To Some Avail

The old register at Sit And Spin

 In 2000, I worked one day a week at Sit and Spin records on Transit Road in Depew, NY. The two friends of mine who owned it, worked other fulltime jobs and Friday was the day they couldn’t cover, so I would leave my overnight hotel job at 7, sleep a little (like literally 45 minutes) then either drive, get dropped off, or picked up and head there to ensure there was no lapse in the wares they offered. It was usually pretty slow until after the High Schools let out, when a few punks or hardcore kids would creep in and I would mostly spend my time listening to CDs that had been traded in, or new release promos.  I remember listening to the Rancid  Self-Titled album that I thought sucked, the one with the song where Lint sounds like Adam Sandler’s “Cajun Man” on the song “Antennas”.  I also remember listening to Leatherface and the No Justice demo (which later became their 7”) shortly after The Control played with them. But the one thing that sticks out is that Sit and Spin was the place where I fell in love with Avail.

on EVERY backpack circa '95

I had first heard Avail in the early-mid 90’s and, admittedly, I didn’t “get it.” My roommate Mark liked them, my friend Heather loved them and there was always an Avail patch, or shirt, at every show, it seemed,  from ’94 on. I’m not a fan of what’s called “southern rock” so without hearing more than like 2 minutes of what their recorded works had to offer,  I dismissed them as the “punk rock Lynyrd Skynyrd” and did my best to avoid them.  I was at shows they played as support in 95-96 but I didn’t pay attention.  In the spring of 1997, No Reason played a raucous show with Avail and Grade at the Rivoli in Toronto, and Beau was very cool to us and showed us his Ian Mackaye tattoo, but I spent their set outside.

No Reasonxx at the Toronto show we played with Avail. 

In 1999, I saw them again and thought,” huh, what a diverse group of people going wild for this band” but, as I was “super mister serious early 80’s hardcore thrash guy” at the time, them cracking jokes on stage and looking like they were having a good time was the antithesis of my attitude; that all changed a year later.

One day, while trying to stay awake at Sit and Spin (I didn’t have a key to lock the front door, so leaving to go get a coffee was not an option) I plopped a trade in copy of Dixie into the CD changer, and by the time it got to the song "25 Years," I was HOOKED. I listened to it the whole day. The Sit and Spin guys used to pay me in CD’s, so I took that and Avail: Live at the Bottom of the Hill as that week's payment. I was on my way into "Availdom," grabbed their back catalog, and although I wasn’t jazzed on the recording of Satiate, the versions on the live record were incredible and they went from being dismissed to being one of my favorite bands; even if the record they released a few weeks later, One Wrench, really didn’t seem up to snuff.

 My girlfriend at the time was HUGE into J Church, so it didn’t take much to convince her to take a quick roadtrip to see them with Avail in Pittsburgh on a weeknight in March of 2001. They were incredible that night and I bought a “vanarchy” shirt, which stayed with me until the week before I moved to CA in 2015, when I sold a huge lot of shirts that didn’t fit to my friend Alex (don’t worry, I still have HUNDREDS of band shirts). I did love that shirt though; it should have been one of the ones I held on to.

Front Porch Stories was a much better record and when they announced a Buffalo show in January 2003, I was pretty stoked, plus they were playing with The Curse from Philly, who were friends with my band. I went to the show even though I hadn’t been able to hear out of my left ear for 3 days (I saw a doctor later that week, a quick procedure and 90 days of recovery and it came back) and had a fucking GREAT time.  At the end of the show, Beau was going through one of those “hotel guides” that you used to be able to get at rest stops, looking for a cheap place to crash. I worked at a Days Inn at the time (you know, the one I used to leave at 7 am to go to Sit and Spin on Fridays) and told them I could give them two rooms for 25$ each, the employee rate, as I was going to work RIGHT after the gig.  They accepted and gave me a nice screen printed tour poster, which I have no idea where it went, as I moved three times from January 2003 to summer 2004.

I'm the "A" in AK press, looking like lurch, right behind the girl with immaculate make up. 

That Tuesday in 2003 was the last time I saw Avail, and my love for them has only grown. I listen to them constantly: hell, I even named my current band, Tuning, in part because of the Avail song by the same name. Two days ago they announced their first show in 12 years and a new online merch store. Even though I don't think I can Fly across the country again this year (I just went back east for 10 days in February) I can finally, after 4 years of not having one, get myself a shirt and revel in the memory of the path that lead me to loving one of my favorite bands.