1999 Falsies/El Secondhand Tour Diary

 June 12th - New Brunswick, NJ - Day 2

The house we were staying at was the A.D.L. house of New Jersey. ADL stands for Animal Defense League. It actually said it on the door. 

Oh great. Vegans. Mean vegans. 

In place of artwork on the walls were pictures of animals being tortured in laboratories. Framed too! They also had a cabinet full of tapes containing raids they carried out on animal testing facilities.

Besides the two girls, there were a couple guys living there too. One's name was Chet and he was actually a pretty cool guy. I was telling him how I brought a new camera to “document” some of the tour but did not have time to pick up any film. He then opens up a drawer and pulls out 10 rolls of film. From his job at Staples. Then he proceeded to give about 12 packs of batteries. 

I offered him money but he would not take any from me. I gave him a CD and a 7” out of the distro.

The second guy who lived there was Dariyus. Dairy for short. I thought it was pretty ironic his name was Dairy and he was a vegan. A militant vegan at that.

The girls said he was a dick but when I talked to him he did not seem that bad of a guy.

We went down to the Melody Bar for the Hot Water Music/Leatherface show since the Falsies were off that day. 

While waiting outside for the show to start we heard sounds of fire engines. I do not think at any time in my life that I have heard fire engine sirens. They ended up coming to the place I was at.

This Melody Bar was on fire. 

Luckily it was nothing serious but the bar had to be shut down for the day. 

The show was moved to 331 Somersett, a house around the corner that sometimes hosted shows. Originally the show was supposed to be two different shows. One at day and one at night. With the change in “venue”, they decided to combine them into one show. 

The new lineup includes Error Type 11 ( a Sound Exchange Alumni), Radar Mercury, Ensign, Kid Dynamite, Hot Water Music, and Leatherface. 

I think it actually turned out for the better. 

Aaron and I set up our distro and sold tons of shit. Plus we gave away a Falsies sticker or patch with

331 Sommersett 

each purchase. So despite not playing the Falsies still got some good exposure.

We met some of our friends from around the including Jim from Kill Your Idols, Coach from Two Man Advantage, Chris the bassist from Purpose, Mike from Savage Boys and Girls Club (who was now playing bass in Kid Dynamite, who was playing the show) , and of course the guys from El Secondhand.

Of course, I finally got the chance to see Leatherface, one of my all-time favorite bands who I never thought I would have the chance to see. I bought three shirts. When was I ever going to see them again?

1999 Falsies/El Secondhand Tour Diary

 1999 Falsies/El Secondhand Tour Diary - Day 1

Day 1 June 11th

We leave for the first day. We thought all the stuff in the van, merch, instruments etc was secure. We were wrong.

The van wasn't even on the highway yet when we came to a short stop and all the distro and merchandise came crashing down on us.

The guys were not sure if I, now buried in tons of records, and instruments was laughing or crying underneath all the rubble. ( I was laughing). 

We had to wait until we found a safe spot to pull over to fix all the stuff that had fallen. 

Although I was fine, part of me was worried this would be one of those situations you hear on the news where people get hit by subway trains and are perfectly fine, but when the train is removed, with nothing there to hold them together, the person dies.

Was it just like that but with records holding me together?

Luckily when the records were removed I was ok.

“No smoking in the van”. Maybe joining this tour wasn't such a great idea, 

We stopped at a gas station, Aaron (singer/guitarist) and I jumped out, quickly lighting up smokes, totally oblivious to pools of gas near us. We didn't care. A nicotine fix was needed, 

We arrived at the first show. The Town is called Gallows Township but it looked like it might as well have been called Deliverance.I didn’t know that New Jersey had country towns like this

Despite the venue being a baseball field/community center, there were plenty of kids there who wanted to have a good time and enjoy some live music. 

Falsies played well overall despite Marc (drummer) breaking his drums during the first song.  

After the show, we meet up with a couple girls that we had met on a previous road trip up to New Jersey. The band would be crashing at the group house they lived at in New Brunswick, NJ before we met up with El Secondhand the next day. 

Now it was about 12 am. None of us had eaten all day and New Brunswick still being 2 ½ miles away, we decided to stop at a diner. 

Since we were all very exhausted we inadvertently made fools of ourselves. Jay (bassist) by accident put cream in his water instead of his coffee and I proceeded to try and light my cigarette with a pack of gum. 

Then it was off to New Brunswick. As we drive off in the van I close my eyes. The next thing Ken (guitarist) is announcing we are there.