I wrote this song about a legendary moment from my youth. In high school, I was in a punk band called Killing the Hare. We had played a couple of shows at this venue called the Energy Plant, which was an all-ages juice bar. We had a show scheduled for the weekend, playing with another band called Horseshoes and Handgrenades. Unfortunately, the week of our show the owner of the venue got into some legal trouble and the venue closed down. One of the H&H members knew the night manager at the local Pizza Hut, and they gave their okay to play our show in the parking lot. What followed was a formative moment in my life, as described in the song.
This was recorded with the Zoom recorder on the Hohner guitar, an SM-58 for the vocals, the BOSS interface for the guitar solo, and my mini keyboard for the piano parts.
Lyrics
Hamilton, Montana, summer of ’01
We were getting ready to play a show
The venue owner got busted selling meth
So we had no place to go –
You gotta remember, this band was our world
It was as if life or death were on the line
A bunch of bored punk with nothing to do,
Nowhere to go, and no way to shine
What would we do now, what would we do now?Bitterroot hardcore
Like we were fighting our own little war
Bitterroot hardcoreWe knew the manager of the Pizza Hut in town
He said we could play their parking lot
It was eighty degrees at nine thirty PM
We were anxious, upset and hot
This time around we were the opening band
We were into our second or third song
I saw the flashing lights, thirty kids’ discontent
And I knew something was gonna go wrong
Who called the cops now, Who called the cops?Bitterroot hardcore
Little did we know the best was still in storeBitterroot hardcoreWe stopped in mind-song, Feedback rang out
With a Big Gulp in hand, he approached the cops
His shirt was off, his face was red
He threw his drink in their faces and then he ran off
Shouting out “fuck the cops!”We didn’t get in any trouble ourselves
But it was in the newspaper the next day
Though the show was ruined, it gave us punk cred
And the suspect made a clean getaway
We never topped that moment, we never topped that nightBitterroot hardcoreSorry everyone, there will be no encoreBitterroot hardcoreYou gotta go out on top, leave ’em beggin’ for moreBitterroot hardcore