We ironed out some song structres, and Brenda ironed out some words. This continued for a month or two. Accustoming ourselves to a singer was a bit strange.
Date:
March 1997 - Location:
Towne Tavern, Stratford
We managed
to get enough songs together to open for Psychic Water at the Towne Tavern
in Stratford in Early March.
Now, this
was pretty freaky for us peoples. A first gig with only a few originals in
a big scary bar. We were very underage. During the gig, Jason Weaver
was invited up to play "The Sweater Song" and "Siva". The gig came and went.
SiMent kicked the holy be-jeez-ass of Psychic Water that night. At least everyone
said so.
We started adding a couple more covers to our line up: "I Come From the Water (Toadies)", "Song 2", "Zero", "Siva", "El Scorcho"... you know... Rock and Roll songs! We even got payed!
Date: March 10th, 1997 - Location: Heidi Voight's House, Milford
Here,
we recorded our first official tapes.
Here's
the rundown of what we did that day:
The Tape ended up coming out like this:
Reef Take 1 Solvent Alcohol Take 1, bathroom break, Take 2 The fugue in Eb Take 1,2,3 The Sweater Song (Weezer cover) El Scorcho (Weezer cover) The Loft Stomp Take 1 Lunch @ McDonalds (that's not a song) The Loft Stomp Take 2 The Amorphous French Man Take Only The Loft Stomp Take 3
Side
A
Reef
-Take 2
Solvent
Alcohol - Take 2
The
Fugue - Take 3ge
Side
B
The
Amorphous French Man - (originally recorded in The Garage pre-Brenda)
The
Loft Stomp - Take 3
This tape was mastered to Dave's 8mm camcorder and about 20 copies were made and given out to friends on the Toastworks mock-label. Justin Colby suggested the name "Dry Ice Maker." It sounded like crap. The recording, not the name. Even re-mastered, some of the stuff sounds like crap.
Date: Mid-May, 1997 - Location: Foran High School
In thier
first public appearance aside from playing for friends, SiMent gathered thier
largest audience to date at the Foran High Talent show.
They played
thier hit single, "Fugue in Eb", Weezer's hit single,"El Scorcho", and Blur's
hit single, "Song 2" which was played third, not second as the name might
imply. As a prelude to that song, Drew
Bayers ran down the aisle of the auditorium and jumped on stage taking
out Dave's Big Muff rendering his guitar useless. Drew proceeded to steal
the show away from Brenda. They yelled at Drew.
Date: May 1997 - Location: Towne Tavern
We managed
to get another gig there. However, this one was pure crap. We played
badly. Brenda swore at our relatives. But Jay managed to pull through it all,
and reprise his role as rhythm guitarist for the gig.
After that
gig, we vowed to never step into that bar ever again. A couple weeks
after that, we made a mutual descision to invite Jay into SiMent since he
complimented us so well both of the real times we played out. So, SiMent was
five and strong. We looked pretty impressive with us all up there and playing
our things.
Date: June 1997 - Location: Brian's back yard
Brian's
next door neighbor threw a party. They asked us to play. So, we played. Getting
our equipment to the gig wasn't a big deal. All we had to do was open the
garage doors and push it outside. Then we just plugged in. We played in Brian's
backyard in the direction of his neighbor's yard. We played like 7 or 8 songs.
Brenda reluctantly
sang. Jay couldn't be there. We don't know why.
Date: The day after the above date - Location: Kevin May's Back yard (graduation party)
Exactly one
year after our debut gig as a three piece, we played as a five piece. Then
Brenda left to go home for a few minutes or something. The rest of us guys
got bored with swimming, so we got back on our instruments and broke into
some Weezer.
Just then,
Brenda showed back up, and she didn't look to happy. We all stopped playing
and instantly felt like we were cheating on a girlfriend we didn't really
like anyways.
So, she started
screaming. Bitching and moaning. She yelled something about how we're not
supposed to use her lyrics, and then left in a huff. So, Brenda quit.
Then, we played some more Weezer.
