Jul
16
Mon • 1990
Set 1:
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#1 I Was There Aaron Cometbus on drums
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#2 Disappearing Boy Aaron Cometbus on drums
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#3 409 In Your Coffeemaker Aaron Cometbus on drums
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#4 At The Library Aaron Cometbus on drums
Show Notes
John Kiffmeyer: "Great guys [Admiral], they put us up in Harrisburg."
Aaron Cometbus: "Free bleach and red dye. Cool lime green fireflies. $250 for van repairs."
Elray Gunn: "That was a crazy day... The stealing of my keys and the smoke bomb-pissing incident will forever be a good memory. Joel, when I met Green Day on Cameron Street to take them over to my house, they stunk so bad. I made them all take showers, then we went to the laundromat... Exciting times! I think you were the laundry attendant..."
Joséph P. McRedmond: "Jay Shorrey's basement in West Hanover a mile from my parents' house. Aaron Cometbus played drums while the other drummer was booking the rest of the tour in the kitchen upstairs. The night before I took them to the Pathmark in Camp Hill, and we got chased out for shoplifting and rearranging all the price signs by a guy I went to high school with."
"This vid is great. It was actually filmed in my basement, not living room. I knew somebody had filmed the show but did not think it was still around. Two other bands played that night: a local band from Mechanicsburg, PA (might have been their only show) and Admiral - a great band from Harrisburg who had played with Green Day earlier that summer out west. That is how the whole basement show came about."
gdtourvan1990: "Sunday/Monday, July 15/16: We stayed with the Admiral guys and on Sunday I was handed over to the Pep Boys in Harrisburg. Not sure what the guys did that night because I wasn’t with them. On Monday I had a new clutch and a functioning reverse gear and the guys saved a little money by choosing not to machine my flywheel; but this created a problem. The Pep Boys wanted $250 and there was only $36 in the band fund. That’s when John and Aaron fished out a blue wallet festooned with an American flag that contained about $260. Turns out they’d been skimming a bit off every show with the noble intent of a small payout to everyone at the end of the tour. This caused some acrimony between the guys that was eventually resolved, but it was a valuable lesson in trust. I just kept my head down and tried to stay out of it. My transmission was fixed. The Ford TS-OD 4-speed manual, with side mounted overdrive (SMOD) is synchronized in all forward gears, with a top loaded cast iron case. Originally designed for and installed in passenger cars like the 1977-80 Granada or the 1978-83 Fairmont/Zephyr; Ford’s intention, was that with a manual transmission, vans like me would get better gas mileage. But the gearbox was a piece of shit and it always gave me trouble. Hmm, Jake Filth drove a Ford Zephyr… Sunday/Monday, July 15/16 part2: With all my issues resolved, the guys were invited to play one more time in Harrisburg, in a basement on Bolton Drive. When we rolled up to the house the kids had formed the word DAY in freshly mowed grass in front of the house; and while the tour had been going well, there were a lot of blank spaces in the calendar, so John took the opportunity to run up some kid’s long distance bill while Aaron played drums that night. After the show, while the movie Li’l Abner (1959) played on the TV, John rinsed out some freshly applied Midnight Blue hair dye in the bathtub leaving a serious stain. In an attempt to be a good guest he poured bleach on the stain and soon after, a toxic cloud emanated from the septic tank forcing all the kids to flee the house! It was time to go, but not before noticing that while the band was playing someone had shoveled all that fresh cut grass on to my windshield! And running the wiper blades just smeared it around. What a mess. We hit the road around midnight."
punkbandvans: "I remember making a trip in this van or my car with the guys to the local Pathmark where somebody I went to high school with was the night manager. He chases us around and out of the store when the guys started changing all the price tags on the edge of the shelves."
Jay Shorey: "That was my house. long distant bill not to bad, bleach in bathtub sucked. also somebody stole all my Brothers Ken Griffey Jr. rookie cards that night. Great story to tell people years later."
Aaron Cometbus: "Free bleach and red dye. Cool lime green fireflies. $250 for van repairs."
Elray Gunn: "That was a crazy day... The stealing of my keys and the smoke bomb-pissing incident will forever be a good memory. Joel, when I met Green Day on Cameron Street to take them over to my house, they stunk so bad. I made them all take showers, then we went to the laundromat... Exciting times! I think you were the laundry attendant..."
Joséph P. McRedmond: "Jay Shorrey's basement in West Hanover a mile from my parents' house. Aaron Cometbus played drums while the other drummer was booking the rest of the tour in the kitchen upstairs. The night before I took them to the Pathmark in Camp Hill, and we got chased out for shoplifting and rearranging all the price signs by a guy I went to high school with."
"This vid is great. It was actually filmed in my basement, not living room. I knew somebody had filmed the show but did not think it was still around. Two other bands played that night: a local band from Mechanicsburg, PA (might have been their only show) and Admiral - a great band from Harrisburg who had played with Green Day earlier that summer out west. That is how the whole basement show came about."
gdtourvan1990: "Sunday/Monday, July 15/16: We stayed with the Admiral guys and on Sunday I was handed over to the Pep Boys in Harrisburg. Not sure what the guys did that night because I wasn’t with them. On Monday I had a new clutch and a functioning reverse gear and the guys saved a little money by choosing not to machine my flywheel; but this created a problem. The Pep Boys wanted $250 and there was only $36 in the band fund. That’s when John and Aaron fished out a blue wallet festooned with an American flag that contained about $260. Turns out they’d been skimming a bit off every show with the noble intent of a small payout to everyone at the end of the tour. This caused some acrimony between the guys that was eventually resolved, but it was a valuable lesson in trust. I just kept my head down and tried to stay out of it. My transmission was fixed. The Ford TS-OD 4-speed manual, with side mounted overdrive (SMOD) is synchronized in all forward gears, with a top loaded cast iron case. Originally designed for and installed in passenger cars like the 1977-80 Granada or the 1978-83 Fairmont/Zephyr; Ford’s intention, was that with a manual transmission, vans like me would get better gas mileage. But the gearbox was a piece of shit and it always gave me trouble. Hmm, Jake Filth drove a Ford Zephyr… Sunday/Monday, July 15/16 part2: With all my issues resolved, the guys were invited to play one more time in Harrisburg, in a basement on Bolton Drive. When we rolled up to the house the kids had formed the word DAY in freshly mowed grass in front of the house; and while the tour had been going well, there were a lot of blank spaces in the calendar, so John took the opportunity to run up some kid’s long distance bill while Aaron played drums that night. After the show, while the movie Li’l Abner (1959) played on the TV, John rinsed out some freshly applied Midnight Blue hair dye in the bathtub leaving a serious stain. In an attempt to be a good guest he poured bleach on the stain and soon after, a toxic cloud emanated from the septic tank forcing all the kids to flee the house! It was time to go, but not before noticing that while the band was playing someone had shoveled all that fresh cut grass on to my windshield! And running the wiper blades just smeared it around. What a mess. We hit the road around midnight."
punkbandvans: "I remember making a trip in this van or my car with the guys to the local Pathmark where somebody I went to high school with was the night manager. He chases us around and out of the store when the guys started changing all the price tags on the edge of the shelves."
Jay Shorey: "That was my house. long distant bill not to bad, bleach in bathtub sucked. also somebody stole all my Brothers Ken Griffey Jr. rookie cards that night. Great story to tell people years later."