Our First Time~Late '95~Back then it was called "The New Music Station"

I remember this. The guys from Dimestore Dracula "hooked us up". We had 7 songs written to play at this show, and also, our only cover song, ever, "come together" by the Beatles. We did a pretty good hardcore version of that back then...anyway- we knew Wake up in Flames, Disease (the first song we played), Aneurysm, Traffic, Haircut & Bloodwork, this tapping song we never named "...i think i'll pick me up some magazines and rope...", and grindrod (never to appear on an album). I can't remember how good we played. There were 10 or 20 people there, 60-70 when we finished. The only person in the crowd we knew was Larry Kennedy, and if he wasn't there, we would have played a huge wreck. I think Mark was 16. If i find any photos, i'll be sure to put them here.


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Peabodys Down Under, Cleveland, OH, Summary 1995-97

I don't recall 1 comfortable moment, except for when we finally got onstage. You see, If you play this club, (If you already have, you'll see my point) and there are 3 Bands on the bill, you will find that 6 more bands will show up, out of nowhere, so now you have 9. "Hmmmmm, if everyone plays for 25 minutes and we start at 7......" Anyway, it is a great place to play. Here's a good one. We booked the place for the night, IVET & THE JELLYBRICKS, for the release of our debut cd "failure boy". Doors open at 8, show starts at 10. We get there and find the place so packed you couldn't move, and we're like, "hey man, see, LOOK at this crowd we brought!" Well, no one told us the Insane Clown Posse was going to be there. They went on AT 10, til 12, and no one from our end was allowd in, tics were $15, and sold out. We have nothing against these guys, they were really nice to us, but it ruined everything. They had 4000 2 liters of orange pop. Figure out the rest.



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Longshot Pub, Akron, Friday Oct. 10, 1997

10:06pm
We arrive to a bar with garth brooks blazing through the room. We have just been informed that we will be the only performance for the night (Remember the Blues Bros. movie? Imagine that minus the chicken wire)...12:29-We've just finished our first set, setting an ivet record of playing 2 sets in one night. We have no money, or beer, and we're takin off to buffalo tomorrow. Well, the crowd of 20 was a blast, seriously, we all had a great time and played well.
Quote of the night "could've been worse" -Brady Niemczura
Music listened to on the way up & back- Scarface & the Trip Tape.
People in van (Might i remind you this is a minivan, with our equipment) Frank, Mike, Mark, Sam, Sam's Girl, Brady.
Set List: (as i remember it)
Tremere
Clean Cut
Ename
The Ultra New Song
Wake up in Flames
Boy
Spider
Disease-Set 2-
Open Wide
Tear it down & Bring it home
Might (as well)
Hand me down
Reign
Fondle
Stillborn


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Showplace Theater~Buffalo, NY~Saturday, Oct. 11, 1997 8:47
Dear Diary,
This place is huge. We're here early and there are 20-40 people waiting outside freezing. We love to play Buffalo, EVERYONE is so nice here, and there is at least a crowd of 100 everytime. It looks like a place you would go to see pipin or cats (my friend Larry does a good pipin guy) broken in and down by teens. This is a very fun place, we must come back. Oh yea, we played really well. This is how it should always be.
Quote of the night: "Damn" - (if you people only knew) Frank Silver, Mark Grabowski
People in van: Jim, Sam, Mike, Mark, Frank
Music up & Back: Scarface & some jazz stuff sam found on the radio
Set List: (as i remember it)
Tremere
Clean Cut
Ename
The Ultra New Song
Wake up in Flames
Boy
Spider
Disease
Open Wide
Tear it down & Bring it home
Might (as well)
Fondle
Stillborn

