It is customary at punk rock shows for the audience to only watch the bands they came to see or bands with their friends in them and to wait outside until those bands go on. An unknown band usually only gets about a minute or so for people to decide whether they are staying or going. Well- we broke the rule that night. A day before the show I found an old air organ in the trash and thought it would be fun to start the show off with it. So- the show began with me playing cheesy Danny Elfman-style stuff at the front of the stage. When I could see curiosity just start to turn into boredom or annoyance- I whipped out my trusty circular saw and shredded the thing to splinters while Johnny and Kevin beat tortured sound out of their guitars and Jeff whacked at the drums with an iron bar. Everything was going great until I severed the organ’s power cord and consequently became the earth- blowing out the entire building’s power supply. It is a miracle I didn’t get electrocuted. As we waited for the power to return Kevin attempted to entertain everyone with his typically vaudevillian humor. The show- once resumed- was a festival of destruction. Amps were voluntarily getting knocked over- percussion instruments were being thrown almost constantly- relentless feedback coming from every imaginable source- Jeff’s mic stand was flailing about- Johnny got hit with the sax- I got hit with a steel rod- and Kevin was writhing about on the ground. All this was set to a backdrop of our failing lighting setup (towards the end of the set we played in near pitch black-ness because of the bulbs sequentially blowing out due to shock vibration) and disturbing video display. It was a lot of fun to see all the various hard-looking punk people wince at our particularly upsetting and grisly video clips. Despite the major equipment repairs I had to make the next day- it was a good show. 

The main thing I remember about this show is that someone stole one of our speakers.  The major thing that I own in the band is the mixing board used for the drums and the two speakers and someone took one of them.  I'm sure it was one of the other fuckin bands that packed it up with their stuff and never fessed up to it later.    

- Jeff