Lansdale Skatepark Benefit 5/29/99

This was the first show my one band, Nessiteras, ever played. I sang for the band so it was my first time behind the mic without a trombone in my hands so i remember being so nervous it wasn't even funny. We opened this show and i remember walking up to my band and being like "alright let's do this" and realized there was no mic. Jay Grubb, who is one of my oldest and dearest friends, set up the show...and didn't get a PA. hahaha. To be fair i'm not sure if it was that he forgot or the venue said we could use their stuff and nobody thought of bringing mics/cables. either way, The DJ dude that had his little booth in the corner hooked it up though and we used the house speakers as a PA. Nessiteras was what you could call a "rap-core" band, and yes, we were beyond embarrassing.

Let's start out with the fact that Buckley (whom went on to play in Leavenworth, Cetus, Drop Anchor and many others) was playing through his crate half stack and crate head. If i remember correctly he had spiked blonde hair at the time too. Kevin Wells, our bassist, was probably adorned in several hemp necklaces and jncos with some sort of hawaiian shirt. Jason Fine was drumming for the band. He went on to play for leavenworth and cetus for some time and is now married and has a really cute dog(s). He had the most ridiculous drum kit ever (DW custom i believe) with a ton of cymbals and shit. looking back on it we were totally the late 90s equivalent to the bands that open shows today and have full road cases and all. haha. at least Jason was. the rest of us were sort of ripped out of a page of revolver magazine. I think i was wearing my chine shirt with Lee jeans cut off at the bottom and spray-painted airwalks. I'm fairly certain i had gel in my hair as well, parted in the middle of course. anyway, jay grubb moshed for us and then some of our other friends did and i felt like the coolest person alive.

I'm pretty sure nutbox played next and i literally don't remember our set. it's kind of like i'm an idiot. Manhunt played and i have a hard time differentiating between times i saw them. Every time we saw them play we pretty much just made fun of them. I felt terrible about it but i was just part of a crowd of immature kids (keep in mind i was making fun of someone after rapping in airwalks). we were cool with those guys (and girl) and watched them go on to form Fall River, which was worlds better as a band. John Collier (sp?) was their guitar player and then he drummed in Fall River i think. he was a really good dude. we had kind of a falling out after the borough hall brawl but i'm pretty sure he is a teacher or something now. the original drummer of Manhunt worked at the petstore i've gone to my whole life and he used to hook me up with crickets. Alex from the Curve Shooters worked their too. Me and the drummer definitely had a conversation about how we should start blowing up McDonalds and shit. hahaha.

I think this may have been the record release show for Charlie Brown Gets a Valentine (please correct me if i'm wrong). The record came with crayons and a black and white cover that you could color yourself, hahaha. Lansdale's own Spoiled Records put it out and Schwa never lacked in innovation. Charlie Brown Gets a Valentine was from maryland and they were one of several bands that had a second (or maybe even primary) home in Lansdale. They had a side band called Politically Erect that played Scott McClellan's show at the Moose in Lansdale (now 3rd and Walnut) in the fall of '98. At that point in time we definitely called scott "Satan" and he had shoulder-length hair. yo, we all sucked. Scott and I went vegan around the same time, and it was awesome having a friend to do that with, cause at that point it wasn't quite that accepted in our circle of friends. Scott is doing the electric at Coldcuts Merch LLC and it's awesome that he's engaged and has a great dog that can pull trains and shit.

I don't remember the public's set or inkling's set because those are 2 bands that i saw so many goddamned times that they all bled together. *EDIT* the unsuspecting publics didn't play, but the wiseacres did* All in all my memory has sort of failed me this time because i can pretty much only remember the Nessiteras set. Believe it or not, I actually stopped myself from getting into completely off track stories and tried to keep it as close to this show as possible. my mind runs and shit, i'm an idiot. It's a bummer that Lansdale never really had a skatepark. we had that set of ramps or whatever you want to call them behind the North Penn YMCA but that shit was barely worth going to, which is probably why it failed.

i still to this day have a "nessiteras: lansdale hardcore" sticker on my parent's mailbox.

"THE WORLD IS OURS" Hoods/Dysphoria/Above This World Split CD...Dysohoria's Final Recordings

This 3-way split CD was released in 1999 on West Coast Worldwide Records. This was one of the first releases on the label, run by Mikey Hoods. Both Hoods and Above This World were bands from northern California, and Dysphoria was from awesomedale. Before their signing to Eulogy records, Hoods were in a long-drawn battle with Victory records and more than one of their songs has been dedicated to their hatred of Tony Victory. Either way, this was released around the time that that beef was going down so perhaps it being "self-released" by Mike had something to do with that. the first 3 tracks on this CD are by the Hoods. or Hoods. I know the band is just "Hoods" but I always say "the Hoods". whatever. The third track, titled Above This World, is my favorite Hoods song of all time. The middle 3 songs are what would turn out to be the last recordings Dysphoria ever released. Withered (probably my favorite song they ever released), All Is Lost, and Endless War...so fucking good. The last 3 tracks by the BAND Above This World have less of an impact. So this album is basically like an upside down hamburger. Awesome start/bottom, amazingly filling middle and sort of an easily-overshadowed end/top. I guess it could be a normally place hamburger if you start at the top, but whatever. I'm an idiot. I don't have a link to the full release so for now, you'll only get the Dysphoria tracks. We are hopefully going to to get around to released a Dyscography on GTR records, with all the shit they released as well as an unreleased cover and a live set all on one album. be on the lookout and what not.

