[deanc54]

Hey everybody!

It seems like most of the fine folks contributing to this site had a 'garage band' that started it all for them. Describe your band and its name.

When I was 15, I was growing up in really small town in Southeastern Idaho (pop. 1250). We had a 3-pc band we called 'The Spirits of Wisdom'. We practiced in our parents basements until they kicked us out for the obvious reasons. The Pastor at the local Baptist church was kind enough to let us practice in the church's basement. We practiced there for a couple of months, but by that time like the musical Pied Pipers of the day, had quite a few kids showing up, and hanging out there. One evening, the Pastor caught one of the more 'Jimmy Dean' type charachters drinking a beer out on the sidewalk entry, so he shut us down. Desperate for another place to play/practice we went to talk to the owner of the local drugstore to see if we could rent the abandoned car showroom that he owned that was adjacent to his store. He thought about for a bit and said 'sure why not, I'll rent it to you for a dollar a month'. It was in pretty rough shape, so we got the local lumbermill to donate a bunk of lumber (for the stage and a short wainscoat around the bottom of the walls). My dad was a painter so he agreed to help us paint the interior a flat black, where we hung some black lighting and put up some great black light posters of the day. It was pretty cold inside, so my mom let us take and old wood burning oven, which we placed on a big square of discarded bricks we put in a wooden frame on one side of the room. After the stage was built, we painted the Woodstock symbol right above the stage in blacklight paint. We played our hearts out there, and in a short while were hiring other local bands to come and play on Friday and Saturday nights. We called it 'The Place'. We charged a dollar for admission and kids were coming each weekend from as far as 200 miles away! Pretty soon we were raking in $700-800 a weekend. One Fourth of July, we made more than the total receipts of the day for the owner of the drugstore. Soon, the city made us get a business license and fix up the bathrooms. We were bona-fide business men, and quite successful. It sure beat mowing lawns! One weekend we let a new kid in town that had turned into a groupie/part time roadie take the money at the door. I had hired two other band to play for $350 each. That night we made around eight hundred dollars, but to our horror this kid made off with all of the receipts! Needless to say, sadly this bankrupted us since we had to borrow money to pay the geust bands, and soon 'The Place' was no more. (sigh, slight tearing up). It was a great experience! What's yours?

[RUDE drummer]

Mine was in 8th grade. the rest of the kids were juniors and seniors. We were called Valenar, our bass player just thought of it one day in studyhall. We had the best 2 guitarists to ever come out of this little hick town. They could play nevermore solos, old school metallica solos ect.. But anyways everyone thought we were bomb because theres just a bunch of old guys doing covers or this one emo band that we had to play with all the time. I remember our first show at the halloween dance, I had a really ****ty 80's wood-fiberglass pearl at the time so I used their drummers Forum series and just beat the crap out of it. I thanked him when we were on our last song, Liberate by Slipknot, I just raped this kids set and sure as sh!t, 3 songs into their set his batter head on his kick broke We broke up a little after a year but I still jam with one of the guitarists from time to time, but I really want to get out and play shows again... best feeling in the world being up on that stage. I'm a junior now btw.

I still use the same resonant skin but i dont have any pictures up yet. This forum isnt blocked at my school so I just kill time on it in study hall haha.

[deanc54]

Hey Rude!

Thanks for the great story. I am fascinated how people get started and progress thru their musical careers. Do you plan on going to college? Maybe studying music? If I could go back in time where all the world was before me, I sure would have tried to make my love for drumming and music my lifes work. It gives me kind of a sinking feeling to think what might have been if I had not taken a 40+ year hiatus from my drums. I am in engineering now, the Senior Project Manager for a really great custom metal manufacturing company. It's kind of stressful, with a good amount of pressure, but it pays the bills and gives me plenty of time to pursue my musical interests. I play now with a group called The Foundation for Aspiring Musicians. We do charitable events and play 3 or 4 times a month all over Eastern Idaho. I wish I could ditch the engineering and do it full time, but I'll retire one of these days and put all my time into it. We have lots of pics of our events. Google The Foundation for Aspiring Musicians and you'll find our site. Again, thanks for the story man! Keep Rockin!

[skinslapper]

That's an awesome story Dean. I'm guessing this was some years ago when there weren't so many bands around.

My first band was called wench. It sarted when I was 14 with my two female friends Amanda and Angela and we were pretty much a hole/nirvana cover band. I had a terrible 4 piece drum kit with hi-hats that kept popping inside out and an old chair for a stool, but we made it work in the corner of my parents shed. Angela didn't even own a bass.

