I Did Shows, Sometimes.

If you hung out with me from late 1993 on, you probably heard me talking about how much I loved Mouthpiece from Trenton, NJ. I would travel all over the east coast to see them play and I couldn't even tell you how many times my friends and I drove out to Jersey to see them. Also, I, like many hardcore kids before me, realized that with a couple of phone calls and some elbow grease, you could set up a show for your favorite bands. My friend Jeff and I set out to do just that in January of 1995:


I had done shows before: most notably Unbroken and Undertow at the same venue (the Irish Center) the summer before and Jeff had been doing shows off and on in his home town of Hamburg, NY. We put our heads together and came up with this line up. Our bands: Plagued with Rage(mine)and Drought(his) would open, along with Scott from Slugfest's new band Despair (their second show)and heavyweights Chokehold and Mouthpiece would headline. I don't know if we knew what we were in for.

The show ran pretty smooth, with the turn out of 275 far exceeding what we had expected. Aside from some drunken Irish Center member punching a girl in "the pit," some hardcore girls offending older members by walking around in sports bras, someone "tagging" the bathroom walls (ahh, the 90's)and a light fixture being broken, the show was amazing.

I remember paying Chokehold $250 US and whatever Canadian money we collected at the door and they tried to GIVE SOME BACK, saying it was too much, but they were the reason a lot of kids were there (as 100 left after they played) and deserved it. I remember paying Mouthpiece $350 and having to pay the Irish Center extra for the broken fixture/ fixtures. Other than that, I can't remember what else we paid out. I watch this video now and see a lot of faces I still see and many I don't. Well, that and I see me, the biggest goofball in the world, enjoying the music he loves most. Thank you Mouthpiece and thank you Buffalo Hardcore.

(Thanks to ERICWENDYBRIAN on youtube for posting these videos, whoever you are.)