"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