News / Bands

Adam Goren (Atom & His Package, Armalite)

SPB: As a performer, what do you think when fans run onstage and singalong at the microphone?

Goren: Most of my performances are in the context of teaching high school science students these days. Usually I'm flanked with enormously muscular bodyguards to keep any overzealous scienteens from getting too close to me and grabbing the spotlight. I also have a rule in my classroom that there is to be absolutely no stagediving and NEVER any moshing. It's just not safe, considering the glassware and the lack of physics helmets that the students wear. I guess it's not in fashion like it was when I was a moshing science high school student.

Drew (Brain Tumors, singer)

SPB: What’s the best reaction you’ve gotten from a crowd when you left the stage and started interacting with them?

Drew: I'd like to hear the other guys' responses to be honest. I'm the singer so I'm naturally a fuckwit of all sorts with self-esteem issues, so my take on things will be pretty slanted.

But I will tell you this, the reactions I enjoy are based on the mood that I am in. After we play, usually I sort of run away into a corner. It used to be to throw up, primarily. But often times now it is to physically cool down. But sometimes we have shows where I am really not doing so well, mentally, and I just want to get away from everyone and be alone and forget that what I did was to (and in front of) a bunch of people and not just to myself.

So in that regard, the best reactions are the ones where I am left alone.

I do enjoy people telling me that they've enjoyed something we've done, don't get me wrong. But I seem to be alive purely to hate myself so I'm not good at accepting compliments. I am genuinely happy to give people something to remember or something to make them feel alive, but I feel like there will always be a barrier between people expressing their appreciation to me as I stand there, breathing heavily, thinking deep down, "I am a piece of shit and I am both grateful and sorry you have not noticed."

People sometimes ask me about bullshit like "groupies" (which is an insane concept for a band at our level) and whether or not I get women from what we do. The truth is, I do not feel what I do is particularly talented in any regard and what happens at our "good" shows is the result of drunkenly stripping away years of defense mechanisms where I am telling myself that I am okay and realizing that I am probably not.

So when someone compliments me, or some girl becomes spontaneously interested in me after we play, I have to try my hardest not to interpret it as, "good job being unstable and having unresolved emotional issues." It is hard to take a compliment that applauds something you are often ashamed of.

Then of course, there's the side of me that revels in the fact that we have the ability to scare and concern people and that what we are doing is usually not something you can shrug your shoulders and forget about. I Iike knowing we caused a scene or gave people something to talk about, even if it is not always good. I will be proud and satisfied with myself after realizing we just pissed off 40 people who will forever remember us as assholes. The reaction of people moving out of the way, not making eye contact, or ignoring us becomes the best reaction in that respect.

The best specific reaction I can remember, I suppose, is after playing a show in Richmond, VA and walking outside to hear people talking about us. I heard one kid saying that we were the worst band he had ever seen while another kid argued that we were great. That made me very happy.

Kaycee “Ninevolt” Tarricone (Convul, guitar)
SPB: What kind of guitar do you use? How did you choose this model?

Tarricone: I've recently been using a Fender Jazzmaster with a P90 and a zebra humbucker. The neck pickup has a sloppy ground that gives off some strange sonic alchemy when you hold it right. It's really sunk into the body whereas the bridge (humbucker) is pretty hot. I really only picked it up because I wanted something non LP with P-90's, and a shorter neck so I can look like a giant holding it. Mixing the P90 with my fuzzes sends me home and cooks me dinner, and you can get some haunting dullness out of it when you roll back the tone knob.

Grath Madden (The Steinways, House Boat)
SPB: What was the first punk show you attended?

Madden: Does Green Day with Riverdales at the Baltimore Arena count? ‘Cause probably not, but, yeah, it was that. When I was first starting to go see bands, I wasn't interested in "punk shows" as much as I was into "Mighty Mighty Bosstones concerts." I can neither confirm nor deny that I owned 8 Bosstones t-shirts, one Bosstones jacket and a handful of pairs of my dad's plaid pants. The first show I went to that wasn't that was some basement show in Baltimore featuring some bands who have proven to be completely unmemorable. I think I only lasted down there like 20 minutes. I didn't know anyone, and my way-less-interested-in-punk-rock friends wouldn't even come in. So, yeah, after standing awkwardly behind a water heater while watching 2/3rds of set's worth of some angular, loud, Baltimore-y punk rock, I ran off into the night. I always figured that once I started going seeing bands I actually liked, I'd feel way more comfortable at shows, but almost 20 years later, that still has proven to be entirely untrue. Punk rock shows make me nervous.