|
| |
History of the Band
written by Ben Ziskind, translated from gibberish to English by Brian
Ward
Our band has been through a lot of changes. I kind of see
it as a boat that has been rebuilt one board at a time. Brian, Jason and I (Ben)
first started a band in the eighth grade. It wasn't really a band, we just
thought it was 'cause we were dumbasses. The band consisted of the three of us,
plus Kerry (of Cogneato fame) and my best friend, Patrick. It may not have been
a real band, but it was enough to the possibility to whet our appetites.
In tenth grade, the three of us tried to start a semi-real
band with a bassist named Sean. At first we were really excited, but we ended up
fighting all the time and there was too much tension so we just said "fuck
it". Brian and Jason went their way, I went mine. I found people to jam
with, and that was cool, but it wasn't like being in a band.
Meanwhile, Jason and Brian-maphone had
started a blues band by the name of Flash Mojo with Jason's best friend, Jay,
and another bassist named Trip. Jay was, and is one of the most incredible
guitarists I've ever known. Unfortunately, Jay's stepdad was a dick and made him
leave the band for no reason whatsoever after their first gig. That totally
sucked. Even I was pissed off, and I wasn't even in the band!
Soon after that I came to sit in with them on harmonica,
and after a few practices was added to Flash Mojo as a harmonica player. It was
March of 2000, and Jason, Brian and I had been getting into punk rock thanks to
the influence of our old friend Kerry, who had been in Cogneato for a while by
then. A couple of weeks after I joined, the tension had mounted so high between
Jason and Trip that something had to be done. Trip had been showing up for fewer
and fewer practices in the short time that I had been in the band. And so, as
cool as he was and still is, we had to let him go.
When it finally hit us that, as much as we wanted him to,
Jay couldn't come back. I played guitar and sometimes bassist until we could
find someone who played one or the other. After a couple of tryouts, it was no
use. My heart was with the guitar, so we started looking for a bassist. A friend
of mine, Justin, told me he played bass, so he came and auditioned. He worked
really well. He gave input and had cool ideas, and was a shaved-head (not
skinhead, mind you) punk. The day he tried out, we hired him.
Justin started learning our songs, and we originally
booked our first gig for August 22nd, 2000 (under the name Demockracy), but
Brian had to go out of town, so we cancelled it. Also, Justin would start
college at the end of summer. We didn't know how often he would be able to make
it to practice. At one point there was a misunderstanding, so for a while we
thought he had left the band, but that was cleared up and at the beginning of
our (Jason, Brian, and I) Junior year, we were back in business. Justin's a
freshman in college, but he still comes to band practice religiously and kicks
major ass.
After several name changes, we finally found a band name
that we all liked. The Riot Act. Fuck yeah! so anyway, the next step was to
start booking gigs. Done and done. We got a gig for October 21, 2000, and we
kicked ass! Oh wait, that's not for another week or so. Fuck!
|
