Live in the night

That one night at my college.

Facebook memories are the best. Seriously, even when they remind you of something you don’t want to remember it’s like a mini therapy session… “Why don’t you want to think about this? Why did you tell people this? Would you like to enter the witness relocation plan?!?”

No seriously though, it’s cool.

Over the weekend a friend of mine posted this:

(This is what we call a concert ticket. Like an actual paper concert ticket.)

So in 1999 I was working at the radio station in the right hand corner, the former dominating KRAB radio. We were a huge part of the local music scene. We had this show called The KRABland Underground that was hosted by my friend Mark Montana. We played local fucking music. And this was our Chef’s Kiss to the legendary band Videodrone.

Videodrone had been signed. It was in the middle of Nu Metal hysteria and these dudes in Videodrone had the Nu Metal pedigree that they should have been ROYALTY.

If you listen to the whispers, the stories of the people who were around back then, my friend Ty Elam, the singer of Videodrone (and the band before this, which we’ll talk about in another episode…) taught Jonathan Davis how to sing.

Wait a sec… seriously someone taught Jonathan Davis how to sing on stage. It happened.

My friend Ty is a fucking savage in everything he does. He’s an amazing musician. He’s a great dad and he’s an amazing friend. He’s also my favorite person to take photos of, there is not a camera in the world that doesn’t love Ty Elam.

(Hi Friend!)

Anyway… At the time of this concert Videodrone was about to make their MTV debut, they were on the radio, they were on tour with Orgy, who you might know from TRL, etc.

It was a big fucking deal.

This little show I MC’d at my JR College though was all about local bands. The biggest and best of Bakersfield was going to be there and it was going to be the best time you could have when it was 110 degrees outside and your stupid ass was wearing pleather pants.

Who was there?

I’m old, so bear with me but…. I believe it was Swag 667

(This is Ty jumping on stage to fix someone’s guitar strap during Swag’s set. I do believe I see my friend Billy Vonboening over there in the background.)

Misbliss was there, duh, of course.

(This is not from that show. For some reason I do not have the roll of film I shot of Misbliss on this day but for funsies this picture was also taken at Bakersfield College.)

The Fucking Lebecs were there.

I shouldn’t call them the “fucking” Lebecs because these bad boys made Good Boy music and were awesome. Seriously, the nicest dudes in the scene, they had a huge following and could still book church shows because… well… because they were The Lebecs!

(Nick Lebec doing Nick Lebec shit at the show… )

But then… because there is more, like this is better than an infomercial going “But wait! There is more!” the crowning glory of this night besides Videodrone was this local band Juice.

Juice was the entire burrito of Kern County for a hot damn minute.

They were leaving for Europe in the morning so we were sending them off the best way we could. You know with a show in a concrete bowl when it was over 100 degrees, we love you dudes- never change.

(Juice at Bakersfield College)

At one point I was in the wings of the stage, my make up was giving the fuck up and I had cramps that could have dropped a Viking and my friend LaShay fixed my eyeliner right before I had to run out and say this:

“Give it up for Elementree/ Reprise Records Artists ‘Videodrone’” after I said a bunch of other shit that was actually heartfelt.

(I took all of these, some with a disposable camera.)

At the end of the show there were so many hugs. We put Juice on their way to Europe. I ended up going home eventually and then getting up the next day to go to Fresno for Father’s Day with my dad to see Videodrone and Orgy in another city.

I don’t remember what I wore. I don’t remember who was my “date,” for the show, but I remember changing film out of my camera. I remember my friends making sure I was stage ready to run out there and say stupid shit. I remember how much the hometown loved these bands and I remember how much it felt like family.