PS: I make an appearance in this chapter. So that's a first. And it feels kinda' weird.
PPS: Typos abound!
Craigums (What Happens Next) I saw Lifes Halt and I was
so blown away and so impressed and so taken aback and there was that whole
sense of danger to it. The music was intense. They were all into it. You know
when you see a band and it's a band, a solid unit that’s just trying so hard to
just fucking destroy! There's no shoegazing going on. Everybody is fighting to
be awesome, to be powerful.
Max Ward (What Happens Next) We went
down to LA and we played a few shows with them and that was it. It was almost
like a romance for us. Any chance we got, we would play with Lifes Halt,
because we just thought they were the best band at that time. We constantly
tried to bring them up to San Francisco and any chance we got, we would go down
LA and play with them.
Félix Reyes (Lifes Halt) I think that that's why they
took a liking to us, because we in many regards, sort of embodied the spirit,
and a little bit of the sound and the aesthetic already. I think that they also
appreciated too, where we were from and who we were and that they saw that it
was an organic thing.
Robert Collins (What Happens Next) They took
the roof off the joint. They were great. Our 7” was out, they knew us, had
heard us, people down there, already knew who we were and we knew who they were,
but the kids down there just went ape shit for Lifes Halt. The whole show was
super good and it got to the point where damn near every time we went down
there, we played with them and then they came up shortly after that and played
a show in San Francisco and it was the same way - we had more people that knew
us but then they just smoked everything in the room when they played. LA was a
second home for us and the Bay Area was a second home for them.
Félix Reyes We became
good friends. We have a lot of respect for each other. At that time, it just
made sense that we would play with such a band and that they would play with us,
because we were one of a handful of bands that had that general, older style
hardcore approach.
Devon Morf (What Happens Next) Their was
definitely a genuine sense of camaraderie and genuine friendships between all
members, and we complemented each other well.
Craigums Instantaneous closeness. We
talked and hung out and we could not wait to hang out again. It was one of the
very few times where you click and connect so quickly.
Ernesto Torres (Lifes Halt) We really
looked up to those guys. They were awesome people. They really helped us out
with a lot. Robert booked the whole second tour that we did, booked everything,
did all the work. He was just full of energy, gung-ho, always ready to go.
Félix Reyes At that
time already, they were like seasoned DIY professionals. They had been across
the world in different bands. They had toured. They had put out records and so
they certainly of course put us up even more. They put us under their wing.
They had this aesthetic. They had this term or this label that was associated
with us.
Max Ward When they
approached us after the Japan tour - after we thought, well we've done
everything we want to, we’re just gonna’ let the band kind of lie on the side -
when they said let’s do a US tour together, we said okay we’ll do it. It was
largely because we wanted to be with Lifes Halt and see them every night.
Craigums “Start Something” totally
substantiated both of our band’s approach.
Félix Reyes It's good
to take things into your own hands that you want to do and go forward and make
it happen. Essentially, the whole DIY ethic conveyed through that phrase.
Max Ward That was
Felix, “Flex” as we called him, Felix the bassist of Lifes Halt. He was like, “let's
do this, let's do this tour, let's do this record, let's screen print our own
shirts, we’re going to release this record ourselves, we are going to set up
this tour ourselves, we can do this and it's not just about playing music
ourselves, but we gotta’ take it beyond the club and we have to take it beyond
the practice space, we’ve got to organize communities, we gotta’ talk politics,
we gotta’ connect with different communities outside of our own.” What better
way to do that then by actually go on the road and tour and see other people
and see different communities…Felix came up with that. Ernie drew the cover.
Jon Westbrook (Lifes Halt) We were
all really into the Big Boys. At the end of every Big Boys show, they would say
“now go start your own band.” That was basically the starting point for that
whole idea.
Noel Sullivan (Lifes Halt) Here’s the match, you just
have to do your own thing.
Ernesto Torres We started
taking in things around us, like the people, the places, things that were
happening. It just came about. At that point we had met a lot of people and
just felt really lucky and just wanted to express that a little bit more.
Craigums Felix was very big on
maintaining your culture and your identity and where you live is where you
should be focusing your energies on to your people, empower everybody in your
life who you feel needs that help. He was very community-oriented.
Félix Reyes Much like
the split 7” with No Reply, it almost seemed like a natural thing to happen
between Lifes Halt and What Happens Next. We were such good friends, very
supportive of each other and had a cut-from-the-same-cloth type vibe.
Robert Collins All that
stuff just seemed normal like, of course we’re gonna’ do that. We were totally
linked together and linked ourselves together, didn't mind at all that we were
associated with one another all the time. I remember sitting with Max in the
mastering studio when we heard their side of the split for the first time and
both of our jaws hit the floor because it was within the context of the same
kind of music but there are so many things on that record that are so next
level. All those dudes can play their asses off.
Max Ward We knew
Youngblood and they put out the Lifes Halt EP. They were huge supporters and we
were just thinking, let's make this a collective effort, so it was a Youngblood/625
co-release.
