Day 120-- the Invented History of Superjock, Part 5: the Rivalry
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
So there was this other band: Quiver. They were the only really good band on campus (since Superjock was that gray area between good and pretty horrible; we pulled away unscathed by claiming that anything bad sounding was ironic and intentional). Quiver played rock music--it was loud, catchy, and the blues crept into their songs. We hated Quiver, in theory, because they were good. Or at least I did. In theory. I was also mad that lots of people liked them and that they played an inferior form of rock and roll. In theory.
Quiver was fronted by a guy named Steve. Steve had a really soulful, bourbon-on-the-rocks sort of voice. He was also a pretty mean guitarist. There was also Chris (#1), a REALLY mean guitarist. He could play circles around everyone in our group, combined. And their bassist Chris (#2) was good. I was jealous of him because he knew what he was doing on the bass, whereas I sort of made things up from my own guitarist perspective (and a mediocre guitarist perspective at that). Finally, a guy named Levi drummed. He was good.
We liked Levi and Chris (#1) a lot as people, and grumbled under our breath about them being chained to the cookie-cutter blues rock monolith of Quiver. I don't think we liked Steve much. "Ego," I said, boosting my own ego. We had a friend that occasionally sang with Quiver, and we'd get her to admit how evilbadwrong they were. Quiver! Bah!
We went to Quiver shows, because we had to. In theory. We'd stand in the back and grumble. They went to our shows and grumbled, I think. In theory. Chris (#2) and I would sometimes talk bass guitar talk, him saying how he thought I did some neat stuff that one night. I'd thank him, and tell him how awesome his bass line was in thatonesongthatQuiverdidIforgotthename, and then I'd realize that I was gushing and shut up. I was (in theory) suppose to be hating. Hate.
Our biggest coup was at that year's Big Event. See, the Big Event was a giant, outdoor festival that Geneva held on the lawn in front of one of the dorms. They'd usually get some fair-to-good band to play, preceded by a swarm of student bands. The student body would play games and eat awesome food on the lawn. It was a lot of fun (before it got turned into the collegiate equivalent of a Slip and Slide a few years ago).
Superjock had a friend in the Student Activities department. In fact, she was the main student liaison to the SA head. Kris (our friend) loved Superjock. She was hip, see. We got to open up for the big band at the Big Event that year, meaning, we were the last student band to play before the rock stars came out. The rock stars were the Elms. Perfect! They were a power pop band, just like Superjock. Quiver would play before us, and would have to acknowledge that the awesomer band won.
We got ready. We practiced a ton. I think I got sort of jaded by our band, for some reason, because when the big day came I didn't don the official SJ sweater vest. I just wore a t-shirt and shorts. I remember watching the bands throughout the day, growing increasingly nervous. Quiver eventually came out as we loaded our gear next to the stage. They ripped through some songs, and sounded pretty good. One of their last songs was a cover of the Pixies song "Where Is My Mind?" Steve announced to the audience, "we're going to close with the song 'Where Is My Mind?' from the movie Fight Club." In a rage fueled partially by music collector mania and anger at any potential fanbase they might win for playing a song cool at the time, I shrieked "IT'S FROM THE PIXIES' 1989 FULL-LENGTH SURFER ROSA." Take that, Quiver.
But they got their stuff off of the stage, Superjock lugging speakers and amps and guitar cases onto the stage and nodding "well done"s at them, not entirely in earnest. I set up my Fuzz Face pedal and checked my mic with the guys running the soundboard. The rest of the band did what they needed to do.
I can honestly say that was the best show we played. We had fun. I managed to not only play well, but did good backing vocals for once. Jeremy was in rare form that night, not only pulling off everything perfectly on the guitar but accenting songs with lead parts that harmonized with everything. Verien wailed on the drums. And Matt was not only singing and playing his guitar with everything he had, but his usually humorous between song banter was professional comedian level (he did get chicken wing bones tossed at him at one point). And the rap (our improve joke hip hop song) was great. When we were done, the frontman and lead guitarist from the Elms talked to us for like an hour, telling us how much they loved such and such song and how they also loved bands like Superdrag and Teenage Fanclub and Tom Petty. During their show, the lead guitarist kept looking at me and adding knowing musical references into his playing (such as finishing one of their songs with a riff from the Superdrag tune).
It was amazing.
And in hindsight we were complete and total buffoons in regards to the guys in Quiver (all of whom I'm friends with now).
posted, with grace and poise, by Jason @ 1/03/2007 11:33:00 PM,
3 Comments:
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At 1:25 AM,
Brandon Zangus said...
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I still have my blue Elms shirt from that concert.
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At 11:01 PM,
said...
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morale of the story: you always win when you have connections?
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At 11:04 PM,
Jason said...
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Moral of the story-- I'm an asshole more than I'd like to be.