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Blind Mellons~Lockport, NY~Thursday, Oct. 23, 1997
I forgot to take a minute to minute diary for this one, so here it is as I remember it, and I remember it well. We left around 4, (thats pretty early for us) and got there at like 9. It usually doesn't take 5 hours to get to the Buffalo area, but i guess Lockport is a bit farther. Before we got there, we thought maybe we'd like to have a few beers, well... Let me tell you a little bit about NY law. First of all, they asked to see the id of everyone in the van, second, they said they can't accept out of state licences??! Come on- I'm now 21 and I can't buy beer? oh well, so anyway- This street we took to the club was the biggest coolest strip we've ever seen, it was like 224 x 10, but cleaner. Not so much cluttery, but nice and clean and spread out (looked like a Mike and Frank's perfect product). So we get there, and it's one of the cleanest clubs ever, not the best laid out for bands, but still nice. We were the first band. So.....Franks amp broke (his always breaks), but it was no big deal. We went on and did an hour or so, it was a great show. The people loosened up after a while, and really got into it. OK... Lemme get to the good stuff... so afterwards, we load up everything and were then informed that we had a pitcher of beer waiting at a table just for us (the way it should always be). There were these two biker looking gentlemen at our table. We welcomed them to hang out. They were really cool, nice guys. The bigger of the two looked like he was a bit toasty. He was shooting scotch after scotch, and the rest of us were standing around, relaxing and drinking our free beers. All of the sudden, next thing you know, all 250 pounds of this poor biker dude (slowly at first) slams head first into the wall, (picking up some intense momentum) onto this steel reinforced stair, rumbling the club enough to get the attention of everyone (including the band) And there he lay, passed out with his eyes OPEN. We thought he was dead! Frank ran over first, took his pulse and all, he was still alive. No one did anything for this guy, except for us and this nice old woman, until the ambulance got there. So, take it from us, don't drink more than 6 double scotches, no one will help you, unless we're there.
People in van: Sam, Mark, Mike, Frank
Music in van up & back: (Whatever record label Primus and Helmet are on)- sampler (Sam chucked it out the window), and some jazz stuff sam found on the radio.
Quote of the night: "That dude is dead" -Mark Grabowski, along with the rest of the people in the bar.
Set list: I can't remember.

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The Rat~KSU~Thursday, Nov. 6, 1997
We must have driven around campus for 1 hour or more looking for the back door of this damn building. We found the front, but to get to the back you must drive 6 miles around small spider web campus roads. We were late. The club was mid-sized, not too bad. We saw and spoke with a member of the late "package e". The crowd consisted of 5 or 6 dudes, and 30 or so fresh out of a formal dance (looked like prom night). It's one of those days, you know, when you can't really get a hold on things. It was one of those days for everyone in the band.
People in van: just us
Music up & back: Old Led Zeppelin cassette, dubbed from the real records, and some jazz stuff sam found on the radio.
Quote of the night: ""
Set list: odd

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Europe Gyro~KSU~Tuesday, Nov. 11, 1997
Dear Diary, forget that shit, listen- The night started out cool. Some of our fans (thanks again) from the previous KSU show decided to cook us dinner (If you would like to have us over for dinner when we're in YOUR town, please let us know right away) before the show. We even had a (not just a dessert) a choice of dessert! It was very nice. We headed out to the club with full tummies.
Ok, so we get there. The place had no stage, and it was the size of my bedroom. You know, places like this you'll find often, and you know what? They're not bad at all. We were treated perfectly by the bar. Free pizza, draft beer, and they even threw in some steak fries at the end of the night. A sincere ivet salute to the Europe Gyro. Thanks to Dan from ny surfgirl for taking care of the PA.
I was happy with the set we played. Look, i'm gonna warn everyone now. Don't go around starting fights, we've got dogs. and one crazy motherfucker.
People in van: Sam, Frank, Mark, Mike, Vinnie
Music up & back: PE, Easy, Lords of Acid.
Quote of the night: "We're pressing full charges" -the other band
For details, email us
Set List: a damn good one.

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Jammers West~Colombus, OH~Friday, Nov. 14, 1997
Dear Diary, First we had to drive to Cleveland to get jim, then we were off to Colombus. The traffic going in to Cleveland at 6:00 on Friday is something you want to stay away from. I think we all realized that day that we need to work harder for some reason. (We had a bitch slappin' on the way down) When we got there, they told us we needed to get onstage now. The club was really nice. It had a very non-stank quality to it. So... We start bringing our stuff onstage, and what do we find? A huge Bon Jovi "rockstar special" drum set that takes up the whole stage, covered up like at a concert. "Set up in front, it's the way they do things here" (which we soon found out was bullshit). Doing this, on a small small stage, you:
1. Piss off the soundman
2. Piss off the soundman
3. Piss off the other band(s)
4. Make the other band(s) look stupid
5. Make yourselves look like rockstar idiots
6. Piss off the manager(s) / promoter
Let me now give you all advice (if you're in a band, this applies to you): Don't make enemies with other bands. Have courtesy. We don't like to cause trouble or fights, we're actually nice guys. We like to meet new people and new bands. That is what this whole thing is about. Our apology goes out to the other band, for expressing our opinion, but next time, have some common sense.
People in van there: Sam, Jim, Frank, Mike
People in van back: Sam, Mike, Jim
Music up & back: Some bullshit jim brought that Sam thought was Hall & Oats.
Quote of the night: "I'll kick his ass FOR you." -Sam Papa
For details, email us
If you disagree with our opinion, email us
Set List: tremere, eneme, tear it down & bring it home, fondle, boy, stillborn
(we were cut off after 25 minutes)

