scott davidson used to be a dj for an 'underground' radio station called rebel radio. it was a show broadcast on a few stations in the sub 90 range on the FM dial. i believe we may have met him through tony suba of cyribiss (RIP). at one point we got him a copy of 'whats it worth' a long time ago and he played 'broken ties' a few times. me and rob were discussing last night that we thought he may have hooked us up with uncle snorkeys and john michaels back in the day. i know for a fact he got us a show at nite caps when we played there a few years ago.

well he called us a few weeks ago. hilger said he got home from work and saw a weird number in his caller id that said it was from some AM radio station. he called it back (this is hours later) and scott answered. he said he had another gig for us. this one he said was at a place called 'briskus'. he said he had a touring band from cininatti and he had no other punk acts he could ask to play the show with them. we had to take it as it sounded espcailly strange.

so hilger asked if we could book some bands. he said we could. i think he said to book 2 bands (it may have been 3). we were getting the usual runaround. the burbanks said they would play and we were working on some other leads. hilger called him like 4 days after the initial conversation to tell him we had 1 band so far. he tells hilger that he didnt want us to book any bands, that he already had! this guy is giving us bogus infomation now. he agreed that the burbanks could play, making it a 5 band night instead of 4. i wasnt looking forward to packing 5 bands into this place now. one night i cruised by it after work and peeped the place. i couldnt tell that much from the outside but thought it looked a little like memories but smaller.

well the night finally arrived. hilger got their first and called me from the club when i was on my way. he said that everything was legit. i got there 5 minutes later and loaded in real quick. the place looked pretty nice. first there was a little bar area then there was a whole 2nd room with a pool table and a bunch of tables and chairs. this area was stressing the resturant area. there was a pretty big PA and a nice stage area. some worked motioned me towards that room and i saw hilger and brought in my shit. i ran back outside (i was parked in the alley) and drove 1 block away to one of my work locations where i knew the parking was secure (it was at a preimum outside the bar).

i walked back and quickly met the sound man, bill. he said he worked for ranger sound. 'ranger mike', the owner, had done sound for the riverpalooza concert we recorded and released as 'RGHC -- LIVE!' which we released back in 1999. we found this guy was super cool. he was from franklin park and had worked some clubs around stone park as well so he knew about both of hilgers hoods. he went to leyden just like both of us and we were having a blast. then the problems began (although they kind of began the first time we were in contact with scott davidson weeks before techinically). he asked who the 2 bands we booked were. i explained the shit with scott and how we were only allowed to book 1! he said then that it was fine, there would only be 4 bands then. one was called 'input/output' who scott had told us about. they were set to go on first (though no band personell whatsoever besides me and hilger were currently present). then CDP, the band from cincinatti, was going on 2nd. then the burbanks, then we were 'headlining' per instructions from scott. i told bill that us and the burbanks would be using the same gear and how easy going i am. i promised to do whatever he told me to do. i mentioned that CDP was from out of town and he promised that he would kick them the fuck out if they gave him any shit! he said that he had done that before and he would again! he also predicted that they would bitch about all types of shit and want perfect sound which i agreed was bullshit. i told him how i used no effects and had the most basic rig you could imagine. he was shaking my hand every other sentance and i was excited.

soon after the burbanks arrived and so did rob. we loaded them in and then we started noticing the scene around this place. there was like a 60 year couple ordering food. this place was way too nice! there was a family replete with infant chowing down in the corner. this place is definately way more then a bar. it was a true resturant. people were sitting around eating soup and salads and shit! Bill then said that if input/output and CDP didnt show up in 15 minutes that it would just be the burbanks and us playing and thats it.

CDP showed up and they seemed nice. we exchanged cds and other misc merch and talked a little. they told me how they had stumbled into a gay bar in boys town the night before there was gay porn on on a big screen tv. the drummer espcailly was a nice dude and told about how he had scored his friend indirectly from his friend who was a junkie and hocked em from one person to another for years until he got em (they were a very nice red preimere kit and he played well enough).

backing up a little bit....right when rob arrived and i was loading him in, bill the sound man informed me of some wild news from the prick manager of the place. he said that if not enough people (not defined quantitatively) showed up the whole gig was canceled. i cant say i completely blame him though because like i said, there were people sitting down to eat in this place! i cant explain the scene in there really....its just beyond imagination. weve played alot of fucking shows and never had a situation like this before.

well cdp set up and sound checked. i was cringing. you have some old dude and his wife ordering appetizers and some kind of heavy metal guitar blaring from a marshall and a massive PA! i couldnt believe it! who had an agreement with this place? i guess they do have shows but i really dont know what the deal is. a little while later they started. they are the type of band that i feel has kind of a pointless singer. they were playing some abrasive straight forward, trudging punk rock with super fast thrash beats at times. their singer just kind of mumbled any kind of words or whatever. some chick who was a groupie of some sort and came with them walked up to me before their set and said 'just you wait until they start, these people arent going to want to eat then!' like that was a huge feat becasue this band was soooo crazy. you didnt need slayer to make these people leave. simple plan or some other gay band would have been plenty. i dont tone down my music for anyone and its a little hard to swallow if youre not into metal or punk rock. but im not the type of person that just tries to shock people for no reason. i get no thrill from fucking up these peoples dinner. im not sure if i would eat here, but ive eaten at places like it. and i didnt want any blaring music when im trying to talk to someone and eat in fucking peace!

they played about 5 songs. bill walked up to me just then and i knew it was all over. he said 'ive got good news and bad news'. i told him i wanted the bad news first. he said 'youre not playing tonite'. then i said, 'ok whats the good news'. -- 'theyre done in 5 minutes'. that wasnt very good news in respect to everything else but whatever. i was in total shock. i made the throat cutting sign to rob and everyone and rob laughed as he thought that i only meant their band was cut off. with CDP blaring at us i made a sign meaning, no -- you are included. his expression changed and i dejectedly walked out of the club to get my car. rob ran after me and walked with me to get his as well. i couldnt fucking believe it. one thing that pisses me off is that i feel like i didnt get to represent my shit. i met people and they saw me with guitars and i gave them cds and told them about myself and my band. but i dont get to prove it. i was getting ready to thrash everyone out of that club. i guess i would even take this show again if i could go back in time because although it was shady from the beginning and i had a bad feeling about it we might have actually gotten to play and that would be a hell of a story. i was telling hilger and the burbanks all i wanted to do was to play 1 song so i could get a picture of myself playing and id be happy. unforuntately i didnt even achieve that small goal. suffice to say we will not be dealing with scott davidson again. hopefully this show review comes up on someones google search for him, im sure it eventually will. let them read the facts and contact me for specifics if they need them. ive had shows canceled before and ive had shows where NO ONE showed up. but ive never not been allowed to play. oh well.

--satan165