...18 years ago...

Wake at 10AM. Lee and I made eggs and toast etc.. All have breakfast. We do laundry and have late lunch. Back to apartment and load up. Drive to Long Beach - Fender's Ballroom. 4:30 - first band there - unload. Hang out and sound check. Other bands arrive. 'Meat Puppets', 'Red Hot Chili Peppers', 'Rasabrea'. Lee and friends arrive - we go eat.

This was probably the first gig we played that was promoted and put on by the Goldenvoice folks. This is also our first big show in California and as fans of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Meat Puppets, this was an exciting day.

Back - crowd arrives - first band on - poor. Us up - set was OK - good crowd response but they cut us down from 45 minutes to 30. My drum pedal broke on the third song. Borrowed the first band's pedal. Play OK set. 'Meat Puppets' up - sloppy. I like their records better. Opened with "Swimming Ground". Closed with "Good Golly Miss Molly".

I was a fan of the 'Pups' so I was excited to see be on the same bill with them. I remember sitting on stage left and watching Curt Kirkwood setting up his effects pedals for the show. He asked me to keep an eye on them and not let anyone mess up the cables. He seemed a bit 'out of it'...

Peppers up - tight. Cliff the drummer is great - I met him before the show - nice guy. They got boring after awhile. Sold T-shirts - 40 or so. All we have left are mediums. Leave about 1AM. Back to Lee's - to bed at 3AM.

I liked the Peppers back then. Unfortunately they spawned a whole genre of bad funky jammy bands. We played many a show over the years with local openers that got their inspiration from these guys. Years later during their 'Mother's Milk' tour, we opened for them on 6 or 7 East coast shows. Drummer Chad was quite friendly as was Flea. We never spoke with John Frusciante. He was always wanking off on the guitar (he's actually quite good) during sound checks for hours (we never got one - sound check that is). I believe the only words I heard from Anthony that week were something like "Thanks, bye" on the last night as we headed out of the venue. We did hang out with the opener though - 'Two Free Stooges'. This outfit included Zander Schloss on guitar, Dick Rude and Manny Chevrolet as singers, Pete Weiss on bass, and Bobby Shayer on drums. Zander usually dressed in a string tie and had this Colonel Sanders fixation. We saw him on our first tour when we played the Cabaret Metro in Chicago when we were surprised to see "That guy from Repo Man" playing bass for the 'Circle Jerks'. Bobby was a great drummer and we both shared an appreciation for the drumming of Clem Burke from 'Blondie'. He later joined 'Bad Religion' but now sadly cannot play drums anymore due to a shoulder injury. He occasionally writes for the excellent "Big TakeOver" magazine. A version of 'Two Free Stooges' would go on to appear in the movie "Roadside Prophets".