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.

The Graves / Vampires Don’t Exist Music Video

With our new music video scheduled for September (with Brian Pulido again) I thought it fitting to recap our last music video for the movie, The Graves. The song we chose for the movie is a fan favorite, "Vampires Don’t Exist." The video is a cross promotional vehicle for Calabrese and the movie. The scenes for the music video we shot were also used in the movie. We are featured at the beginning of the movie. We play Calabrese, the band that the heroines come to see before they get into trouble!

It was awesome seeing ourselves on the big screen at the cast and crew screening. I think it’s a natural progression for Calabrese to be projected ten feet tall. If you have not seen the movie, I’d suggest renting it or picking up a copy to add to your Calabrese Collection. We’d be happy to sign the DVD. The extras on the DVD have a performance only version of the video.

When we first arrived at the movie location, I didn’t know what to expect for an indie horror film, but when I saw the 3 RVs and 2 trucks unloading equipment and people, I was very impressed.

From what we’ve learned about making movies and videos, there’s a lot of hurry up and wait. We arrived at 4pm at the venue The Sets, as instructed, and I don’t think we shot our scene 'til around 8pm. The assistant director (I think that’s who it was) told us set up our instruments on the stage right away. So we hurried up, got everything into position, including the banner, then the lighting guys did their thing. We were excited, we were ready to rock...but we had to wait.

While we waited, a line of extras started forming outside the venue. The movie held an open casting call and a lot of Calabrese fans and the curious showed up!

I was told that this day was the last day of shooting and everyone was in a good mood. I guess out in the desert, where they shot most of the film, was pretty rough and the cast and crew were happy to get back civilization.

After what seemed like hours, the crew’s walkie talkies started buzzing. Like General Patton about to arrive, the director, Brian Pulido, was coming and everyone was getting ready. I believe they just shot the scene at Atomic Comics. Then they arrived, Brian, Adam (the Cinematographer) and the actresses. The set came alive, down time was over. Brian said hello to the crew while checking the location for the next scene. The actresses were whisked away into one of the trailer for a costume change. While they were getting their hair and makeup done they listened to "Vampires Don’t Exist." They had to familiarizing themselves with the song to join us on stage to sing.

When they were ready for us, all we had to do was perform along to the song while they blasted it through the PA. To the camera, Brian would introduce the band then we’d do our thing. I took some shots from the stage during the down times. I believe we performed about 5 times while they shot the scene with several different cameras and POVs. Then we were done.

They had snack table all day and a nice spread of food to feed the cast and crew after they finished shooting our scene. After dinner, they shot the final bar scenes around midnight.

We only met Claire Grant and Jillian Murray, unfortunately, Tony Todd and Bill Moseley were not in our scene. My biggest regret from the movie was that I didn’t get killed nor was I scripted to kill anyone. My cinematic vision had been squashed!

We got to see a screening of the movie before everyone else, see this blog post. Then the movie had limited theater run during the After Dark 4 Horror Fest. I didn’t get to see it with an audience but I heard reports that at least in one theater, the audience cheered when they saw Calabrese on screen. Fuck yeah!

We are eternally grateful to Brian Pulido for writing us into the script and getting us some screen time.

Overall it was a great experience. We had fun on a professional movie shoot, we have another promotional music video, and we are now officially a part of horror movie history!