Alright, so since my rock star wannabe past is something of legend here thanks to many drunken After Hours conversations and our use of TV Japan as the DGR theme song, I figured I’d post up a couple pictures of what occurred last Friday evening. It was an event so huge, so monumental, that the very foundations of rock were shaken. Ok, not so much.
Out of pure coincidence, members of two of my former bands got together under the same roof for a night of drinks and nostalgia. I’ve discussed my first high school band, Teezer (yeah, we were metal), in the past. We played the local bowling alley, youth centers, and parties located in barns out in the middle of nowhere. Our vast repertoire consisted mainly of hair metal covers from popular bands of the day like Metallica, Motley Crue, and Poison. The bottom line is that like most high school garage bands, we were horrible, but we still got a bunch of little high school groupies (some of whom actually showed up the other night…strangely). Here’s a picture of us now, all old and with a lot less hair:
From left to right we’ve got Jay (singer), Scotty (bass), Kevin (guitar), Me (drums), and Nate (guitar).
After Scotty and I left Teezer, we started what would eventually become Stone Nowhere. The few of you who actually follow this sort of bullshit and pay attention to our ramblings know that Stone Nowhere is that band that I was in for almost a decade. Much of the music we put on DGR comes from that band, and Scotty has been the topic of many discussions, most notably the infamous After Hours episode that described his trademarked “Scream Puking”. The guitar player that went on to play with Stone Nowhere permanently was Jon Yeske, who’s appeared on a couple DGR episodes, but before we got him, we started the band with a guy named Jeff Sandbom. Scotty, Jeff, and myself would play together for nearly two years, auditioning dozens of singers before we found the guy who would be the permanent singer, John Massey.
So here’s a shot of Scotty, Me, and Jeff:
Being in a band is an interesting situation; especially when the band goes on for a number of years like these two did. No matter how good or bad you are (and believe me, we weren’t very good), you develop intimate relationships, and sometimes you part on bad terms. Last Friday was one of the best experiences I’ve had in years, simply because it allowed me to get together with a half-dozen people from my past who at one point or another were my closest friends. We may not have been great, and we did some embarrassingly stupid things, but God damn we had a great time doing them.
So thanks for humoring my little nostalgia trip here. If you’ve had similar experiences recently – either band-related or just reconnecting with old friends – I’d love to hear about them in the comments section
