Taillights

On the Road with Timescape Zero

 

Tampa, Florida - Timescape Zero, Tension & Lead

We arrive in Tampa after a short trip up I-75 and Alligator Alley, counting the alligators I spotted as we went along, losing count after 50 or so.
Less than 3 hours of nonstop speeding (90 - 100 mph) gets us there very early, but we don't mind.

We walk around Ybor City getting good food to eat and hang out at the record store (Blue Chair) where the show is at.
A record store seemed like an unlikely place to have a show, until we saw it. It's huge, with it's own stage and the record bins are on wheels to cart out of the way for when the show begins.

The show starts at 8pm and there are a lot of people here. It looks like it will be a good show.

The opening band takes the stage and I sit back and relax behind my merch table, selling shirts and 7"es for unbelievably low prices.
Shirts for $5, tapes and records for only $2. D.I.Y. bitch!
People walk by the table and look around, they give me weird and dirty looks. I'm confused.

The opener is Lead and they sound like a mix between Eyehategod and Integrity, but with Charles from Rorschach on vocals.
Complete the with 666 on the drum set and all the lights turned down. People are slamming, thrashing and hurting themselves in this darkness.
I asked the manager to turn the lights on when we play. He says, "Of course, these guys asked for that."
Eeeeeevil. I should have known.
Plus their set was the longest I've ever seen for an opening act. One hour, and then some.

Tension plays next and the crowd thins out. I start to worry people only came to see the local band.
Admittedly, I don't care much for our tourmates, Tension (on Endless Fight Records, not the band Tension* from New York).
This little tour was set up by Rabbi, and he says the two heaviest Miami bands flow well together. Tension is from Coral Springs, an affluent small town. Some of their lyrics deal with God. Plus, I really find it funny when white, upper-middle class kids sing about how harsh life is and the threats of "the street". When you have slept in alleys, looked through garbage cans for food... then maybe you can sing with a little honesty.
Their set does end well, and the crowd that stayed - which was still many - had enjoyed them.

We set up in record time, though thinking no one will stay and we'll play three numbers for four people.

We could not have been more wrong, as I guess the dinner crowd had returned and the place is packed with over 100 kids.
The crowd pulls up right to the front of the stage and we begin.
Smiles abound, people dance their asses off and all seem to be having a great time.
I throw the mike out into the crowd, not really expecting them to know songs off our demo, but they sing along - every word.
This crowd was so energetic we fed off them like fucking sharks.

-- the crowd and T. Zero at Blue Chair Music, Tampa --

During our song "Kaliyuga" Stan throws his bass into my face, almost busting my nose. Blood pours, but I never miss a beat.
The crowd goes nuts. Set ends, and I get bummed rushed by straightedge kids with money falling out of their fists.
We sell shirts, 7"es and stickers like they're the last ones left in a hardcoreless world.

We made killer money! Enough for a hotel tonight - as I forgot to announce we needed floor space - and to pay for gas for the rest of this trip.
We get a room at the Florida Economy Inn, room 155. Fuck, one away from 156!
Everyone is up and talking. A good first night.

Our drummer Kyle leaves the room for food as we're finally falling asleep. I unscrew the lightbulbs.
He returns to darkness and flicking of switches, as I awake to tell him,
"The front desk called, they shut down the electricity after 4am to conserve energy."
He falls for it and the room erupts in laughter.
One loud, echoing laugh made us realize Stan was sleeping in the bathtub. More laughter.

 

 

Tallahassee, Florida - Timescape Zero, Tension & Emma

I'm still on a high from last night, but my nose is a little sore. Stan's bass is okay.
The drive was quick, easy and somewhat scenic across Florida's panhandle, especially compared the the hillless, and sometimes treeless route up I-95 on the East coast of Florida.

A little too quick though, as we arrive at a house belonging to a friend of Rabbi.
We enter to find it's 20° colder inside the house than outside.
We're pretty bored for a bit. I play with the "house chicken", Angus, for a while.

An old friend, Smittie, who goes to school here, drops by and we head out with a someone who is familiar with the hood.
While walking around, he takes us to strip mall with a Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. They have a huge window on the side of the building where you can watch the doughnuts fry, and covered in glaze, assembly line-like. I watched for over and hour, and no I was not stoned... yet.

Later at Taco Bell, I notice Stan was missing. Someone says he's at Knucklehead's... a head shop!
Stan Obal, king of South Florida straightedge is in a head shop. Word.
I race over and swing the door open. All eyes are on me as I pull out a camera and say, "Picture of a lifetime." Click.

Everyone is laughing, but suddenly a friend Sylvia points behind me. I turned around.
"Hey buddy, why'd you take that picture?" asks this little, red-haired guy, as I see Stan walking up, behind him, laughing.
"I said no pictures." He looks at my hand, as if wanting to grab my camera.

I place it in my pocket and laugh, "He's a friend, jerk," turn my back and walk away.
The guy just stands there as I walk away. Stan laughs louder, and walks up to me.
"Did you know he had a gun in his left hand?".
I didn't, and if I did I probably would have been more polite, but he let me walk away.

