April 2nd 2025
File Under: Life
I just had a memory that made me laugh. It was 1996 or maybe early 1997. We had recorded our demo, and it made its way out into the world here and there, eventually landing in the hands of John Szuch, who ran Deep Elm Records..
I got a call from John and he wanted to come out to see us play. We had just booked a show in San Fransisco, it was our first time going there. John said he’d be there, and we arranged to meet him and in fact, he’d let us crash in his hotel room.
Fast forward, day of the show… we arrived in the Mission District in white Ford Taurus pulling a UHAUL trailer. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to the Mission District in San Fransisco, but the vibe is dirty, busy, street to sidewalk to three story graffitied buildings, a broken window here and there. The place we pulled up to had a garage door that opened to the sidewalk, and a front door that opened to he corner of the block. There was an older woman there slumped over, asleep.
The garage door was open, and inside was the bar cement walls and floor of the garage, two sticks with PA speakers, a microphone, kids standing around as a band was taking their amps and guitars off stage. They had just finished.
The promoter of the show let us know that we had made it right on time. They had been worried that we were not going to make it. It was 1997… we didn’t have cell phones. In fact, to find the venue, we had bought a Rand McNally map of San Francisco, which was a book. I had an address on a piece of paper, and we looked at the map to try to guess where we were going. To be honest, I don’t remember how we did it. It’s crazy to think about now.
Within a minute of parking the car, we were busting open the trailer, grabbing our amps and instruments and setting up in the stage area. There was no actual stage… I probably don’t need to explain this…
John came up and introduced himself. He was very nice, very enthusiastic, and understanding that at the moment there was no time to talk.
We finished setting up our stuff, and then…
We put on suits.
Suits we had bought in a thrift store.
Mine had a greenish tinge to it, and I had also picked out a fedora to wear on my head. Ands that’s how we played that show. Honestly I am not sure why we did that. We played several shows right there at the beginning dressed like that. And what’s even more funny is that Louie (drummer) and I had both bought pipes and pipe tobacco during that time. That was just for us, not even as a performance gag. Just something to chill and relax with.
So, remembering that made me laugh.
the next day we had breakfast with John, and he asked us if we’d want to do some records with Deep Elm.
The whole thought of traveling to shows without a GPS seems insane these days. i sometimes think back to the days where I'd go see a band in another unknown city and never think twice about it. I'd drive to the city, stop at a gas station, buy a map and struggle to find the club. That all seems so stressful now, but now the anxiety comes from knowing too much and being able to over-plan. A part of me still thinks the older way was better for our souls.