FREEGAN BIKE PARTY !!! brooklyn. feat. "Bread Mountain"

LAST NIGHT.. a bizarre night indeed. Played the FREEGAN BIKE COLLECTIVE’s Second year anniversary party. Good people, dedicated to rescuing bikes, getting them into the right people’s hands. FREE!

The FREEGAN BIKE PEOPLE even helped build the infamous SMOLKA CRUISER, the bike we presented as a retirement gift.
to chief Smolka (architect of the harassment of critical mass).

Well the night started w/ us jamming out at the rehearsal room on Stanton st. and A$$KER heading over to the Freegan space first. He was playing in 2 bands that night: of course on DRUMS w/ the team, but also playing GUITAR with the cute as hell newbie band “BUST THE CLOCKS” ( name change probably comin’)

“B.T.C.” were playing their first gig and their excitiement was contagious. Everyone had a good time and Justine brought cheat sheets in case she forgot the lyrics. A good, time and I sure we’ll hear more from them.

Prior to their set, $AM and I were in no rush to get to Bed-Stuy Brooklyn, so we hung out at the room making spoke cards for the night, waiting for AHSKER to report back on what sort of gear was there, so we didn’t break our backs hauling extra stuff on our bikes all the way to brooklyn. We basically were lied to, misled, and betrayed by evil ASSKER and his co-horts who conspired to insure Team SPider would sound like absolute shiznit. "ahsker, pic'd here as the joker"
Part of their evil master plan included a drum “kit”, with no snare stand, no stool, one cymbal, a bass drum found in the trash, and drywall paste buckets to fill in any gaps in hardware and/or actual drums.

Also included in their agenda / conspiracy were bedroom-sized practice-amps, from the “under 100 dollar” line of amps from PEAVY and FENDER. The type amp you give your deformed loser kid who is going to quit this ‘music hobby’ just like he quit everything else in life !!#$%^! A small investment destined to turn L0$$ when he trades the little transister radio sized hunk-o-junk for Crack in 2 years when Warped Tour doesn’t seem cool anymore. N0T the proper amp to rock a show with! Especially for rock godz like TEAM SPIDER!

Even DAYV got in on the destruction by bringing his DS-1 pedal ( $29.99 ) for $AM, which, despite trying 2 dif batteries, actually made $am's Distortion sound quieter than the crappy clean sound available on these amps.

So, as blame was unaccountably passed to people who no-one ever bothered to talk to in person, yet were counted on as sole providers of the gear, the ever adaptable TEAM SUCKERZ had to make do, even constructing a snare stand out of 2 drywall buckets, and using the only channel on the lil “P.A.” that actually had reverb for vox… and we were off!

Despite the recurring deafening scream of high pitched feedback, falling apart drum ‘kit’, and overloaded toy amps, I think we actually sounded ok. At least for the little basement space we were crammed in and rockin. Aparently the piles of bike tires in the corners and adorning the walls helped dampen some of the high pitched “tinny”-ness. Of course you cant have too high level of expectation when playing borderline squats, run by dumpster divers. Ya just have to lower your own level of tolerance and adjust the zero point of your fun level, and start hurting some ears.

Which, I must say we did.

A good time, with video projections by VLAD of GLASS BEAD COLLECTIVE, that I am not even sure were seen amongst the chaos, but a good dress rehearsal for our upcoming KNITTING FACTORY GIG ( Nov 23. 07 w/ MDC. And Citizen Fish ) nonetheless.


We also had a great freegan meal to start, including pasta, great sauce, entenmans cookies, muffins that were either stale or vegan, and dumpstered Hawaiin Punch. Mostly Tasty. And FREE. And of course all the bread you can eat, and then some. Bread seems to be the most wasted food in this city, also the most rescued, and also the most underconsumed by the rescuers.. the result:
BREAD MOUNTAIN !!!

In the back yard of the freegan bike warehouse lies a GIANT mountain of leftover bread, Some of it becoming sculptures, some of it becoming sporting equipment, but most of it becoming a giant Matterhorn of bread, inexplicably rat-free!

For me it became my drunken bed! At one point I was actually laid-out with a posse bread be-yatches! Rolling around in the cushy delicious smelling shag-a-rific bread-tress with some bike hotties, who can complain?

By the end of the night I think I lost my Carhart jacket, my scarf, and maybe my innocence. Can’t remember thanks to a failed experiment involving organic vodka, and allergy medicine.

Rock on
TS.


Fun sightings of the night: the band -STOCKYARD STOICS- seen waiting for a bus on broadway in BK, -FREE STUFF- an anarchist band who rocked the bucket drums hard butchering Beatles and Animals covers, -GWACK (sp?)– an accordian led band of instrumental rockers that made all the late nighters dance. Hope to play again w/ all of them! ( for real, all total fun )

X.