I took the summer of 2003 to design, design makes it sound
way more snooty and highfalutin than it really was, and work a light show for
one of my favorite bands, Dirt Bike Annie.
They had just released their second album and had asked me to come up
with a light show for their record release party. The light show went over pretty well and more
importantly they had liked it, so there was I in a white, extended van for 7
seven weeks. There was a worth while
story to tell on a daily basis but for some reason this one has been on my mind
more recently.
An early stop, that the band was excited for was in Waco,
Texas. We were playing a birthday show that a friend/fan of the band’s named
Andrew had put together for his girlfriend at the time’s (Melanie) birthday. It
was an all day affair and for a punk show, no expense was spared. Andrew had booked all of Melanie’s favorite
local bands, obviously Dirt Bike Annie and her favorite band The Bobbyteens. The Bobbyteens live in San Francisco. To fly a band out, cover their hotels and
meals for a one off show with no cover is equivalent to taking all of your
money out of the bank and lighting it on fire.
The fire idea might serve you better actually.
I met Andrew who was the nicest, sweetest guy you could
dream of. He radiated happiness that day
over everything coming together so perfectly.
The bands were all there. There
was a ton of food, with the grills being helmed by his mom and his
brothers. There were cases upon cases of
beer. The weather was idyllic. There were hundreds of people there
celebrating his girlfriend. Melanie seemed on cloud nine. The entire day was going along
perfectly. Andrew’s family was also
celebrating one of his brothers coming home from prison.
The venue was a clubhouse of sorts in the middle of a park
in Waco. It must have been used in a similar manner to that of an Elk Lodge,
for meetings or small conventions. It
was far enough removed from any other building that you didn’t have to worry
about noise, which made it perfect for music.
There were 6-8 local bands who were scheduled to play before Dirt Bike
Annie and then it was one more local band followed by The Bobbyteens. We got to spend some time with the
Bobbyteens, who some of us were a little star struck by, as the music got
started. We spent the next several hours
drinking Lone Star, eating hot dogs, enjoying the company and the weather. By DIY tour standards you really can’t ask
for anything more.
The Dirt Bike Annie set was one of the best of tour. The entire clubhouse was packed and crowd was
going nuts. Easily two hundred and fifty
people became incredibly sweaty and shouted for encore after encore. If the day had ended after their last song,
Waco wouldn’t have been anywhere nearly as memorable.
We started breaking down the gear and the lights so the next
band could get on. At this point it was
probably 8pm and people had shown up to the party around 1pm. Which means they had been comfortably
drinking for easily 6-7 hours. As the
next band started setting up, there was a large commotion outside. Apparently someone had hit someone else over
the head with a beer bottle. That first
someone was Andrew’s brother who had just been released from prison. The cops were immediately called. Andrew’s mother was in tears and she kept
repeating that she knew that his brother would ruin Andrew’s big day. In retrospect, that’s a lot more
heartbreaking than I realized it to be at time.
In my defense, we were all busy trying to figure out what to do about
the show. It had turned into a full on
crisis zone. The local band didn’t get
to play so the Bobbyteens could play. We
swamped out gear and got them set up as quickly as humanly possible. Everything seemed like it was going to work
out; well, except for the guy who got hit in the head and for Andrew’s
brother.
The Bobbyteens hit the stage and started their set. Their songs aren’t very long, maybe a minute
and half to a two and a half minutes.
They got through three songs before the cops pulled up with multiple
cruisers. The cops quickly arrested the
brother and told everyone that they had to leave. Everyone and everything had to be outside of
the venue in the next twenty minutes because after 20 minutes they were locking
up and anything left inside would be kept as evidence. There was a mad dash of bodies making out the
door. We were like a slow salmon trying
to make it upstream carrying amplifiers and drums through the horde of
Wacoians, Wacoers?
After the dust settled, Andrew and Melanie decided that the
show must go on and it was moved to her apartment. About ten or so die hard
fans piled into cars as we all caravanned it over to Melanie’s place; remember
it’s 2003 and GPS wasn’t prevalent. DBA
set up all of their equipment and the Bobbyteens took the stage, by stage I
mean moved the coffee table to the side of the room and began playing. I don’t remember how long the set was but I
do remember thinking how something so incredible can come from something so
horrible. Here was a room full of people
all embracing this completely spontaneous moment, that no one could have
dreamed would be the nightcap to their day; and at the same time here was a
band that was flown in to play in front of hundreds of people to end their
night playing to 12-15 people in an apartment building. It was truly beautiful.
I’ve run into Andrew several times since then. He and Melanie broke up shortly after her
birthday show, which I always felt was sad.
I never got his take on how the whole day played out or what happened to
his brother. I know he was excited
about how the show was salvaged and that those who stuck it out got to experience
a once in a lifetime thing, but I was always curious if he could, would have
changed how it went?
