This was a long day! In the fall of 2000 I had three classes in the early afternoon up in Toms River: Gender Studies at 1200, Statistics at 1300, and then Biology at 1400. We had lab on Friday so my partner and I hurried through our lab stuff and I drove back down to Manahawkin to pick everyone up for the show. We then drove ALL the way up to Wayne, which is at least a two hour drive. I remember it was freezing cold and occasionally snowing as we drove up to the show.
In the rush to get on the road for the show, I forgot to put on a belt! So every time I danced or dove I had to hold onto my shorts to keep them from falling down. Ugh, what a mess. I wish I had that Hard Stance shirt still though.
A few other weird things happened at this show too. A bunch of local teenage alternative/goths showed up and hung out. One young lady wrapped herself in tissue paper and lit it on fire, which of course went right up and others had to put it out. I also met a bunch of internet friends for the first time at this show, so I missed a few bands while hanging out with them. I did watch Down In Flames who were really rising up at this time. I did a few trades at this show too and acquired a very rare Hardware Fanzine shirt and a Boiling Point Fanzine shirt too.
Rain On The Parade had gotten back together in the summer of 1999 after breaking up the previous fall. They put out an album with the new lineup which originally was going to come out on Teamwork Records, but ended up coming out on another label. I have a ROTP/Teamwork Records sticker on my home office desk still to this day. My big memory of their set was them finally covering the Half Off song their name was taken from, which got a great reaction.
Due to my, um, belt issue I mostly hung back during Mouthpiece’s set. They were really solid in this brief group of shows they played over a few weekends that fall. Afterwards we got out of there and began the long drive back home.
