My 15 Minutes - Redux
Whoa. When I wrote this self-pity post a few days ago, I actually forgot to mention the one time that had the house mic held in front of my mouth for a full 4 seconds by a fairly well-known metal band to help them out with the chorus. That ruled.
The date: December 22, 1998. The venue: Mama Kin Music Hall in Boston. It's not there anymore with that name, but it was a music venue on lively Lansdowne Street that was owned by Aerosmith. Oh, Aerosmith sucks, by the way.
The band I "sang" with...these guys.
I ended up going to the show with my friend Borr and another friend's wife, L. Get your frigging minds out of Desperate Housewives land, people! It wasn't like that.
Anyway, before the show, we went to grab a beer and a bite to eat at a pretty cool joint down those parts. Their Dreaded Green Monster chicken sandwich is the bomb. Anyway, we were eating our food, when I looked up and noticed that three members of the band we were going to see was in a table across the aisle from us. I mentioned it to Borr and L., but of course, we two guys were too chickenshit to do anything about it. So, we pressured L. to go over to their table (after they were done eating, of course) to chat with them and to report to them that Borr and I were tremendously big fans of theirs and that they should welcome us to their table to share their company with as much exuberiance as if we were two beautiful buxom blondes with fantastic breasts, instead of being two weirdo guys with questionable hairstyles and man-boobs.
Anyway, L. goes over and ends up sitting at the table with Scott, Frank, and a guy named Paul Crook who I didn't know at the time, but was a fill-in guitar player (and quite good, I might add). She chats and chats and me and Borr are sitting there, like the two guys at the strip club who are getting a freebie eye-show because the guy at the table next to them just dropped a hunny for a dance. Not that I'd know anything about that.
Anyway, me and Borr are sitting there, giving their table the raised-eyebrows waiting for the ol' "come on over" look. Guess what? It doesn't happen. Judas, I mean, L., comes back to the table with an autographed coaster and a (read: one) backstage pass for the show. Me and Borr are stuck there with our quesadillas in our hands and ask, "What about us?" to which this woman has the nerve to say, "You didn't come up."
Well, we left there and headed to the show and I resigned myself to the fact that my chance to be lifelong friends with two of the guys from Anthrax and one guy who I didn't know where out the window. And while this was true, what happened at the show was pretty cool.
We're at Mama Kin digging the 'thrax and they are putting on a kick-ass show as usual. When, toward the end of the show, the band launches into the song "Anti-Social", at which point, then-lead singer John Bush jumps down into the crowd and goes around to various people that he obviously wanted to be best friends with if he had the chance, and put the microphone in front of them while the chorus, which goes a little something like this: "You're anti-...you're anti-social!", is screamed at ridiculously high volumes.
So, I'm acting like a total idiot at this show, banging my head (I was unable to turn my neck for 6 days after the show....remember the Brady Bunch episode where Mrs. Brady gets in the fender bender and the guy she hit sued her and took her to court and he wore a neck collar and was obviously faking when Mr. Brady decided to test him and threw his briefcase on the floor of the court, causing the litigant to whirl his neck around painlessly, thus proving he was a fraud..well, that little "Murder She Wrote" thing wouldn't have worked with me), giving the "horns up" sign...all that stuff. Well, this must have made quite an impression on Mr. Bush as he seeked me out of a crowd of dozens and held the microphone in front of my face. Here's the best part...a bunch of metal lunkheads around me tried to grab the microphone for themselves. No, no, no, no, no. Mr. Bush wanted to hear Dim sing the song. He wrestled the mic from their studded leather glove wearing little hands and shoved it in my face. And there I was, singing over the Mama Kin PA "You're anti-...You're anti-social!!!" at the top of my lungs.
And I left a happy boy.
And no, we didn't let L. go to the backstage party.
Yes, you can have my autograph if you want.
One-time member of Anthrax,
- Dim.
The date: December 22, 1998. The venue: Mama Kin Music Hall in Boston. It's not there anymore with that name, but it was a music venue on lively Lansdowne Street that was owned by Aerosmith. Oh, Aerosmith sucks, by the way.
The band I "sang" with...these guys.
I ended up going to the show with my friend Borr and another friend's wife, L. Get your frigging minds out of Desperate Housewives land, people! It wasn't like that.
Anyway, before the show, we went to grab a beer and a bite to eat at a pretty cool joint down those parts. Their Dreaded Green Monster chicken sandwich is the bomb. Anyway, we were eating our food, when I looked up and noticed that three members of the band we were going to see was in a table across the aisle from us. I mentioned it to Borr and L., but of course, we two guys were too chickenshit to do anything about it. So, we pressured L. to go over to their table (after they were done eating, of course) to chat with them and to report to them that Borr and I were tremendously big fans of theirs and that they should welcome us to their table to share their company with as much exuberiance as if we were two beautiful buxom blondes with fantastic breasts, instead of being two weirdo guys with questionable hairstyles and man-boobs.
Anyway, L. goes over and ends up sitting at the table with Scott, Frank, and a guy named Paul Crook who I didn't know at the time, but was a fill-in guitar player (and quite good, I might add). She chats and chats and me and Borr are sitting there, like the two guys at the strip club who are getting a freebie eye-show because the guy at the table next to them just dropped a hunny for a dance. Not that I'd know anything about that.
