Show Day -
Raining
Up at 11 - shower and get packed. Rod, Dave B., Jenn and Seka arrive full of stories. Weird locals - incest capital of the US supposedly; Rod said three quarters of the guys on campus wear dresses - the quiet is over - Rod and Dave are back. We pack the van and say goodbye to Jenn and Seka and go to "Tiffany Diner" for food then set off for Binghamton.
Rod and Dave had spent their time at Bennington College.
Stop at a dingy store along the way and pick up fuses. The interior lights work now and for the first time the cruise control works! Dan drives the rest of the way. Not in too much hurry to get there and deal with 'LZ' the promoter. We arrive in town and stop at music store to buy strings and get directions to "Peabody's" - we passed by it two blocks ago.
Back to club. The other band has loaded in - 'The Reasonable Men'. Place is totally brick and tile - shitty sound. We hang out - PA is not set up and half of it is not here; it's about 6PM. We decide to not do a check and go eat. Back at 7:30 - not set up yet. The Reasonable Men had their gear up. We hang out some more - a PA turns up and is set up. People start to arrive. Reasonable Men check. Up first is 'Iron Wombat' who open - a name Rodney came up with that I think 'LZ' told them to call themselves - really bad. Next a girl and an acoustic guitar and bad music. The place is really crowded by now. Reasonable Men play while I sleep in van. The sound is not bad from out here; they sound really commercial though - they have a keyboard player. I go in during last song. We are up after much confusion. they break down and we set up. The floor is covered with beer etc. We manage to get their shit off and our's set up. A crude sound check is made. Some drunk shithead introduced us. We play - crowd goes wild; sound is shitty - they don't care. We play well and they seem happy. Monitors cut out half way through the set but we play on.
Wombats. I love my comment about the sound. I think a large percentage of the opening bands we played with would have sounded better from the van outside!
Show over - everybody had a good time. We pack up and Dave gets paid. It seems confusion again. Conference in van and I wait around. We end up getting paid while loading out. Wind up with $750 - which is more than I expected though it still seems we got ripped. We don't make too much noise about it. We escape Binghamton and call Steve Grasse. Drive to Syracuse University. Arrive at 4:30 AM and crash on the floor. Play "Lost Horizon" tomorrow.
Posted by Dean at September 20, 1986 08:30 PM
i will attest that binghamton is definately full of inbreds -- actually most of upstate NY is. i rode the amtrak across upstate NY last summer and let me tell you, you see some very interesting things from the train tracks. it looks like not much has changed from what you described it.
and bennington college is full of hippies
I always enjoyed the time that I spent at Bennington College. During the time I was with Jennifer, I spent a good deal of my off tour time there. It was a real oasis for me. Touring and band stuff, by this time, had already made life fast and hectic (but fun, mind you). I have fond memories of the place and made some good friends there, including Matt, who later became a fellow conspirator and part of our traveling party/wrecking crew. I do remember there was a strong students vs. townies thing going on there, but it was more amusing than problematic.
