Lifespan:1991-1992

Personnel:

• Rob - vocals, guitar
• John - guitar
• Chris - drums
• DS - bass (joined in '91)

High Point: playing at Lancaster, Pa's great Chameleon club.

Low Point: we had a gig at a local roadhouse, and managed to scare up a really big crowd for it. The opening band, "Strange As Angels" or something like that, absolutely blew us away. They looked like the New York Dolls and sounded like the Who. We followed them up there with our little amps and simple tunes, and sucked, out loud, for an hour, as a glazed look came into our friends' eyes.

Story: On the strength of my realizations in Guadeloupe, I'd decided not to return to college that year, and instead stay in an apartment owned by my parents and make money, hoping to go to music school the next year. I'd started taking jazz lessons, and though I wasn't learning much from my teacher, I'd practice his chord shapes and suggested tunes diligently while ignoring his suggestions to "write licks".

Still, I missed being onstage, and thought about joining a band. I ran into a bandmate from my old VBF days, and he said he had a band that was looking for a new bassist. The music was quite simple, inspired by Bruce Springsteen and the Alarm, but I liked the other fellows and was impressed by the fact that they'd already played out and had an article written about them in a local newspaper. We rehearsed regularly and I enjoyed writing basslines, taking a bit after Mike Mills of REM who'd focus on non-root notes a lot to give more interest to standard progressions.

We played out a lot, in Lancaster County and Harrisburg and Philadelphia, and recorded a decent demo. At one point, I bought a fretless bass and started having fun with that, though it was hard to make fit in that particular style of music. After our gig at the Chameleon Club in Lancaster, though, the clubowner told us that the songs were good but that our drummer and guitarist weren't up to snuff, and Rob and I agreed. I decided to take over on guitar, and we found an enthusiastic drummer and bassist in a short period of time, no small feat in rural PA. I was very excited at this point, and even was considering putting off music school to pursue the new band. But after a single rehearsal, Rob said that it didn't "feel right", and dropped the lineup. Though at the time I thought he was blowing a great opportunity, in retrospect, I'm very glad this happened. I think I'd have regretted putting off my own musical development to pursue a band that wasn't my own.