DOWNLOAD THE DYSPHORIA TRACKS HERE

Here is a low-quality video of Dysphoria playing "Endless War" off of this split in Telford, PA. I think this show was on December 2nd or 3rd, 2000. I have a crazy memory when it comes to shows. This was Leavenworth's second show and i was 17 at the time. XBROKEN WILLX played (who had members of inane, the wonder years (i think nick was in it at least), the red baron (brett moved to florida later on) and i think CDC as well. I don't know, but we "split a set" with them to play this show. Truly an honor to have played with Dysphoria that night. I'm sure Manhunt played as they were the house band at this venue. A few things about this show...It was at the Telford Borough Hall, and went on to be known as the "borough hall brawl" show. a couple of us Lansdallions and some Boyertown kids (they are the big ones that look nordic) got into it with a few of the local Telford dudes. Looking back on it, it was totally retarded and only happened because people didn't know "what's up" or whatever. I originally attempted to break things up, but i ended up throwing a few punches and probably looked like the biggest dork in the world. Either way, the show got shut down shortly after this song and this was one of Dysphoria's last shows of that era. I am the goofy idiot in khakis and a blue/white striped shirt with a butt cut. i hate myself.

THE ARCHIVE

http://www.stamphill.com/music

that is a list of download links for a TON of old lansdale bands and bands that played here a lot. i'll probably be taking one release or band at a time and doing a write up on them with some pictures and shit if possible. but for now: download the SHIT out of that shit. I edited the previous post and included the link for the comp. party.

"the comp" release show 3/28/98

A part of me wants to say this was in 1997, but I'm pretty sure it was '98. I remember getting a flyer for this show from Matt Turzo of Blue Collar Underworld. We played in jazz band together at Pennfield Middle School and he was a year behind me, so it was definitely either 8th or 9th grade for me, which would have been '97 or '98. Whatever. This show was moved somewhat last minute to The Knights of Colombus on 8th and Kennilworth in Lansdale. I remember my parents dropping me off at this show and my mom being like "these people look scary, are you sure you should go here?" haha. Needless to say, I went in.

I missed Magnus, who had Nick and Dan who later went on to form Cold World. *actually magnus didn't play, RELAPSE did (thanks derek calhoun). Relapse would later turn into INKLING, who would later morph into THE MINOR TIMES* I saw Chamber and I think the one dude from Strength For A Reason drummed for them, but i could be mistaken about that. I remember them talking about one of their members getting in a car accident or something. I wasn't too into them at the time, but they were definitely ahead of their time in the high-pitched screamy metalcore world. 2 or 3 years later, a million bands that sounded like them popped up out of south jersey and they plagued shows at the killtime and shit. Dysphoria played earlier on and i was SO STOKED on them. Todd sang with a backpack on and i was like "that's so cool". haha. I'm not sure if i watched surrounded but i remember watching XIII PFP and thinking I should play in a band like that, being the superb trombone player that i was at that time. Chine played and they were all covered in this orange shit. I remember standing in the middle of the floor waiting for them to play and no one knew where they were, then they all came in looking like SNooki's of the late 90s. Ryan got some of the orange shit on me and i swear to god it never came off. I was wearing my Deftones screaming kitty shirt and i was pissed that it was stained. i wore that shirt like every day. I forget when PP&G played but i do remember i never liked them, mostly because their singer's name was Dave Leck and he was a complete tool. He was in my sister's grade and our names were way too similar to like him. Blue Collar Underworld played and i left halfway through the set cause my dad showed up. He walked in in with his normal happiest-dude-in-the-world demeanor and looked about as out of place as a good band on warped tour. it was funny. I went home that night and played my dysphoria CD while air-drumming to it like i saw chris play. He was left handed, so i probably looked retarded.

