Show Journal 1996-08-16
(Added Oct. 2001) – This was another show that Greg played for me. I do remember Dave telling me that it was really hot when they played.
Show Journal 1996-06-07
(Added Mar. 2002) – Greg played this show so I couldn’t tell you the first thing about it. I do recall Ghetto Blaster having a funny album where every member of the band was pictured behind the drum set.
Show Journal 1996-05-26
(Added Mar. 2002) – This is classic. The WE Festival was (maybe still is?) a big showcase with tons of bands, films, art, etc. We were offered a slot playing at a house that was supposedly going to have a big draw. Tons of unscheduled bands showed up and bullied there way onto the show and to we finally began to set up around 5 in the morning. 5 in the morning!!! So we are plugging in amps, setting up drums, and out of nowhere these kinda strung out looking tattooed dudes come over and ask if we can play with our equipment when we are done. It’s 5 in the morning, we still haven’t played yet, there are about 20 people left in the place and these guys want to play a set after us with our stuff? No fucking way. Bryan ended up telling them no and they wandered off upstairs. A friend comes over and informs us that the people we said no to were some of the guys from the band Buzzoven and that they are pissed. Great. The heaviest freaking band from NC is pissed at us. So we start to play and guess who comes back downstairs? The guys from Buzzoven sat in the back while we played and threw cans, pizza boxes and other crap at us for most of our set. Eventually they went upstairs and waited for us by our van. We finally finished playing and began to pack up all the while realizing we are a few short minutes away from getting our ass kicked by Buzzoven. Long story short, they didn’t actually do anything. They just mumbled under their breath and stared us down. Still it was a pretty tense load out with them right there. We were all a little bummed too because Buzzoven was a pretty big band and not only did they not like us … but they wanted to kick or asses too. Oh yeah, we loaded out in the daylight.
Show Journal 1996-04-27
(Added Oct. 2001) – This wasn’t really a show but more of an open mic night at a dorm. I recall lots of blank stares from a sitting audience mostly consisting of my friends.
Show Journal 1996-04-20
(Added Oct. 2001) – I couldn’t play this show because I was living at home in Chicago saving money and getting ready to move to Portland. Therefore this marked Greg’s first show as my fill in guitar player. I do know that Chapel Hill usually sucked for us to play in. I can only assume more of the same.
Show Journal 1996-04-05
(Added Mar. 2002) – We wrote a song about the show. Can anyone figure out which one it is?
Show Journal 1996-02-18
(Added Oct. 2001) – This was upstairs on a balcony in a clothing store. They didn’t pay us but instead gave us each $50 store credit! I bought shoes. Dave’s mom came to this show and Dave was careful to mumble the bad words. I also still recall that this store had the worst staircase ever. It was three stories high and straight up from the street. Each section was narrower than the one before it and eventually got so small that you couldn’t stand two people across. Dave permanently dented his shin on his bass amp outside this store while rolling it at high speeds.
Show Journal 1996-02-17
(Added Oct. 2001) – This was our first real road trip. We got this cool show booked in Dave’s hometown with some friends of his so we made plans to cruise up there. Bryan ended up having some issue where he couldn’t go so we found a local drummer named Daniel, taught him the songs on a Wednesday and drove up to play on Friday. This was the first show where we were an anonymous out of town band and it was so liberating to play where no one knows you. I still love that about playing out of town. All in all it was a great show … even with the borrowed drummer. A van was rented specifically for this trip. After using a real van once we bought our own van shortly after this trip. I also remember this was the first time I saw the Swank CD and I was so disappointed that I ended up smashing mine before even opening it. The artwork looked like total shit. Wrong font, bad pictures, lame design, it was just … bad. When I finally opened up another one I discovered that the pictures were really washed out and crappy looking. To top it off due to a poor DAT transfer the CD plays slower than the studio original. The whole thing sounds flat and slow because of it. God I was so pissed. I think I still am. Lesson to other bands … get proof copies of your artwork and recordings!
Show Journal 1996-01-19
(Added Oct. 2001) – Yep, our big CD release party. Too bad our CD’s weren’t ready on time like they were promised. We invited Railroad Earth from Wilmington to come play the show since they were really cool guys. I remember it being very cold as Paul and I sat in his car making hand written coupons to get a discount on our CD when it came out. The CD ended up being over a month late.
Show Journal 1995-12-08
(Added Mar. 2002) – Face First was headed by a friend of ours named Chet. They were this totally heavy thrash/hardcore band from Raleigh. Listening to their old demos it’s amazing how far ahead of the times they were. They were pulling heavy rap breakdowns long before it became popular. They kicked ass live so we played the fastest songs we could. It was all in vain compared to them. Even a GBH cover couldn’t save us. For some reason I remember playing Mortal Kombat for hours after the show with them.
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