ABOUT DISRESPECT

6-4-2011 PHARMACY and MEATWAGON at CHICO CLUB - 9:45 pm.

Live from the Chico Club - 6-4-11

6-4-11 - Last nite we played at Chico Club, what promised to be a fun show, with MEATWAGON.

This show SHOULD have been kick-ass... It should have been FUN. It WAS Kick Ass for a while --- I was having a good time, Darryl and Andy were having a good time andf IN ANTICIPATION of PLAYING, the whole BAR was having a good time. And I was SO looking forward to the show all last week.

Now Darryl and Andy to me are Gods, I love them guys, fuckin Andy is one of the asskickingnest guitar players in Sandy Yeggo... And I love Darryl he is my DEAR friend, he's been there for me in some jams, and we used to hang out and listen to Stranglers all the time. So there is some GOOD history with me and Meatwagon. Meatwagon has been around almost as long as Social Spit, and they deserve a measure of stability, like every other band out there. When it comes down to it, we do not do this for MONEY - And it is not a goddam HOBBY, this is our lives, we play cos it is in our BLOOD to play, if we do not play, we rot. And we like to PLAY LIVE. That's what we live for: We DO this cos we are LIVE MUSICIANS.

And it is not about the VENUE or whether there are 3 people or 300 there, a true MUSICIAN gives 110% for ALL shows, he gives his best efforts, whether the place is a DIVE or it is a PALACE.

This is where Keith the former drummer for Meatwagon and I differ - To him, a Venue is a place that owes him some kind of god damned LIVING. He never considers, that he must EARN that respect. The other bars, the Shakedown, Pure Platinum, The Whistle Stop, and other small places in town, Meatwagon had ALREADY EARNED that respect for themselves, Kieth had NOTHING to do with it. Keith neither EARNED nor WORKED for the RESPECT that Meatwagon gets in these joints, Darryl and Andy, that was THEIR Hard Work.

Now "new" meatwagulon drummer Kieth (He has played with Darryl and Andy before, and I had thought he actually adds to good vibe to the music, but I was wrong about that, because there is a personal undercurrent of major manipulation going on there with this guy) I knew him long ago and he's seemed always been straight-up with me until now, and he's always been nice to me until now, to my face that is, turns out he was talking crap about me to Darryl on the same night of the Chico, so he was one way to me to my face, and talking utter shit about me around my back, I just foudn that out todfay thank you, this is someone, I am really glad to not have to play with and share equipment again, And he burned his bridges with Social Spit as well... I really had nothing against him until today, I still don't, but this guy's credibility does not EXIST, he lives in some odd fantasy world where his shit does not stink - Only other people's shite.

Social Spit and Meatwagon go WAY back, to the time of the Palisades Rollerink shows, when Meatwagon was a new band. And so it was because of this past Fiendship and Darryl's friendship with Kit of Pharmacy that we asked Mestwagon if, for this show we could merge our PA systems, and they were cool with, Andy and Darryl helped us out. And it sounded great - I was in high excitement mode with the prospect of MeatWagon playing Chico with Pharmacy, Pharmacy being my other "Rock and Roll" band, and I don't care if anyone likes us or not, I do it cos *I* like doing it. So we were playing with a brand new Bass Player on the 4th of June, our set was going to be a quick set and then it was going to be all Meatwagon.

About 90% through our Pharma-Set, from my POV and out of the blue, Kieth just Walks up and UNPLUGS not just the Meatwagon parts of the PA, but OURS as well, this in the last chorus of our second-to-last song!! I was WHAT THE BLOODY GUCKING FUKKING HADES is going on here? Keith tried to tell me that the NEW OWNER OF THE CHICO CLUB - Disrespected his ASS, and KICKED HIM OUT of the BAR. Well, fine but you DO NOT start yanking crap when a BAND is playing, this is something you just do not do - Even if he really had been "kicked out" as he said, nobody is going to chase him out, and then when we break for the next song, he could have said, "Hey Guys, I've been KICKED OUT and I need to grab my stuff..." - No Problem see? But instead he turned this thing about "Disrespect" on US and Disrespected Pharmacy.