…
Ernesto Torres I think
that was a six-week tour. You tell Robert, “hey we’re gonna’ go on tour.” He’s
like “ok we’ll be gone for like half a year.” I don’t know if you know that
about Robert and those guys, they don’t fuck around.
Noel Sullivan Robert’s
like a road wizard. That was really cool meeting Robert Collins on that tour
because on that tour, I was only 18. It’s my second tour and Robert’s like this
tour sentinel. You know, he’s just been on tour forever. It was cool learning
all these little tricks and shit.
Ernesto Torres Robert is
still like that to this day.
Jon Westbrook My van
broke a head gasket on the first day of tour, so we had to miss the next two shows
while everybody was trying to pool their money together to buy another van.
Félix Reyes We arrived
at some late show in Austin. The first thing we saw and heard about was like
some girl sitting on the roof right by the entrance and pissing down from the
roof. She was pretty wasted.
Noel Sullivan We just
did this fucking 30-hour drive. Everyone is just like high as shit from just
smelling each other’s farts and sweating your balls off. We’re just sitting on
the street under this roof. I was with Craigums and all of What Happens Next
and Lifes Halt was sitting there and this chick comes up to the corner. We’re
like, what is she doing? She fucking takes her pants off and totally starts
pissing into the alley. That wasn't the craziest thing, but it was pretty
impressive. This is like a 15 foot spray. We’re just kinda’ watching it,
mystified. There's these other guys in the driveway and we had no idea who they
are, they’re just locals. Two guys just talking about something. One guy just
sees this and immediately just runs up and starts drinking it. It's so brutal
because it's like hittting his face from like 15 feet and it’s splashing
everywhere. The chick has no idea this is happening with her bodily excrements.
She's on the roof clueless. We’re all in this dark alley like, oh my god this
guy’s drinking piss! Then it ended and she zips up and bails and he wipes his
face off and just tries to go right back in the conversation with his buddy.
Robert Collins It would
be really easy to focus on all the highlights, the killer fucking shows. The
two shows in one day in Chicago that were totally different, but both
incredible. We played a show at The Fireside with American Nightmare and Kill
Your Idols and then we went a played a backyard show in Pilsen with a bunch of
neighborhood bands and both were fucking killer and totally different. Other
shows that stick out - the show at ABC in New York was next level.
Max Ward I always
wanted to play ABC No Rio because it was a hallmark or foundation of the scene…When
I think about that show, I’m thinking about it from behind the drum set. So I'm
the one who’s sitting behind the protected drum set, but I remember Devon
having a really energetic performance.
Devon Morf We would
sit in the car and talk about history and philosophy in our van, they had a
television with a VCR where they’d watch The Simpsons and eat junk food -
totally a generation gap there. Some of them would hang out in our van and they
were just bored silly really quickly. They had no interest in talking about the
Young Officers Revolt in Japan prior to World War II.
Craigums They were playing the radio
trying to drown out the TV, because they’d want to hear what was on that. So
the radio would be full blast, the TV would be full blast and then they would
be trying to give directions to each other and just yelling…We played one tape,
it was Live After Death, Iron Maiden. It was the only tape in the tape deck and
it looped for 5 weeks straight.
Noel Sullivan You're all
bottled up, smelling each other’s fuckin’ assholes for like six weeks. You put
yourself through these crazy situations and some people thrive on it, some
people don't really like it. They can’t do it. I think some people think they
like it, but don't really like it and they keep on doing it.
Max Ward Noel was
younger than the other guys in the band. He was really goofy, so he was just
constantly joking.
Craigums He was always our punching
bag, but he was always too cool to be taken down by the punches, but it never
kept them from trying to knock him down a peg. He was the one-liner and not because
he was good at one-liners but because his thoughts were just little nuggets. He
would just say weird shit. For some reason I remember, and it was such a
tangential thing, but in hindsight, it was totally directed, he said “old people
are dumb” …He would also say things that were really naïve, but totally
correct. Something about Noel was really special.
Max Ward The one
thing I remember about that Boston show was looking up at one of the pipes that
ran across the ceiling and seeing a couple of centimeters worth of dust that
had collected on the top, just to show you how much dust was in the air…There’s
probably bands that would walk into that situation be like, “we’re not playing
here. Where is the PA, there's no stage, wait, you mean we’re playing a dirty
floor with plumbing going over our heads?” That's what separates the bands that
want to play the clubs versus the bands who are “the local punks set this up, the
local punks are trying to do something outside of the club scene.” Sometimes
you gotta’ play on the dirt floor with tons and tons of dust.
Ernesto Torres Man, that
place was fucking filthy!
Jon Westbrook I take
back what I said about never having worn a bandanna, I wore one across my face
at that show.
Craigums We wore bandannas. That was
probably the greatest benefit of being bandanna thrash, was that one show we
played in Boston where it was so dirty that we wore them over our faces just
for health purposes.
Robert Collins We all had
black boogers for a week.
