Cloaca Melodia

The Fastlane, Asbury Park, NJ.... My WHTG colleague John Yarusi was DJing between band sets. When School of Fish was ready to go, he introduced them from the DJ booth as "Columbia recording artists, School of Fish." The band, signed to Capitol Records, was either amused or annoyed at this and the made a bunch of comments about how they must have been signed to a new label without them knowing. The incident made me terrified for years about introducing a band incorrectly when I would make stage announcements for concerts.    

Cat Club, New York, NY..... In part, I went to this show to see King Missile as the billed opener, but something happened and they didn't perform. It was a bummer, but the night ended up getting weirder and weirder. One member of the group I went to the show with was a very attractive woman, and at the show she met Jay Blumenfield, the guitarist for the band Too Much Joy. He bought her a number of Jagermeister shots during School of Fish's performance and she became more than a little bit drunk. She also knew School of Fish frontman Josh Clayton-Felt, and Josh invited us to come to an afterparty at the Limelight, the church-turned-music-venue on Sixth Avenue at West 20th Street. So my group, with Jay from Too Much Joy in tow, walked over to the Limelight for the afterparty. I was already starting to have misgivings about staying out too late, as it was a weeknight and I was on the air at WHTG at 6 AM the following morning. When we got to the Limelight, though, the bouncer woul...

Fastlane, Asbury Park, NJ..... This is the show that I discussed in Gary Wein's book Beyond the Palace . Harding was late for his own gig as he had reportedly skipped over the Stone Pony to catch part of a Little Steven show and hopefully catch a rumored "surprise" Springsteen appearance. At least, that was the word from the promoter's people.  I talked with Wes about this years later and he told me this night was the first time he met Springsteen.