This is a real solid recording and rehersal. We play all of our songs basically at the time, and we rip thru em real quick. We also videotaped the whole rehersal. The order of this set is based on all of the songs I sing, then all of Joe's songs. I also should mention I took acid before we rehersed...I think. I can't remember if that was this session or Session #4.
This was recorded in Mike Farmer's basement. I was introduced to him by the girl I was dating at the time. River Grove is kind of divided, I'm from the west side but I was dating this girl from the east side, and Mike lived over there too. The division comes from the different sides going to different grade schools. Anyways, shortly after we hooked up she mentiond that she knew this guy named Mike who was in a band. I was eager to meet him then though I kind of assumed he'd be some wanksta with a shitty band. I remember her almost warning me 'but they dont play punk'. That almost seemed funny to me, or impossible...rock bands and shit were only for old people! Indeed however she did tell me they played rock, and they were called Eternal Bliss. At this point we had probably rehersed over there a couple times or hung out. Sometimes hed have a pretty killer party at night and both of our bands would play. On this night, we rehersed in the day then had one of those parties at night. I remember one of those times when we rocked out and so did they, and we were drunk and me and Mike stuck upstairs and grubbed on some pizza he had. Me and him got pretty close and that was the beginning of it. We hung around almost every day for most of the time then between like 1997-2001. Then he started going out of town alot and me and his girlfriend would hang out sometimes then. Not like 'hang out' meaning fuck, we were old friends and knew each other before her and mike were together. Well eventually we did fuck, and I never talked to Mike again. That was in the spring of 2001, I've seen him maybe 5 times since then and talked to him maybe twice. Both times were definately of a combative threatening nature. And me and his girlfriend ended up being together for almost 4 years after that. Funny how things work out.
Anyways Mike had some nice gear. He had a four track first of all, which were pretty expensive then. It wasn't his, it might have been his guitarists. Its funny cause for all the times Ive recorded with my 4 track I always would carefully position the mics, etc... Mike would just hang them almost haphazardly from teh ceiling. And yet, these recordings speak for themself, they sound awesome! Looking back, now I would demand that he position them better but back then I had zero understanding of how that shit worked and just let him do his thing.
The bassist of Eternal Bliss, Dave, knew someone somehow that borrowed him all this vintage gear. They had a wicked old school Marshall half stack down there that has to be worth many thousands. Their guitarist used to rock an equally vintage Les Paul also. Well the Marshall was totally ungrounded because it was so old, which made shit very dangerous down there. We used to get shocked by the mic left and right, its pretty funny. Ive gotten shocked from the mic many times in my life in many places, but it was real bad down there. At the end of our set we play out 2 instrumentals, me and Joe would switch instruments on those. After that we thought wed throw down one more, so we start to play (badly) 'Where Was I?' by Guttermouth. About half way thru I realize I dont know or forgot the next change in the song. So i just stop and the band stops. Its silent for about 2 seconds and then I go to shut the mic off, I guess I figured we were done for the day. Strangely, although both of us had already been shocked 20 times in the lips and tounge when singing, I got shocked in the hand. This is even more ironic becuase all day i had been careful to hit the switch on the mic with the pick (plastic doesnt conduct). I got shocked so hard I think i had an out of body expereience. this GIF speaks volumes.