The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face

When I graduated High School I hoped and dreamed of the usual: going to college, becoming a Graphic Designer or Comic Book Artist, spending my days covered in printmaking ink making posters for rock shows (ok maybe it wasn't all the usual). The dream I focused on the most though was to move to Dallas and spend all of my time going to Rock shows. At the time Dallas seemed like some kind of utopia of music and creativity and an escape.

Le sigh posters

I grew up in a small town called Cleburne. It was your stereotypical stuck in the 50's Texas town where the dress code called for tucked in shirts and belts and the best place to go on Friday was one of the two ( yea we were big time we had TWO) Dairy Queens. If you know me at all now you might guess that I did not fit in. When I turned 14 I realized the  life of the popular kids was not in my cards, so I traded in my knock off Cole Hahns for some fuzzy Airwalks and my mousy brown hair for Angela Chase red. From that point I enjoyed the usual heckling in the hallways and people talking about me. You know that part in "The Craft" where Breckin Meyer screams and runs when Fairuza Balk walks by. That was my life every day.What's that? You don't have an instant recollection of every scene from "The Craft". Oh well you can picture it at least right? I also enjoyed the privilege of getting sent to the principal's office several times for dress code violations. One time I even set off a school wide search that ended with me and my best friend both kicked out of school for the day. ( Because that's such a punishment right?)

I pretty much looked like this but my friends dressed less normal than Scarlett

Ok here's an actual picture of me. I call this "when I invented Emo".

Well despite my inability to mesh with the crowd I formed a small group of miscreant friends and by 1997 I landed a cool boyfriend who was in a band (The Wounded Twinkies). One fateful weekend we were at Cd Warehouse back when CD stores still existed ( Fort Worth folks might know as the current home of Half Price Books). Dave picked up a CD from a local band called Slow Roosevelt and the dude at the counter ( who you might know as Randy Brown) told us that they were playing a show in Fort Worth soon at ,I think, the Engine Room. So we grabbed our biggest pairs of JNCO's and went out.

Slow Roosevelt!!

The specifics are a blur but there was this dude screaming into a megaphone and it was the coolest thing I had ever seen in my life. After the show Peter Thomas( the megaphone wielding maniac) was selling merch which my little sixteen year old self found particularly exciting ( I get to meet the guy IN the band No WAY!) and Dave told him he "rocked his balls off". Soon after I went to Dallas for my first shows at Trees, Man or Astro- man. My future as a music show addict was sealed when I saw Mephiskapheles and the Blue Meanies at Orbit Room. This was the first time I saw a band that I had a CD of that I knew all the lyrics to. These were both ska bands so it wasn't just the awesomeness of a live group of four. There was a whole horn section, and everyone was skanking like crazy. It was a blur of smiles and sweat and hopping around with a bunch of other Airwalk (or Doc Marten) wearing multi colored haired people and I felt like I didn't ever want to leave. I didn't ever want to lose this feeling.

This Blue Meanies video is Soooooo 90's

Soon after I started going to shows regularly. Slow Roosevelt was on a local label called One Ton that included Caulk, Doosu, Buck Jones and a couple of others. Through her obsession with Soundgarden my friend Amber had also started listening to Slow Roosevelt and since she had a car we were there every weekend if possible to see them as well as my  most favorite One Ton band Doosu. Anytime Baboon played we would also head out to  Dallas or Fort Worth and sometimes Denton. I remember loving the Wreck Room because the 7 eleven next door sold Jolt Cola. At some point closer to senior year I saw Cry Baby for the first time since 6th grade and then immediately met a hot Rockabilly dude in my Driver's ed class which led to my first Reverend Horton Heat show ( as well as my inability to wear my eye makeup in any way other than a black lined 50's cat eye). So, the Rev became a main staple of my travels.

I think I'm still trying to look like Wanda

Needless to say we were pretty obsessed. We also starting seeing the same faces at shows and meeting people in Dallas that were similar to us. People who like me preferred TV and listening to music to sports. People that thought the Wolverine T-Shirt I stole from said first boyfriend was awesome not weird. It seemed like everyone in Dallas, or at least that went to see bands,  liked me for my quirkiness instead of despite it. Not that my friends in Cleburne didn't also love my oddness and I loved their oddness too, but our unique qualities were assets not potential sources or ridicule.

how adorable is this video of Tripping Daisy at Trees

So that's why moving to Dallas became my #1 priority. Right before my 19th birthday I did move there and instead of doing all that normal stuff that I was "supposed" to do, like going to college, I spent most of my money on shows and buying CD's. Punk, Rockabilly, Hip Hop, Grind Core: I listened to all of them and saw most of them live. Any big indie acts that traveled through I almost always saw such as : Stereolab, Cibo Matto, Sea and Cake, Boss Hog, Jon Spencer. Of course the main staple were the local rock bands. Some of my favorites once I lived in Dallas and regularly went out were Tripping Daisy, Chomsky, Captain Audio, and you will know us by the trail of the dead . .(ok some of these are from Austin but I considered them local enough) , Paper Chase, Deathray Davies, Hagfish, ok I could probably list these forever. I still went to every One Ton show. Some folks said I missed out on the real heydey of local music but there was still a huge crowd of black t-shirt wearing weirdos at Slow Roosevelt shows in 1999 screaming " Don't Eat all my CAKE" right back at Peter Thomas.

Sometimes I wonder if following through with the normal steps of life like going to school right away and getting a real job and not "wasting" my money would improve my current life. Then I usually realize well I was never normal. Why would I try to push myself into this normal path? I wouldn't have those memories and that place and time that shaped me into the unique awesome person I believe I am most of the time. So thanks local music.

Thanks for the memories. errr well what's left of them.