Anyway, me and Borr are sitting there, giving their table the raised-eyebrows waiting for the ol' "come on over" look. Guess what? It doesn't happen. Judas, I mean, L., comes back to the table with an autographed coaster and a (read: one) backstage pass for the show. Me and Borr are stuck there with our quesadillas in our hands and ask, "What about us?" to which this woman has the nerve to say, "You didn't come up."
Well, we left there and headed to the show and I resigned myself to the fact that my chance to be lifelong friends with two of the guys from Anthrax and one guy who I didn't know where out the window. And while this was true, what happened at the show was pretty cool.
We're at Mama Kin digging the 'thrax and they are putting on a kick-ass show as usual. When, toward the end of the show, the band launches into the song "Anti-Social", at which point, then-lead singer John Bush jumps down into the crowd and goes around to various people that he obviously wanted to be best friends with if he had the chance, and put the microphone in front of them while the chorus, which goes a little something like this: "You're anti-...you're anti-social!", is screamed at ridiculously high volumes.
So, I'm acting like a total idiot at this show, banging my head (I was unable to turn my neck for 6 days after the show....remember the Brady Bunch episode where Mrs. Brady gets in the fender bender and the guy she hit sued her and took her to court and he wore a neck collar and was obviously faking when Mr. Brady decided to test him and threw his briefcase on the floor of the court, causing the litigant to whirl his neck around painlessly, thus proving he was a fraud..well, that little "Murder She Wrote" thing wouldn't have worked with me), giving the "horns up" sign...all that stuff. Well, this must have made quite an impression on Mr. Bush as he seeked me out of a crowd of dozens and held the microphone in front of my face. Here's the best part...a bunch of metal lunkheads around me tried to grab the microphone for themselves. No, no, no, no, no. Mr. Bush wanted to hear Dim sing the song. He wrestled the mic from their studded leather glove wearing little hands and shoved it in my face. And there I was, singing over the Mama Kin PA "You're anti-...You're anti-social!!!" at the top of my lungs.
And I left a happy boy.
And no, we didn't let L. go to the backstage party.
Yes, you can have my autograph if you want.
One-time member of Anthrax,
- Dim.
posted by Dim at 2/12/2006 04:59:00 PM
8 Comments:
Am I allowed to say I'm friends with a member of Anthrax? Because I will. Good stuff, Dim. I love your interesting stories.
Except, uh...did you quote a Brady Bunch episode? Seriously?
Hey, I grew up with the Brady Bunch! It's in my DNA.
And sure...for 4 whole seconds, I was a member of Anthrax. And it was more exhilirating than the year that I was in Tempest, the two years I was in Zen Yogurt, the couple of months that I was in Spork and the weeks that I was in Monkee's Uncle.
- D.
Very cool.
My only similar story was the time I got to go backstage at an Aeromsmith show.
But they suck, so who cares...
(I got the pass from Walter Yetnikoff!)
Steven Tyler was one hell of a cool guy.
I also went backstage at a Springsteen show but BRuce and Clarence weren't even there...so what was the point really? I did, however, get to meet PAt Reilly, the coach, which was a HUGE thrill.
I had my picture taken with him and then lost it drunk in a bar showing it to a friend...Oh well
I met Chuck D at a Public Enemy show last year. That also was a HUGE thrill as I put Chuck right up there with my other big heros.. Springsteen, Dylan, Scorsese, Tom Waits, LArry David, George Carlin, David Milch and Denis Franz (yes the fat actor)
So one down, 7 to go.
I saw Steven Tyler in a Thai food restaurant in MA quite a few years ago. He seemed very nice. Was on the phone an awful lot. Next day I found out they fired their manager. Old Aerosmith is still great, but they have done irrepairable harm with all of those soft power ballad movie themes they did. Ugh.
That's VERY cool about Chuck D. I'm a fan as well. Actually got to see them live with Anthrax back in the "Bring The Noise" days...what a great show that was.
I have had great experiences meeting some great musical artists. I hold a lot of them in extremely high regard as I am such a music fan and have gotten to meet (and chat...and even have some pictures with) Elliott Smith, Richard Thompson, Bob Mould, Grant Hart, Grant-Lee Phillips, Willy Porter, Kristin Hersh, John Doe, Neko Case, PJ Harvey, Josh Homme, Nick Oliveri, and Troy van Leeuwen (from Queens of the Stone Age), Twinemen (Dana Colley and Billy Conway from Morphine, Laurie Sargeant).
Still have a couple more that I am itching for: Ryan Adams, Jeff Tweedy, Mike Patton, and the dudes from Rush. Not giving a lot of hope into running into them, though.
- D.
Find yourself a local paper without a music reviewer... Start freelancing reviews and score some passes the next time Rush is around!
Also, Joe Perry was actually asked about all those power ballads in a NYC radio interview about a year ago.
The woman asked... "how do you feel about all of them"
He responded... "They pay really well"
LOL
I loved his honesty!
Jerry Van Dyke drove past me in a golf cart at Hersheypark one time. That's my only brush with celebrity. Rusty saw Lavar Burton at IKEA and the guy who played Geoffrey the butler on the Fresh Prince in London. I love your stories.
No brushings with the famous for me--except that one time I did see Brett Musberger (I have no clue if that's spelled right)at a baseball game. He was sitting one row down from me. One of my friends from school saw O.J. Simpson and Don King at the airport in November...
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