Who took this photo? Please let me know!
Oh geez, that horrible “pre-mosh” look on my face! Sweet Straight Ahead shirt though. And look at the motley crew singing along in that picture! 97a’s final show came in the weeks after 9-11 and was, I think, my first show since a series of horrific events (frankly, by the 11th a terrorist attack was the least of my concerns when your best friend was dead and another had tried to commit suicide as well) of the first part of the month. The show was in far, far, north New Jersey and we had probably a two hour drive ahead of us to some sort of gated community, where we had to say that we were there for a party or something. I think I had someone else in the car do the bullshit rap when the rent a cop quizzed us because I kept thinking I would crack up laughing.
Sadly, we missed FYA’s set. FYA was a band that featured Zac Davis, DFJ, and some other people I knew. They did a demo you can probably find. We may have missed The Gatecrashers as well, or perhaps I was outside. I had a few record trades to make at this show and I may have been conducting business.
I was excited to see Stop & Think because I had gotten to know Chris Corry and Clevo, who I interviewed when he was in Ten Yard Fight, over the past few years before this and there was a lot of hype about them. They were great, one of the few straight edge bands of the last decade or so that I liked, and I think covered Jerry’s Kids? That sounds familiar. One of their songs sounded so much like an Outburst cover I started going off and then sort of froze in place when I realized, uh, that it was not an Outburst cover. I bought a demo, but blew it by not getting one of those awesome longsleeves with the eagle on it.
97a, after some comments about 9-11 from Chris, roared into their set with a cover of “March Of The SOD.” The rest is pretty much a blur, but I remember that 97a was sent off quite well.
