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About Me : Old Bands
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I started playing guitar when I was 16, but soon switched to bass guitar since there seemed to be much more demand for bass players at the time (everyone wanted to play lead guitar, this was the 80's). I sold my guitar and decided to go with the bass when I was 18.
In 1988 while in high school my first band was a punk band called "Loud Silence" (they already had the name before I hooked up with them) with Ben, Garret and later Josh, and I jammed with them for a while. I dig punk, but after a while we got a little bored and stopped playing together.
While jamming with Loud Silence I started taking on gigs to back choir singers at band concerts at school with my buddy Mike. Mike played guitar, so this is where I first picked up and started with bass guitar.
In late 1988 Cactus High School had this "Woodstock II" festival. So my buddies Keith and Paxton (who I met through Mike) and I put together a group and played some old Beetles, Pink Floyd and Jimmy Hendrix tunes. It was a pretty big crowd to play in front of too.
After taking a semester off from high school I changed schools, and at my new school they had a guitar class. Credit to play fucking guitar, yeah? There I met two Chris' who also played guitar. I had previous bass experience, so we put together a band with another kid Rick called "Aftertaste" (I still love that name) and we started jamming in my parent's garage after school.
During senior year I started to want to play in a "real band", so I started browsing the musician ads in the local New Times paper. I went on two auditions. The first was for this band called Cry Wolf, which I never heard back from. They were all 30+, had wives and kids, so I didn't expect much to come of it. My second audition I almost didn't get to I was so unfamiliar with the east side of Phoenix at the time. I finally found the practice pad at a storage unit near Rural and University in Tempe. We jammed and hit it off pretty good, and it seemed to go ok.
I got a call from them a couple of days later and I was now the bass player for "Terra". It was me (bass), Allen Ankney (drums), Mike Florman (guitar), Dave Londre (vocals), pictured in the photo above from our practice storage unit.
We practiced a few months at the storage unit learning Mike's songs. He had written quite a few songs. 
I used to love going to practice every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. We'd usually get a case of beer and on Saturday nights would have friends over and party.
After a few months of writing, learning the songs and practicing, we played our first bar gig on May 30, 1990 at The Asylum in Tempe. Very convenient since they were around the corner from our practice pad. I had just turned 19 on May 2nd, but nobody carded me since I was in the band. My parents actually came to my first bar gig and took some photos, one is pictured to the right.
In the coming months we played lots of gigs around Phoenix, Scottsdale and Tempe. We played bars like The Mason Jar, Hammerheads, Zeros (and later when it was Bostons), the Rare Hare, Rockers, and more at the Asylum.
Late in the summer of 1990 we recorded a 3 song demo at a small local recording studio. And then on October 11th we had some promo photos taken by a photographer. The photo we picked turned out pretty good, but I learned never again to wear black pants in front of a black background for a black and white photo, d'oh. You can see what I mean to the left.
After a year and a half or so Allen left the band after a blowout after a gig at the Rare Hare, so we auditioned a bunch of drummers. We ended up playing several more gigs with our new drummer Jeff before he left to play with Din Ripper. Then we moved to another storage unit after 2 years at the same place, and things kind of fizzled.
I took a break from bands for a while, and soon after my 21st birthday my girlfriend Tanya's friend Gui (g-ee) hooked me up with another local band SX. I jammed with them, and the next day their singer Bill offered me the gig. The band was me (bass), Billy Joe Milligan (vocals), Kerry Easley (guitar), Stu Souders (drums) and Bruce (guitar).
I played with SX for a year or so. It was a good time because they played out quite a bit and it gave me a chance to play live more.
My favorite gigs were at the Library Cafe where we played the most gigs.
SX used to play occasional gigs in Los Angeles, and on Thanksgiving of 1992 we packed up our gear and drove out to play a gig in Orange County for Rodell Records who was putting us on a compilation album of unsigned bands. I actually met my ex-wife on this trip.
I ended up leaving SX in late 1993 and took a break from playing for a while. After jamming with some buddies from Alloy for a little while in 1993 and 1994 I finally gave up the band thing and just mess around with the bass once in a while for fun. It was a good time in the old days though. :)
