Five Across The Eyes, Southdown
It occurred to me that with Bethesda, Foster Memorial, East church, Gabby's and most of the local rental halls no longer putting on shows anymore, someone was gonna have to go hardcore DIY and get something goin'. After a massive search, I came up with just one lead: The Cornerstone. I hooked up with Matt Samble of Scattered and we booked the first of many shows there for January 18th. This show was a huge success and a lot of fun. It gave a slight renaissance to the scene and a feeling that things were getting a little better. Our friends from Pittsfield, Southdown (RIP), came down and rocked out. We played our cover of their song "Relationships" for them and they couldn't believe that we actually liked that song. Another good show for the books.
-Kevin
01.11.02 / Monson Teen Center / 7:00 / Atreyu's Last Words, Anavrin, Scattered
This was the first time we had played at the Teen Center since the "Flat Broke" release show. Anyone who had gone would readily tell you that show was really bad. We drove there expecting pretty much the same thing. We arrived in awe. Much to our surprise, there was upwards of 60 kids there. Ah, the power of Scattered. Well this show went real well and we got a great crowd response. This show probably started the trend of Monson shows that we played in the future as we slowly gained a following out there.
-Kevin
09.29.01 / Cierpal Funeral Home Parking Lot (9/11 Benefit Show) / 5:00 / Fuzbuni, Harvard Yard, I Am Disaster, The Michael Barrit Project, Scattered, Theory, Pleasant, many more
My cousin ran this one. He's always been a pretty patriotic guy. Just recently got outta the Marines and all. Anyway, this show was pretty cool. When you get to a place and see that there's a giant air balloon jungle gym, you know you're gonna have a good time. After going nuts on that thing for awhile, we played a mediocre set for about 30 bystanders. I believe we opened, all good. Anyway, I Am Disaster definitely stole the show. They played in almost complete darkness, with the only light coming from those red string lights they always have. This was the second time I had seen them now, and they completely blew me away... again. Overall, the night raised over $1,000 for September 11th.
-Kevin
08.27.01 / MSC (Mass Skate Co.) / 9:00 / Five Across The Eyes, Scattered, "Ready To Cry"
This was our second MSC experience actually (we had driven up to see Scattered play there a couple weeks prior). The show began with "Ready To Cry," a joke emo band led by Rob Soucy (of Ready To Fight and Room 237 fame) that played our style of music better than we did. Between songs, Rob would say the same line ("This next song is about my girlfriend... she cheated on me with this guy named Dale from Cathedral"), and make it severely clear that it was a joke ("So I went home and cried, cuz I'm in an emo band, and that's what we do"), although the Wolverines formed not long after solely to crack on Rob for being in an emo band. This was also our first time playing with Five Across The Eyes, and I was introduced to one of the coolest kids in the Western Mass local scene, everyone's favorite Matt Spence. I sang a botched cover of NFG's "Better Off Dead" with Scattered (Samble told me later we'd play it again, and, understandably, never did), who played for a halfway decent crowd, considering it was MSC (come on, if you've ever been to MSC, you know what I'm talking about). We were stuck dead last, and played for three kids, Scattered, and their girlfriends. With nothing to lose, we played one of the most blatantly stupid and retarded shows of our career. But, oddly enough, we had fun doing it, although we have not returned to MSC since.
-Dan
08.11.01 / 204 East Street / 12:00 / Stinkbomb, I Am Disaster, Scattered, Honkey Dorey, Shirts Off In Advance, What The Hell Is..., Waffle Waffle, Waterpistol, The Ska Band, Skarmy Of Darkness
So this was my first experience with running or booking a show. Needless to say, I failed miserably, sort of. I overbooked the crap out of it, and the band time slots were pretty fucked, but all in all the end product turned out to be okay, even though I had a few people ready to chew my ass at the end of the night. The show was running anything but smoothly, getting to a start about 3 hours late, however, the bands still played, and that's all that really mattered. The show was decent and kind of dragged on a bit until night fell. Enter Skarmy of Darkness. Because of noise regulations in Springfield, these guys could only play two songs, but damn, these two songs rocked. They went completely nuts and had the biggest pit my backyard has ever seen. Someone jumped off my shed roof leaving a huge dent in it and Skarmy pretty much rendered my stage useless and guaranteed me months of repairs. But it was all definitely worth it. Burgers were grilled, sodas were drunk(drank?), music was played, fun was had.
