Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Notes from the Road – Corona CA @ Showcase Theatre


The “legendary” Showcase Theatre, which closed down in 2008, was our first California show. We opened for our pals Order of the Fly who helped us book the show.



When we first played the Showcase Theatre I experienced a flashback. When my family moved to Arizona from Illinois my older sister Gina and I drove out to California. California is the Mecca for any Midwesterner growing up in cornfields and snow. The years of television and movie propaganda made one think the only place to be is California. So the first chance we got, we drove out to Hollywood. We did the usual tourist things, but we also wanted to see the real Hollywood. So drove around trying to get lost. Eventually we found a random place to walk around, and as we passed a restaurant guess who we saw going in for a bite? It was the Lord Almighty himself, Glen Danzig. Like giddy school girls bumping into the Jonas Brothers at the mall, we didn’t know what to do. I managed to pull it together and yell out “Hey Glenn, can we get your picture.” Then he turned around, smiled and my sister took the picture.


Anyway, that night we decided to go see a punk show. We found a weekly flyer and picked out a venue at random, The Showcase Theatre. I can’t remember who was playing or if I even liked the show. I do remember sitting on the staircase that led to the merch tables and wrote in my journal. “Dear Diary, wow I can’t believe I’m at an actual punk show in California. I hope that one I’ll be on this very same stage and fuck up.”
 

I remember when we opened for Three Bad Jacks, we did a podcast interview after the show in our van. While we were recording, we heard yelling going on outside. We made a joke and thought nothing of it. It turned out that someone stole a guitar from the Three Bad Jacks. It was one of Elvis’s $1200 guitars that someone snagged from the stage as they were unloading the gear. The thief ran out to his car and people chased him down the street. All that excitement and we missed i t!


Eventually we headlined at the Showcase. It had been our first California headlining show, and I was in disbelief that all these people came out to see us. Then I felt the pressure, cause all these people came out to see us! I can’t mess up. So of course, when we played Your Ghost my mind went blank and I couldn’t remember how to play the opening bass riff. The goddamn riff I wrote! I repeat that riff a few times during the song, so I tried to recover each time I played it and failed. It was the longest 2 minutes of my life. Afterwards I tried tuning my bass and Bobby kept yelling at me “It’s not your tuning! You’re just playing it wrong!” Thanks for pointing that out.





I have a lot of great memories at the Showcase. Jose the owner of the venue is a great guy and always took care of the bands. He had plans to open a new venue, so I hope when the economy turns around he will be able to do that.


At the Showcase we’ve played with; Koffin Kats, Three Bad Jacks, Zombeast, Order Of The Fly, Chop Tops, The Returners, 12 Step Rebels, More Than Never, Summers End and many others I can’t recall.

11 comments:

  1. Nice! I love the pic of Danzig! It may be the first one where I've ever seen him smile!

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  2. Suh-weet, you guys played with Koffin Kats! And that photo of Danzig is priceless!

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  3. That was crazy how we bumped into Danzig. The Horror Rock Gods were smiling upon me that day.

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  4. I had the same feeling of dreaming of playing the showcase. Being from Iowa it seemed so far away and unreal. Anyway my band played there in 2006 for the first time and it was unreal...but get this, the first time we played my guitar player had a guitar stolen in that back parking lot also! So it was a great experience for me but horrible one for him.
    -Clint

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  5. I wish the corona Showcase was still around, best effin' weekends of my life in that place.
    Sub-Humans, Billy Boes, 45 Grave...many memories! Fans jumpin' off the balcony and the mosh pit crashing wave after wave of fans on the stage...I will never forget that place.

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  6. I remember seeing you guys play there back in '06 with 3 Bad Jacks Headlining. That was the same night Bobby had to use another bands guitar amp because it wasn't working.
    I really enjoyed seeing those photos, made me feel...

    My other band played on one of the last few shows they ever had there. Its weird knowing that this place is wiped from the map as a venue.

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  7. Love the story and pic.

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