I don't remember if i actually picked up the SCREAM AND BE HEARD compilation that night, because i know i bought (or re-bought) it from the Sam Goody in the KOP mall around christmas time. i'm pretty sure i bought it before this show, if it was available then. i'm not sure. Either way i remember being bummed that the Dysphoria tracks were off the Full Length that i already had. That CD, Hope Without Reason, changed my life. I suppose the SABH comp did as well in a lot of ways, but I got the Dyshporia CD first. I had never heard music like that played and it was so harsh being played at that show, it was like I could touch it. gayest/most awesome shit ever. Judd, who played guitar for Dysphoria, was talking to a girl who i went to school with. I remember being like "dude she's like 14" and he was like "dude i'm 16" and i couldn't get over it. I thought he was like 24. He had full sleeves for christ's sake. haha. Dysphoria's merch girl, who went on to marry drummer Chris Spear and have 2 beautiful girls with him, was really nice to me and she let me take like ten round Dysphoria stickers. I put one on my one snake cage and it is still there to this day. I believe a put a couple on some signs around town as well. I think this was the first release from DOUBLE DOWN RECORDS, which was at that time run by Mitch from XIII PFP and Dr. Schwa. 2 people learned a lot from, have endless amounts of respect for, and remain friends with to this day. I believe the label sort of became Mitch's thing after a while and Dr. Schwa went on to do Spoiled Records, who would later put out the Unsuspecting Public 7", CBGAV 7" and CBGAV/Inkling split 7". If anybody has some pictures from this show, i would love to put them here.

Here's the cover of the comp. featuring Schwa with died blond hair, Tom Grind of XIII PFP and Todd Dysphoria's armpit about to be licked by some weird dude.


DOWNLOAD THE ENTIRE COMP HERE

For The Lansdallions

I've talked about doing a blog that focuses on the Lansdale music scene for a couple years now. As I'm sitting here watching "Pot Zombies" on demand at 5 am on a Thursday, it hit me that finally doing this would be a much better use of my time. If you are reading this blog, odds are you are from Lansdale (making you a Lansdallion) or are somewhat familiar with a band from this area. Awesome, that rules. Here's why Lansdale has always been a diamond in the rough when it comes to local scenes.

Small/local music scenes are everywhere in the world. Punk scenes, hardcore scenes, indie scenes...this is a common part of western society. What has always been different about Lansdale is that there is just one scene: THE scene. When I started going to shows around this area, it was a very diverse and close-knit group of bands/kids that made up the shit here. Being from the culturally diverse suburb that we were from, we were brought up to be open-minded and accepting of all walks of life, that transpired to the music scene(s) here and what resulted was a group of kids that didn't feel the need to segregate ourselves anymore than we already were. We weren't taught to look down to a group of people for dressing differently than us because we recognized that we were ALL already being looked down on by every "normal" person out there.

People have always said the cliche "it doesn't matter where you come from or what you look like" and then go on to make fun of the goth kids in the corner or the wigger bobbing his head in the back. We really DIDN'T care what you look like or where you came from (unless it was Doylestown) and I like to think that it is more or less still like that. Sure, dying your hair green and wearing jncos is pointless and not necessary to prove any sort of point, but who cares if you want to do that? go for it. Lansdale was a place where you could see a Puerto Rican dude in XXXL tommy hilfiger jumpsuit dancing next to a shitty white kid with a mohawk and nobody gave a fuck. The gang mentality that plagues today's hardcore and punk scenes never had and never will have a place here. We've had problems here and there, but on the whole, we have an awesome scene that is a perfect metaphor for what makes America great: Diversity, Unity, and Sincerity.

We have always been different. Dress codes have never really applied here and the hierarchy of people that "matter" is kept in line by the fact that our scene is held down by some of the realest people alive and we keep each other's egos in check. People from this scene have played on every continent but Antarctica and South America (I believe, i know the other 4 Continents have been covered). We have played to multiple thousands of people at a time and come back to play in our own basements to each other and nobody else. We are everything that has ever been real in underground music and I hope that the next generation of kids can keep up with what we've put down for them.

I recently went to a punk show at the North Penn YMCA in Lansdale. The only band I knew playing was Dugout, a pop-punkish band from here whose members I had recently met when some of us went to talk to the borough council about securing a venue in Lansdale. I didn't really even know them that well, but being at that show was the weirdest shit ever, and i was literally old enough to've fathered everyone else there. I talked with the Dugout guys that night and they told stories about watching me play with my bands over the passed decade and I realized it was exactly how I always saw the people a generation or so ahead of me. It made me feel like I've done more than just wast my money on records and live in my parent's basement. It felt good.

So, here it is. A blog to tell the tales of yesteryear, from the people that lived it. I have been a part of the Lansdale scene since 1997, and it was at full strength back then. There are people that have done far more for far longer than I have, so I welcome them to comment, interject, correct and add to this as much as possible. if you have a flyer, picture, question, story...anything at all, email it to me and i'll post it here with proper credits. davebloodsport@yahoo.com . Thanks, and enjoy.

-Dave Heck



"So many have come and gone
Never to understand
We must all get along
Can't comprehend
If we all can see it through
To better days
Make this all worth while"

- Todd Cramer "Last Man Out"/Dysphoria