-Kevin
07.25.01 / Backyard Show In Palmer / 6ish / Piss Shivas, What The Hell Is..., The Ska Band, Dead Skunx, Mouthwash
Crazy. That's all I can truly say about this one. The band name, "What the Hell Is..." is actually short for "What the Hell Is This Band Doing?", and for damn good reason. They are nuts, have no coherent sound and don't appear to even have any written songs pre-made. Straight-up ad-lib. It was funny as hell to watch, though. Backyard shows are always fun... Barbeque, outdoors, live music... it's just real chill. Anyway, we got stuck playing last at this one... or would have. But the cops showed up as we were about to set up. That's never any good. Needless to say, we didn't play. But it was a fun, enjoyable, and definitely unique experience to at least be there. Even though at the time, I would have told you to "fuck off" if you even spoke to me. I was pretty pissed that we didn't play. Regardless, we got to meet a lot of cool people as well. The band Mouthwash traveled all the way from London to play over here. The funny thing is, they didn't even have any shows booked prior to their arrival. They just slept at people's houses and played anything they could get. All around cool guys though. One of them asked us if we liked Blink 182. After we responded with a "no"(a fitting response considering the anti-Blink crowd around us), he replied in a heavy British accent, "Good, because they're a bunch of fucking gays." That was definitely hilarious. As for the BBQ, the franks were burnt to the core and fed to the dog.
-Kevin
05.25.01 / Westfield Womens' Club / 6:00 / Stinkbomb, Capuccino Jellybeans, Scattered, Dead Legend, The Grand Prixx
So the previous weekend's show was all fun and games, a little bit of warm-up. But this one thrust us back into the bigger scene with the bigger name bands we weren't quite ready to be playing with yet. We opened, and Dan Barrett from the Capuccino Jellybeans, in his never-ending coolness and support applauded us and helped us carry our equipment (what little we had then) in and out. Anyway, this was the first time Scattered (who I had been hanging out with at shows for months now) got to hear us. They looked a little disappointed, sympathetic maybe. Bill will tell you now that he "saw a band with potential," but, being the music critic that Bill Knaus is, he was probably shaking his head trying to resist the urge to gouge out his eardrums. Nice kids though, and they would go on to "take us under their wing," per say, and help us out with shows and the occasional Knaussian bit of wisdom. The Stinkbomb kids gave us funny looks and zero support (a trend that would continue to this day), except Paul who bullshitted me a little that we were "pretty good" (Jay Latorre, now of Left Out fame told me later that the conversation in the SB van on the way home was not in our favor). Dad Legend showed up late, in true rock star fashion, forcing Matt Samble (running shows even back then) to rearrange his whole plan for them. We gave them their box of cords back, and received a mumbled "thanks" and a quick cold shoulder. We should have kept their fucking input cords. Their dad would've just bought them more anyway. But, in conclusion, we knew we needed work. This show, though we didn't really know it at the time, would foreshadow our future relations with all the bands that we played with that night.
-Dan
05.19.01 / Monson Teen Center / 6:30 / Dead Legend, The Accidents, Ready To Fight
After months of practicing and getting our shit together, we started playing out again after recording "Do You Have Duct Tape?" and appearing on the compilation "Flat Broke." The "Flat Broke" release show was at the Monson Teen Center, and we were invited to play last minute. We showed up, and considering the songs we had at the time, played a pretty decent set (much better than we did in January, anyway). I distinctly remember playing "Heidi" for the first time, and forgetting the words, since we had written the entire song that morning at Kevin's dad's house. This was our first encounter with Dead/Dad Legend, who sat drearily during our whole set and then asked me after we played if I was in the band that just played (to ask me to move my stuff, not to offer support). We found a box of their input cords after the show, which we definitely needed at the time, but opted to hold onto it and return it to them next time we saw them. The Accidents (led by Chris Greenwood, now of Happiest Day fame), played a rather long, keyboard-filled set of Sex Pistols covers and songs about fast food. Ready To Fight played minus their singer, and were by far the best band that played that night. Although the Capuccino Jellybeans, who had originally been scheduled to play had to cancel, "Flat Broke" sold a shit load of copies and gained us a little extra publicity, which never hurts a starving band.
-Dan
01.06.01 / East Church / 6:30 / No Intention, Skarred Shrub, Frick, Pointless, The Grand Prixx
We weren't ready for this. We all knew it, but didn't really care. I'd say it's safe to call this our first real "show". We were just a 3-piece then consisting of myself, Jim and Dan. Our friend Jon Rueli of the now dead band, Skarred Shrub, had went and booked the neighborhood church's rental hall for a show. So we all decided to help out with running it and in turn, we were granted permission to play. We opened of course, playing a set that consisted of three and a half songs (not including our punk cover of "Mary Had A Little Lamb" and "Happy Birthday") and lasted a whopping half hour, although I'm sure it must have seemed like hours to anyone listening. To be quite honest, this show, despite our humiliating and dreadful performance, stands out as my favorite in the history of any show I've ever attended in WMA. Just look at the line-up. All it would have needed was a little CJB and you've got yourself an easy top fiver on most anyone's list. What stands out most in my mind, was the crowd, Pointless, and the crowd during Pointless. They were definitely a band that was hard not to like. This show, more than any other, was the one that makes me pick up a drumstick everyday and practice for three hours. This show is my sole motivation for almost anything I do in this band. The day we play a set like that, and have 300 people jumping up and down, chanting our lyrics, fists in the air...I will be able to die a very happy and fulfilled individual.
-Kevin