You wanna talk about god damn disrespect? It was done- to US, and to MEATWAGON. I spoke to him today and he was pleasant enough - Until I asked him why the fuck was he disrepectful of MY band if this thing was about "respect" and I swear, this guy lives in his mind, in his mind, everybody else caused the problems and he is blameless.

According to Kieth, the owner "Just started moving his drums around" - IN reality, the owner needed to get to a plug up on the ceiling, and he ASKED Kieth, if he could move something. I got that story from not only the Bar owner, but from about five people who saw Keith just START IN on the guy, So, this soneofa bitch Started the Drama.

After he trashed our set and ruined the whole show, he went up to Kit, the Singer for Pharmacy and told her she was a bitch that had "Started the whole thing".

So, when it comes to DISRESPECT, the word never enters in to what happened at the Chico that night. From the start, there was a pike up this guys arse, and he was bossing around my band, his band, people at the bar, he was just being a general jagoff. And I saw him today, I wanted to know, WHY the fuck was he so disrecpectful of MY band - He had the audacity to try to turn all this shit on ME. According to Darryl, in 1995 he did the exact same thing and was kicked out of Meatwagon.

At the time, both Andy and Darryl were totally bummed about this whole thing, and to top it off, they Did NOT get to play ONE LICK. And I had SO looked forward to watching Andy Choke his guitar neck and Darryl play monstrous bass riffs, I'm sure both of them had been looking forward to just PLAYING. This is just an example where something could, and should, have been very good, but it was basically ruined: For I don't know what damned reason. Respect? It was NOT ruined for RESPECT, that is for Goddamned sure.

I take a lot of bullshit from a lot of people, day in and day out, one thing I will NOT take is some Jagoff, who was 2 years old when I started playing my first live shows, trying to tell ME that MY band is unprofessional. Never Mind that not only did this guy absolutely start the whole chain of events that caused Meatwagon to not get to play, he tries to Blame the Club, he tries to Blame The Club Owner, He tried to Blame Kitten, my singer for Pharmacy, he tried to Blame OUR NEW BASS PLAYER, that night he was Blaming both Darryl AND Andy, and TODAY he tried to BLAME ME - And not ONE Acknowledgement of where the Blame OUGHT to have been put - ON HIMSELF.

I've been playing live shows since 1973, and I think I have developed a sense of what is important at a show, one thing is to never cause a rumpus. Never show up at a show with intent to jack it up. This guy was going to make a scene, no matter what, he was intent on that. He just DID NOT want to be there - And I asked him, today, if he didnt WANT to be there, why the hell didn't he cancel the show? Why didnt he tell Darryl and Andy he didn't want to do it? The fact is, he DIDN'T do that. And he had NO ANSWER for me on that question, instead he turned it around and tried to tell me how unprofessional I was to play with Pharmacy, and that Pharmacy "only plays the Chico Club" - Well I better tell the Rainbow in Hollywood that we never played there, and also Molly Malone's... And a bunch of other places we played last year. Point is, WE didn't cause a scene with the new bar owner, HE did, and he did it all by himself, Darryl did not help him, nor did Andy, or Kit, or my bass player - HE caused it. When he could have just PLAYED the show and he might have even had a good time, instead, he was intent on just starting something.

I had spent an hour setting up the PA and Kit told me I could take a break, cos nobody was gonna start until 10:00, regular time a first band goes on, NOBODY told me of any time limitations, I assumed Meatwagon would play as long as they WANTED after our 20 minute SET. When I got back into the Bar, Keith started bothering me about when the hell were we going to start? I told him, CHILL dude, as soon as I get my band up there. And so we went on, I just thought he was joking around. Well, this is not ON ME... He could have told me the DAY BEFORE< he would have liked to either play first, or start earlier, and I would have ACCOMODATED his ASS. But he DIDN'T.

Well it is a week later, And this guy has succeeded in parting Darryl and Andy, a partnership that has lasted way before this creep was in the band. I'm hoping that Andy realises - It is NOT OK what this guy did - And this guy is NOT OK.

6-5-11 3:29am, 6-11-11, 9:00pm