Around the same time, the bass player from Funkface called and
invited me to a rehearsal because their drummer didn't show up.
It was just serendipity. It just worked and our stage shows were
off the hook. When we first got together to play live, CBGBs was
packed to the door. That's the first time I'd ever seen a local
band like that pack a club to the doorway- to outside. It was
so packed people were sitting on the stage with us and behind
my drum kit. While we were playing a fat guy walks on the stage
during our second song. He takes his shirt and pants off while
we were playing and I thought he was going to stage dive. He takes
his drawers off. He was buck naked. He stood on the stage and
started playing with himself. People remember that show to this
day. I got it on audio tape and you can hear the whole crowd screaming.
It was hilarious and we were laughing our asses off. They got
a body guard from the front of the club to escort him off the
stage. Later we found out that the guy was on ecstasy and the
vibrations from our music made him do that.
I was pretty fortunate growing up in my era because at that time
growing up in the projects everybody knew each other. All the
neighbors knew each other. It was a different era. If you did
something bad, believe me your parents would find out. Now everyone
is so guarded. Even listening to music back then was different
compared to now. Now everything is so segregated. You got all
these radio stations with different formats like K-Rock with the
old rock and WBLS with the same R&B and hip hop. I remember
my father had a reel to reel tape, he used to tape some of the
broadcasts on WBLS and you would hear Latin music, rock, pop and
soul all on one station. It wasn't about a format or trying to
gear it toward a certain audience. It was just good music. Now
people don't open their minds to other music. And that's why a
lot of record labels can't figure out a black rock band.
-el fin-
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