Devon Morf Who knows what was in that
dust, that was ridiculous! Then I remember at one point I reached up and touched
the lightbulb I gave myself an electric shock. It was a brutal show. I can't
believe anybody stayed in there and watched the rest of that set because we
should of just stood there silently and not moved instead of kicking up more
dust.
Max Ward If you
choose not to go through the regular route. If you're not going to go to the
regular rock club, which provides a PA system and it’s got a bar and they’re
gonna charge a ton of money because they want to make money off the show. But
if you say, hey, we’re gonna’ do this ourselves, you have to find some space
and normally it's some rough space not made for music. In Europe, you have all
the squatted buildings, so you're literally walking into old factories or old
buildings that have been occupied but not necessarily cleaned up. That kind of reminded
me of playing a squat. We were definitely playing places of similar, let's say,
uncleanliness.
Robert Collins A lot of
really cool shows, but Flagstaff was pretty small, kinda’ like any other show,
any other time in Flagstaff. Lifes Halt’s van broke down in Flagstaff and we
missed our Austin show and had tons of really frustrating and regular tour
things happen the whole time. We played in Rapid City, South Dakota, and there
was a circle pit because when Lifes Halt played, all four members of What
Happens Next ran around the stage and around the podium that was behind the
stage the whole time they played because there was nobody else in the room,
there was no one there, nobody came.
Ernesto Torres Fuck it,
let’s just play! Everybody was going crazy.
Craigums That was probably the most
fun show in that we had to make the fun ourselves…We actually switched
instruments between bands. So I played drums for some of the Lifes Halt set.
Felix played bass for some of our songs.
Robert Collins It was
great, it was super awesome, had a lot of really killer shows. That West Coast
stint coming down at the end was just next level. Those shows with Tear It Up
and Fast Times were so good.
Max Ward It's crazy
to think those two tours converged and the Seattle show was just out of
control. The Portland show, it was fun for us even though everybody stood
outside.
Craigums Lifes Halt’s van broke down
again on the way to the last show and we were all stuck. I happen to be in
their van on that stretch, because we were going home and they broke down an
hour outside of San Francisco. It’s flat for probably 40 miles in every
direction so it’s super hot. Everyone was already pissed and now we’re about to
miss the homecoming show.
Robert Collins The last
show of Start Something tour kinda’ blends in with other What Happens Next /
Lifes Halt shows at Mission Records. It was killer and we were rolling with
Tear It Up / Fast Times, but it didn’t feel like the tour was “over,” because
Lifes Halt was still going south with those kids, and we had another show
booked a week or two later in SoCal.
…
Craigums Lifes Halt were like “hey
our friend Carl is doing this documentary of the tour.”
Robert Collins He came on
the tour to make a documentary of the whole escapade.
Ken Ramsey Adding to
the excitement of seeing those bands so many times on that tour was every time
they showed up, Carl Cordova was there with a video camera capturing the fun.
Definitely not today, but in 2001, when you see a person recording an event,
you automatically are going to think there’s something significant happening,
something worth documenting. That sort of put a fine point on the whole thing,
hey this is important.
Craigums We worked for at least a year
straight on editing all that footage into a documentary. We got as far as halfway
through the trip and he was only logging footage. It was such a long time and
then he quit the job where he had the editing bay, so that’s as far as it ever
got.
…
Craigums When I saw
Lifes Halt for the first time, they were doing it with a very specific pro
wrestling approach. Ours was more just like a Monty Python way to fuck with
each other…When we saw Lifes Halt they were doing shit that was just flat out
dangerous…You can imagine when we did that tour, instead of it being us doing
our thing, it became a battle.
Devon Morf Lifes Halt were good every
night and we felt like with them as the standard bar, with What Happens Next,
we were good every other night.
Max Ward It was
very interesting, as with all bands, there is internal politics. It's not just
internal about what the band is, but what kind of politics one has about their own
relationship to the world, their own perspective on political or social issues.
Everybody’s gonna’ come at it differently. It’s not like one band as a unit is
going to go out and engage in the same way. Actually, you’re coming into communication
and contact with these people who are coming to see your band, but you're also
continuing to have these conversations within the vans as you’re driving
between shows. You're thinking through like what was that about or if there was
something that we were having a discussion about at a show, things got heated
or something, we would talk about it in the van, kind of contemplate it. There
was also probably people in both bands, who were like, “I actually don't really
care about that stuff.” Some people could choose to be apolitical, some people
could choose to be interested in one specific issue, but not all, some people
really saw this as an idealistic venture and we need to consider all aspects of
it, where we’re eating, who we’re staying with, what clubs we’re playing and
all this kind of stuff. It was a constant conversation. There was fights on
tour, for sure. There’s people who were leaving one van and going to the other
because they needed to cool off. I don't think there was any fights between the
two bands, but there were fights internal to the bands themselves and the other
band would provide refuge for the one person who wanted to cool off. But at the
end of the day, we would all pull up to the same gas station, go get some food,
sit down on the curb, some people were skating, some people are talking about what
the hell happened the night before.
Noel Sullivan You have
to have some water come out of the pot sometimes.
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