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It was nearing the end of my final year of school and I was looking forward to the summer of 1986. I had just started dating an awesome girl that i had known for the past couple of years and things were going really great!
The date was June 21, and i had just scored 2 tickets to see one of my favorite bands, “The Ramones”, and I was planning on bringing my new girl to her first punk rock show!
Picking her up that night, i rolled up to her parents house in my black Chevy van that had ‘Black Flag’ and the bars painted in HUGE letters across the back doors. Needless to say, her parents must have been super stoked on seeing this 119 pound kid in combat boots and a dyed mohawk showing up on their doorstep, flowers in hand looking for their daughter! But they somehow let her leave with me and on our merry way we went!
Upon arriving at The Agora Ballroom in West Hartford CT, we parked and headed towards the club entrance. As was common at the time at punk rock shows, there was a ton of nazi skinheads milling around. A couple had made their way up to the roof of the building and were shouting all sorts of stupid stuff down to anyone entering the club. As soon as we got close to the doors they started screaming down at Amy, “NO COMMUNISTS ALLOWED! GET OUT OF HERE!!!”
Well we quickly made our way to the door and walked in. The first band, “The Queers” were just getting ready to play and we started checking out the show. The crowd was still light, and the pit in front of the stage was mellow, Amy seemed pretty at ease with the situation so far.
When it came time for The Ramones to come on, i told her we had to be up front, so we weaved through the crowd and stood in my normal spot (stage right, right in front of where Johnny would stand) and waited. Two minutes later Amy’s life changed forever!
They opened up with “durango 95”, and the entire area in front of the stage immediately erupted into a pit, and with beer flying everywhere the usual punk show chaos ensued! The Ramones were hammering out song after song in their typical rapid fire tradition when a young guy with a cut off jean vest and a 10 inch mohawk had made his way up right next to Amy. Bud can in hand, he was weaving back and forth pretty good, and then sometime during “Bonzo Goes to Bitburg”, mowhawk dropped his Budweiser, and immediately started puking all over Amy! AND when i say ‘all over her’, i mean ‘ALL OVER HER’! But she took it all in stride and we never left our spot right in front of Johnny until Joey uttered his final “Thankyou, Goodnight!”.
Well, one might think this to be the worst first date EVER, but Amy loved it! She was sold, and so began our journey together, listening to punk rock, skateboarding, and being each other’s best friend. true love indeed!
Fast forward almost four decades, and we haven’t changed too much beyond a few gray hairs and some creaks and cracks in the knees. We still skateboard as much as we can, (thank you Jay at American Nomad Skateboards, and Jared at The Warehouse for always having us!) and we are still playing the music that makes us happy! We live pretty simply and love being to be able to do what gets us stoked, and that’s part of the reason we keep picking up the guitars and cranking out new stuff!
But even more important than all of that, it’s YOU, our supporters, that makes all of it matter and keeps us going. It’s so important having others to share with, and that’s the main reason we are turning on amps, coffee in hands first thing in the morning, every single morning. It’s a love affair that we want you to be a part of!
2024 is looking to be a very exciting year for us and we’re hoping you can join us on this journey together.
Love you all!