Jam Room

The first picture was taken after midnight at the kickoff party of our town's new film and music festival.

The next day of the festival, I saw some short films and the begining of a full-length movie before I had to go see the bands. My brother our cousin a girl drummer = The Cousins. They open. This was an incredibly awkward show because not too many people were out there, mostly just aunts, uncles, parents, a few friends, and some of the other bands that would be performing later. Plus it was daytime, in the parking lot of an art museum. During their performance, the coordinator of the event actually borrows the microphone to tell everyone out there to go inside and hear some out of town guest speakers. Well, thanks dude, just encourage our entire tiny crowd to go elsewhere, why doncha? But you have to forgive the guy, this was the first festival, and there weren't many people in attendance. He's a really awkward soft spoken redhead. You should've seen him start to sweat when he had to discuss money matters with the bands at the meeting beforehand. "Eh, like how much do you think you need to get paid?" He was obviously relieved when all the bands said it didn't matter too much about money. The Hooka (of The Wolves and The Mollies) said he'd be happy to do it for some cheeseburgers. When he first heard The Cousins, he was in total awe of their greatness. It's actually a common reaction among great musicians. He offered to record them, for no pay but maybe some cheeseburgers. That dude just loves him some cheeseburgers, what of it? So he took them under his wing. The Wolves and the Cousins have this fellowship going, they're each other's biggest fans. This makes me infinitely happy.

The Mollies played the festival, too. They used to be the greatest band ever, they are what made me start liking local music, they were going places, total celebrities, infallible. I remember back in the day when The Mollies in their prime would play a show every weekend, I would see them regularly, and over spring break one year they played like five shows and I missed every single one of them. It was heartbreaking. But lately, all the members got new bands and they're becoming a bit less glorious. On this occasion, it was only The Hooka on guitar, the adorable gay drummer, and a fill-in bassist with a dreadful case of stage fright. The original bassist quit the band quite a while back, and their second guitar player Nosveratu (a skinny, bald well-dressed fellow who dances about in very signature ways while he plays) had a broken hand at the time. It was too bright outside, and they were all too sober to play to their full potential. I watched my once favorite band play the worst show ever. It was devastating.

By the time The Wolves went on, the sun had gone down and they had boozed it up a decent amount. There were actually people standing up in front of the stage to watch them, which is a big deal. They were just great. After the show, everyone is still standing around the stage talking to the band and watching them pack up their instruments, like they're big time. Oh people love them, and why shouldn't they? So afterwards they invite The Cousins to their jam room, and since I'm riding with my brother, I get to come, too. It's extremely exciting, like you wouldn't even believe.

In the car, I change my shoes.The wingtips felt awkward, but I realize later when a saw a full picture of myself that it wasn't the shoes atall, it was the horrible shorts and altogether awful outfit. But my knee-high converse make me happy, and if I didn't mind at the time, then that's good. Everyone arrives and the Cousins help the Wolves carry in their equipment, I wait outside the door to stay out of the way. I would just die if I broke something of theirs. And then we all go into the room.

(Here's some unnecessary information. Oh, I could go on for pages.)
They share this jam room with a couple of other bands, including The Ivans. I love them, too. Their singer is a big fan of the Cousins ever since he saw them at their first show ever. He's a long time veteran to our music scene, one of the kids who grew up with our parents. The Ivans' bassist was the old bassist in the Mollies. On stage he always seemed like a big mean guy, all serious with a cigrit in his mouth, but he's actually an extremely friendly fellow. Now, The Hooka plays bass for the Wolves. He's an interesting character, I'd say. The Hooka's been in the music scene since he was but a boy, dabbling in punk, electro, surf, and rock bands as well as stage acting, indie films, and recently a tv commercial. A very prolific local celebrity to say the least. Drew is the guitar player. He's still got a couple of weeks before he turns 21, but he looks like he way past it. The Hooka is the old man, at 28 years of age. Okay, if you've ever seen the video for Sick Sick Sick by Queens Of The Stone Age, Josh Homme (the singer) reminds me of The Hooka a whole lot. It's probably a lot because he looks sweaty and tired, which is usually the condition he was in, playing with the Mollies, out in the humidity, drunk out of his mind. Drew, on the other hand, is said to imitate Homme's stage antics. I like to think they both share duty as front man of the band, since they both sing. The Hooka and Nosveratu also were co-front men, since the Mollies were an instrumental band. Of course, there was tension, and once they got into a fist fight, on stage, right in the middle their set. It was shocking to hear something so awful about my favorite band, but I kind wished I could have been there that night. That was quite a while back, anyway. Maybe even longer ago, I was in eighth grade, and a couple of my friends went to a nearby high school's battle of the bands and told me about this great band and their drummer. Nobody could ever remember his real last name, so he was always Lasagna. It turns out, he was the Wolves drummer now. I had no idea until he mentioned his old band, and even remembered playing the show I saw them play. He's only 22, but he also looks a bit older.