Stan tells us that while the guy ran out to get me, he asked the girl behind the counter, "What's wrong with taking pictures in the store?"
And she replied, "Well, like... pictures just aren't cool, man."
He was laughing at what a burnout she seemed to him, but he actually hated that I got that picture.

There was a jock-riot at the venue the night before our show, so friends had it moved to this killer house rented out by punks.
Three stories, eight rooms, an attic and a look like Norman Bates', straight out of the movie Psycho.
Man I wish I had a place like this, but all to myself.

The show is a mix of some punk kids, a ton of college kids and no hardcore kids.

Emma sounds like Universal Order of Armageddon. The best band tonight.
Tension played well. We played well, but neither of us tore the place up.
And the crowd was more into the alcohol than hardcore music.

Later that night I got really stoned, and while taking a photo I dropped the camera.
The roll of film comes flying out, ruining the photo of Stan in the headshop, tonight's and the Tampa show pictures.
Except for one photo given to me by the fellows at Blue Chair, we lost all the photos of that killer show, but Stan doesn't mind a bit.

We crash out at around 6am wherever we can find a dry spot.

 

 

Atlanta, Georgia - Timescape Zero, Machine & Arms Reach

Pure chaos, as fumes are coming into the the hull of the vehicle.
People are in tears, as the muffler's smoke is directed in the back of this UHaul, choking the poor suckers for air.
We fix this by upgrading the gas, and cursing the UHaul corp.

Before we get to our destination we are stopped by Georgia State Troopers who demand that we break dance if we want to get back on the road. One asks us to dance as he beats the palm of his hand with his nightstick. No fucking joke. A friend, EZ, does his best 'moonwalk'.
The officers laugh. They leave us on our way.

As the show started Stan and I were busy out on the town, robbing people at gun point.
Well, not really, but we were up to no good.
I missed Arms Reach. Sorry.

Next up was a group of friends from back home, Machine. They had just released two 7" records on Youth Bus, and I truly believed they would be the next Quicksand. They rocked hard, but the crowd was getting a little crazy.

The crowd was made up of a lot of hardcore kids, and a few actual Marines - black uniform with swords and all.
The club was split into two floors. Techno on the bottom floor. Punk and hardcore shows above. Walking into what they thought was "just another bar", they pulled up into a corner and kept pointing fingers and laughing. Every once in a while going into the pit, and doing football moves with each other, like they were defensive blockers - or, mistaking slam dancing for sumo wresting.

During the Timescape set fights a'plenty broke out, as a few old Miami locals came by for the night get involved with the Marines.
While on stage I ask a friend to throw me my camera and I take photos of some of the melees.

-- Fish in a fight at The Loft, Atlanta --

(In the photo above friends from Miami are holding back another fried Fish [r.i.p.] as he's
ready to pummel some poor government puppet.)

Timescape Zero said good-bye and the bar closed down for the night.

At least I got to go to bed somewhat early.

 

 

Savannah, Georgia - Timescape Zero, Bob Evans & Snatch

The ride over here was long, and we are all dying for sleep.

The day started with a free show at a public park. It was a great show with some cool local bands, Bland Patrol (hardcore punk), Ink (instrumental screamo with a trumpet), 4 Too Soon (emocore). While the bands set up, I walk around downtown.
I tried picking up this girl that looked exactly like the Long Island Lolita, Amy Fischer, but she gave me the cold shoulder.
I picked up some antique Freemason aprons and certificates at a thrift store, and a copy of Answer Me #3 from a record store.

At 6pm the show ends, we head off for dinner, and are to meet up at the club, The Underground. This club is owned by an old friend of everyone in Timescape, George DK. People have driven up from Miami to catch this show. At least a third of the crowd of 300 is from our hometown, mostly old ex-Grudge Boys (an old south Florida skinhead crew) who came to party with us and George DK.

Before the show, we are to drive the UHaul to the club. Fish convinced us to get in the back for a second. He locked us in, turned the lights out and drove us to the show in complete darkness. His reason, "Hardcore is best played pissed. You needed to get pissed."
I was pissed, but Fish loves his hardcore and I understand, so I wind up calming down instead.

Snatch go on first. Their lead singer was the 15 year-old girl who was taped tag-teaming Rob Lowe and his pal during the Democratic National Convention in 1988. They had an L7 sound, and did a good job of rocking the place.

Next up was Bob Evans, named after the Waffle House/Dennys-like restaurant chain.
They sound like older Hüsker Dü and I really wanted to buy their stuff, but they had no cassettes or 7"es.
(Yep. I didn't have a CD player at the time I originally wrote this in 1995.)