Amanda and I would practice every weekend and mostly Angela would just hang around and tell us she'd borrow her sisters guitar next week. So eventually we hooked up with a guy called Daniel would was mad for the 4 string and sometime into our jamming became obsessed with primus which was only better for skill metre.

We played a few back yard parties, hosted a couple in our local hall, one of which resulted in a riot and then Amanda got turned onto Tori Amos and had no time for rockin out anymore.

It's funny how these things go. Even today I think some of the songs we wrote were really good, or at least showed alot of potential, but when I think back to the various mental barriers and apathies of the members (myself included) I realise we would never have stood a chance.

[deanc54]

Hey Skins!

Thanks for the kind words and sharing your experiences! Great story back at ya! Yeah, it is funny how those things go. I too remember a few songs we wrote that were pretty good after we had practied them for a couple of years. One time, just after we put our three peice band together and knew about six songs (barely..Creedence, Beatles, Iron Butterfly) a really rockin out of town band that had been scheduled to play for a pretty big deal High School Sock Hop cancelled at the last minute. Well our guitar player (who was really pretty good, a transplant to our little town from No. California) said to the dance organizers 'hey I know a band that could fill in!..well that was us and we had never played in public before. Needless to say this guy signed us up. I was absolutely terrified!!! But we showed up and did the best we could. We just cranked the Marshalls and the PA up as loud as they would go and gave it all we had. We actually lived through it and got some praise for having the guts to do it. Ever hear a 45 minute version of 'Proud Mary', or an hour rendition of 'Inna Gadda Da Vida'? Lordamighty!!!

[RUDE drummer]

Awesome stories guys.
And yes Dean64, I'm going to go to college to go to sound producing school. idk if thats what its called lol i havent really checked into it, but its the dude in the studio sitting behind the soundboard with the recording artists. It's my dream to make it my lifes work but with the way things are going right now, I don't think thats going to happen anytime soon. It's so hard to find a job in my town and I just finally got one, so I dont really have money saved up for school so I'm going to take some time off of school to save some money and go to college. I know I'm going to go back because it's something I want to do. All my older friends went to college and dropped out. They said make sure it's something you want to go for or you'll just end up like us.

Theres this one song that we wrote ( Contamination ) and theres this one line I still can't get out of my head. "Tragicly tainted, rightfully wronged, I did this."

[deanc54]

Hey Rude!

Listen man, its pretty hard when you are a junior in high school to get motivated to do much of anything, least of all try to deal with what you're going to do when high school is over. This is exacerbated by the realization that very soon you will be going out on your own, stretching all those ties you thought were so important for so long. It happened to me. It happens to a lot of people cause it is so hard to decide what you want to do with your life after the school years. I wish to god I had been a bit more focused when the time came for me to roll out. The desire is large to do what you are proposing to do, that is take some time off school to save some money. It is possible that you could actually save some money, and postpone things until you get snuff enough to make it happen. Unfortunately, the odds are against you with this plan. Most likley, after high school if you don't have a real workable plan, 10 years will go by so fast you won't believe it. My advice for you (if I might be so bold), is to pick that sound engineering school you want to attend, and go visit their financial aid office RIGHT NOW!. Don't wait, don't put it off and just do it. Get the hard part done first. Dude, every night when I get home from work I feel captured by the black hole like gravity well of my drum room. I want to go play SO BAD before I get my chores done. I have to force myself to get the things done I know I have to do before I can enjoy what my drums have to offer. This school thing is the same scenario. If in your heart, if you know you want to be a sound engineer take the steps right now to make it happen. You will be surprised how easy it really is to get started. Take the first steps right now Rude. The first step is always the hardest one, and just put one foot right after the other. You are the master right now of your future because you have all the time needed to realize your dreams. Each day you put it off you will get further and further behind. Live your dreams man! It really is the only way to fly!

[Buddy]

I'm in my first one now! We have a guitarist named Jeff, and A Bassist named Justin. Jeff is a really good singer and Justins not to bad. ok Justin kinda sux but thats ok They can both play like crazy though! We have played a few parties and even had a few people show up at some practices. We have our first "big gig" thursday. I can't wait! Its gonna rock About 700 people are gonna be their soo.......DON'T MESS UP!! haha Theres a lotta talk about how we're supposed to win this thing but im sorta like because almost no one has heard us yet. so I hope we live up to these excpectations.

Oh yea and we're playing "Nothin' but a Good Time" by "Poison"

[dtxtremeiiispecial]

Blow the doors off the place, Buddy!

[deanc54]

Hey Buddy!

Great story! I hope your gig brings the house down!