the above photo is
our friend Barrett
rocking out at the Czar Bar circa Spring of '94
names
first nick name as a baby: Barrett the Bearcat...(oh my god, so
cute!!!) Bear Bear, by my brothers and sisters... B... B Boy, by my mom...
Chilly B, San Francisco days... converted to Slippy Tree in that same
city.... now Chubby Flea or just Chubby
age
28, born July 16, 1969
dragking history
...I was there in the 51st street basement days...
all I had was a 15 watt mini Fender Amp and a Fender guitar which my mom
bought for me new on the North Side during my Hamilton College days... ended
up leaving that guitar on the curb in Wicker Park getting to drive up to
Mama Stel's place off of Western way up on the North Side... used to get
super nervous and drunk and I think even the first time we played at the U
of C up in that mural-lined concert hall I smoked a banana peel joint with
ted the hed... not feeling too good for the show... the very first show was
set up as a Breakdown Comics fundraiser on the fourth floor of an apartment
overlooking the lake and lake side park... Debut with Centaur also the same
night... ended up having so much nervous and spastic energy in my hands I
cut my fingers up on the strings of the guitar... still super nervous and
spastic in front of people that is groups of any size including one...
practiced pretty hard with DK and Centaur simultaneously for how many
years??? bought amps and speakers and trucked them around town in my ford
van... always got nervous to look out and see Bundy and James Warden
hovering around in our audiences... one time Bundy said that we were pretty
tight, I saw him in front of the Regenstein Library the day after one of our
first shows... I think we actually were pretty spastic but stel had come up
with some intricate and specific arrangements... I actually got to know
Lavon for the first time through the band... one of our first conversations
was down in Stel's basement waiting for someone to arrive after having gone
to the corner store to pick up a six pack and Lavon telling me about some
grassy South Side of Chicago back alley home grown which he would cure with
Crown Royal or some shit and the thought made me nautious but curious... of
course for Lavon and I we would always be drinking and smoking lots before
during and after practices and shows... the young and nervous bucks that we
are... so sensitive... I would just use the RAT pedal on one setting and
then a cheesy flanger for jams especially on Jazz Monster... I have never
been much into guitar effects.... I liked our music like Ben's kindof rock
songs which became strange with chords and beer and weed, and swirling
samples from ted... hit the lights light it then go to work boys... Stel
would always tell us that Mama Stel couldn't tell the difference between
weed smoke and cigarette smoke... but that if she did she would be upset...
I remember one of our first shows that was at the lower links with the Moon
Men.... we were setting up and it was hot or something so at some point I
think Ben and I both took off our shoes... the floor of the club was clean
and we wanted to relax or something... anyway the people came filled up the
space talking and drinking... my mom lived in the neighborhood at the time
so I invited her and her boyfriend.. I remember seeing Min and Craig there
like going back into the bathroom to do something funny.. being pissed at
the moon men who seemed fully socially inept and rude... then I heard a
crash as someone dropped their glass, so somewhere in my barely functioning
head I started to move around the space to find my shoes when zammo I
stepped right on the broken glass which had yet to be picked up, sliced my
left foot under the pinky toe in the pad of flesh... hobbled up the stairs
to sit out on the sidewalk in front of the club I couldn't see the cut but I
remember Kevin and Mike from Centaur showing up and telling me that it was
pretty bad... but I was stoned and drunk and my mom was coming and we hadn't
played our last set yet which was supposed to be a noise jam so I put on my
shoes and socks and smiled for my mother when she arrived played probably a
pretty heinous set of gratuitous guitar spewage that was reported to be
deafeningly loud to such an extent that the noise just became a mush of
evil... I think the 'rents left in the middle of that one... the next
morning I woke up in Lavon's basement where I lived for a while down in
South Shore (and where DragKing used to practice for a while), decided that
I needed some stitches in my foot so had Lavon drive me up to the U of C
hospital where they stitched up the sweaty smelly still bleeding thing...
Lavon left me there to go to work at the Business School that
morning...ended up playing with DragKing wanting to do shows in different
cities like New Orleans but things falling through and people being busy...
playing shows at the Czar Bar in Wicker Park... always lugging huge speakers
in and out of my van until the wee hours of the night exhausted from all the
toxins stopping for a burrito on the way back to the south side and stel
buying one of those mexican orange sodas for Za.... played in Centaur and
DragKing practicing like four times a week and working by day for the Frog
Man at Frog Tools on Jackson downtown but I am sure this man is dead by now
I have drived by the place and it is dark... the Frog Man was a freak as I
believe some of you remember... Nate of Frontier ended up working for him
too... anyway it was quite the intense time living with Jung who was
basically unemployed for months before landing the super job in the trading
universe, she working from 5 or 6 in the morning, going to bed at like 9 or
ten and me being out almost every night... we drifted, long drawn out break
up, moved out, moved back in... realizing I needed to expand upon my
universe in some other corners of the world,,, realign, simplify, tried to
move out once into a place Nina and I found on Ashland which was a falling
apart lean-to near the hookers on North Av she had hero and piles of stinky
kitty and their boxes.. ended up moving back in with Jung and convincing
Lavon to take the space and move out of his place on Milwaukee Av like right
next to the O'Hare el tracks... quit DragKing to further modify then Scot
comes in one day to Centaur's practice space at Milwaukee and Ashland, just
having taken the trains from Hyde Park, all stressed from school and Laura I
think was her name, and says he has to quit ... too bad too because I think
Centaur was finally getting some strong shit together and I was ready to
focus and play guitar for them... I had always tried to just play bass in
Centaur and guitar in DragKing... stacked my amps in that practice space
just around the corner from Table's space which I would peek into sometimes
to see the floor covered with splinters of drumsticks... intense... Centaur
was also so loud with everyone almost always wearing earplugs... I am
surprised I haven't really noticed any damage to my hearing after undergoing
this era of expression...
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