Our set started and all hell breaks loose. Some of George's New York friends had also come down, and totally dug the
South Florida Hardcore sound.
The show is being video taped by friends. People are hanging from rafters. Beer cans are thrown, some still full. I catch a few those and finish them off. At the end of our set Bry smashes his guitar and throws it into the crowd. People are screaming for more.
Except one dude who is screaming for blood. He was hit with the flying guitar while he had his back turned to the stage.
He jumps up on the stage and gets up in Bry's face, screaming. Without a word, Bry grabs his hoody and pulls it down over his face, while bashing his face in with some right handed uppercuts.

When we later watch the video at George's house, you can see how the guy fell backwards onto the floor by watching where the crowd's heads turn. The house is packed with friends from Miami and people from NY, including the fellow Bry knocked out - who is now even more embarrassed as we rewind the video back and forth to see the fight.

With all these people in the house, it's like an after-show party. We sleep around 6am.

 

 

Gainesville, Florida - Timescape Zero, Tension, Ed Matus' Struggle & Utility

The show is at a club that's 21 & over. Ha! No Timescape Zero show there.
I convince everyone into not playing the show, but playing at a party for free. All agree.

We arrive at the house and we are bored waiting for people to show up. We like to be fashionably late to everything anyway.
I ask Juan Montoya of Ed Matus' Struggle if he wants to catch a movie. We drive around Gainesville with about 5 of us visiting the mall (letting kids in on the show), getting a bite to eat and finally arriving at the theater at 9pm, where we realize we're too late and head back.

Utility is on first, and I know the singer from back home. He's a Johnny-Come-Lately, who uses punk and hardcore as an excuse to pick up, not as an artistic expression or even lifestyle. He wears pilot goggles and a white shirt with "Utility" scrawled in marker, as he screams quasi-philisophic jabs to sound interesting, but he keeps saying, "Nights Che" instead of Nietzsche.

Ed Matus' Struggle play next. They are some crazy emocore friends from Miami. A mix of Big Drill Car and fusion jazz.

While being the hypocrite I can sometimes be, I'm outside talking to a girl I'm trying to pick up, and I hear
Timescape songs in the background...
Thanks for looking for me guys.

I run to the mike and pick it up in the middle of a song. During the middle of the set a fight breaks out.
I give the somewhat-jock crowd what for, and leave. They call me back. The place is flipping. I love the vibe I'm getting.
I return, the music starts and the kids are tearing apart this living room. People get trampled. Amps get knocked over.
My shoes were white, now they're black.

During Tension's set I walk around looking for a place for us, or at least for me, to crash. I found the girl I was speaking to earlier, and she said we could all sleep at her place, but I lost her later that night and wound up sleeping at the house which threw the party.

As par for the course, I finally fall asleep at 7am, only to awake at 10am because the next show is a matinee.

 

 

Orlando, Florida - Timescape Zero, Tension & Greening

After waking up early only to find out Rabbi is lost. No one knows where he is. He pulls up at 1pm and we haul it.

I spot a sign that reads: Ostrich Farm, Next Right. I say to myself "Why not?" and pull off. Everyone asks, "What's up?"
I drive up, while those in the car are still scratching their heads, wondering why we're here.
I don't know myself, as the ranch owner walks up.

I tell him I saw his sign. He asks if I'm going to buy one, which I replied "No."
"They're not for lookin' at," he says. I ask him why the signs are up if they're not for tourists to take a gander at?
He's quiet for a moment and asks if we've been around any fowl. "Nope," we all say, forgetting about Angus, the Tallahassee chicken.

While back on I-4, as I drive and everyone is catching a nap, I start to choke. And I mean CHOKE!
The car swerves. I cough violently. No one awakes. I taste blood and ask myself, "Ostrich payback?"

It was the worst drive into a city I have ever had, following Tension who claimed to know "exactly how to get there".
We finally had to ask for directions after close to an hour of circles in downtown Orlando... only to find it was nowhere near downtown.
Mark, who was asked to play 2nd guitar for Timescape on this little trip, said he could get us there in 5, so we ditched Tension.

The show is in full swing by the time we drive up. I catch the last few songs by Greening. I thought they sucked badly, but they handed me a 7" (they saw a copy of Feast of Hate and Fear), which I thanked them for because one of my mottos is, "I am simply as wise as Socrates."
First, let me explain, Socrates had said that the more he knew, the more he knew he knew nothing.
As smart as I am - or can be - I know I truly know nothing.
So I leave much to second, even third impressions, though I always keep the first well cataloged.
Well to do too, as I later found the 7" to be amazing hardcore that sounded like Quicksand and Burn with a touch of the early screamo thing.

Tension takes the stage and the place goes to war. The pit is furious. People scream their lyrics. They are loved here.

Timescape actually play the most uneventful show of the tour, and possibly our career.

-- T. Zero at Orange Sunday, Orlando --

The crowd reaction was decent, with only a few folded arms. The show went well, but we were unenthusiastic - and I kept tasting much blood.
We actually sold some merch, and it helped us a bit when it came time to pay for the UHaul.

I knew where I lived and how to get there, so with no one to follow
I hit the gas and just let 'em all see taillights.

 

 

 

 

A. Souto, 1995

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