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Cedars~Youngstown, OH~Friday, Nov. 21, 1997
Dear Diary,
It's been a long time since the last Cedars show. It's always a blast because it is our "home" club, and all of our high school friends come to see us. We've built up quite a fan thingy now, I am very surprised! It is my estimation that there were 300+ jammed in this small room. It's a nice place to play, it's actually a classic place to play, everyone's been there. It sounds good, but it's a little underpowered. I was the first one there, so I hung out, changed my strings and all, and here comes this drunk guy walking over to my table. "Here, man, lemme show you this trick on guitar here.." like I want this big drunk guy holding my guitar. "I was in this accident, you see, this here, I was in the hospital and they..." please, give me my guitar back. So ten minutes later, the same dude comes up to me, "How you doin, there, hey man, I'm the guitar player for the doors"
Anyway, this was one of the shows you don't have everyday. This one got off the ground. It goes in the books as the most fun we've had. period. From now on, we're going to try to make every show like this. Thanks to Sam's girl for bringing along those cool candles. Thanks to our friends, thank you, for your support.
People in van there: Sam, Mark, Frank, Mike
People in van back: Mark, Frank, Mike, Shelly, Glyn
Music up & back: none
Set List: all of it.

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Odeon~Cleveland Flats, OH~Thursday, Dec. 4, 1997
Deftones, Disengage
Dear Diary,
Playing at the odeon is like being a rock star. It is alot easier to play when you get a thorough professional soundcheck. It sounded great up on stage. It wasn't loud up there at all, but you could hear everything. You can feel the front PA tearing people's heads off from the stage. We can't wait to play another show there.
The day started early (we left at 3) and as soon as we got there, we tuned and maintained our instruments. I think everyone needed a beer, so we took a few from the deftones cooler (only 2). We pissed them off, but I think they could afford it. We then proceeded to a restaurant. We told the waitress that it was Mark's birthday, so a bunch of girls signed a shirt and gave it to him. Mark's birthday is on Christmas day, so during December we try to make it fun for him since he has to wait all year for presents and money. Anyway, we went back to the club at exactly 7. We were to play for 30 minutes and leave directly after to just make our other show (11pm) at Thiel College. We went on around 7:30, there were a few hundred people there, and halfway through the set, I looked up, and there was the sold out crowd. Picture it in your head, I don't have to say any more. Our tuner was stolen. Thanks to Pat the Producer, the soundman, and the club for the wonderful time.
People in van there: Sam, Mark, Frank, Mike, Vinnie
People in van back: Mark, Frank, Mike, Vinnie Music up & back: Radio
Quote of the night: "I'm 40 years old, I don't care what you call me" -Jim Benson (our manager)
For details, email us
Set List: tremere, eneme, fondle, tear it down & bring it home, Clean Cut, boy, stillborn

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Thiel College~PA~Thursday, Dec. 4, 1997
Dear Diary,
Just finishing a kickass show and leaving right away for another sucks, but it's worth it. We finally got there after 3 hours, just in time to play. The show took place in this college hall (with police, no drinking, or smoking). We were exhausted. I can't wait to be famous so people will carry our shit for us. (thanks to the guys who helped us carry our shit) Yea, so playing at this college was large. I hope they have us back. We even got free pizza and orange pop! Jeremy from lirk rules.
People in van there: Mark, Frank, Mike, Vinnie
People in van back: Mark, Frank, Mike, Vinnie
Music up & back: can't remember
Quote of the night: "I'm 40 years old, I don't care what you call me" -Jim Benson (our manager)
For details, email us
Set List: all-powerful

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Cedars~Youngstown, OH~Friday, Dec. 26, 1997



moorehead
Quotes of the night: too many
For details, email us
Set List: every song we know. (including aneurysm)