A handicapped MBTA van? Like a bus? Or&ldots;.?
KC: Y'know "The Ride?" Those vans with the yellow stripe? The tall vans for handicapped people? They put wheelchairs in them. We bought one of those at an auction, so we could stand up in it while we were driving. It had a high roof, and we had a funnel that went out the back window, so you could piss in the funnel. You could watch the cars behind with their windshield wipers on. And then we were dropping someone off at the airport, and because it had a high roof, we hit a low thing, and it peeled off the roof. So when we used to drive back from DC, it'd raining. I'd be in the co-pilot seat with an umbrella over me, with the guitar player at the time who'd be driving, and one guy pissing in the back out the window. It was fun times.
Didn't you guys officially start the year before the Rat closed?
KC: I can't remember exactly what year the Rat closed.
AB: '97? I want to say it was '97.
KC: We played a lot of shows at the Rat, though. If it was '97, we must've been playing every month. I would've guessed '98. Matt (Kelly), our resident historian from the band would have the exact date, probably. I would've guessed '98. We'll get a confirmation on that.
AB: It's interesting, 'cause the punk scene had gone through a real&ldots;.In the late '80s, especially when grunge hit its full-stride, the punk scene really waned and the all-ages shows were really, I mean, you had these bands like Agnostic Front and Type O Negative and Biohazard, who would come to town. They'd be used to playing 600 or 700 kids, and there would be barely 200 kids, or 180 kids. There was a resurgence of punk rock in the mid-'90s. All of a sudden there were tons of kids again, which was great. I don't know if that was a knee-jerk reaction to the whole grunge thing&ldots;
KC: But it certainly wasn't happening in every other city.
AB: When I say that, I mean in this area, for sure. It was amazing. All of a sudden it was like, tons of kids again.
KC: Even when I say we'd go to another city and they made sure it was packed, it wasn't at a 600 or 700 capacity club. First of all, the Rat wasn't a 600 or 700 capacity club. But we'd be playing basements or VFW Halls that were 200 or 300, and those were still hard for other cities to fill.
Speaking of which, do you remember playing a Unitarian church in Duxbury, like, a million years ago?
AB: That was a benefit for a club that never opened. It was kind of the first date of a tour.
KC: That was a benefit for a tattoo parlor/club. Back in those days, we didn't always check to see if the benefits had a 501(c)(3) number or anything. That was a fun show. I think the Trouble played.
I remember walking by that and thinking, "Oh no!! that looks like a lot of people! That's scary! I'm going home! I will regret this decision in 10 years!!!"
AB: I remember it being jam packed, that's for sure.
...
