"Playing in a party on a Saturday night
Laying in so much, trying to do it right
But all these assholes don't know class
I wanna play tonight, ow, I wanna play some Clash"
- Ward Regan, made-up-on-the-spot lyrics, "Wine, Women, Song", August 2, 1986
If you think all the years that have gone by, all the water under the bridge, all the gigs you've played and art you've created, all those great things you've done, people patting you on your back, people extolling your genius (and you know you all are)....if you think all that will make you somehow impervious to the relentless, mean-spirited heckling that Life Out Of Balance endures at this early gig, think again! Because basically that's what you're going to get on this tape: roasted and skewered LOOB with barbecue sauce. I defy you to listen to this and not get your feelings hurt! I defy you!
Rich had it worse! He opened for us, bravely facing this mob of morons with a thoughtful acoustic set of some songs he had written. And by acoustic, I do mean solo acoustic. To this day, I have never seen anyone so courageous on a stage. I once saw a man put his head in a lion's mouth. Pffft. Give me a break. I'd like to see him stick his head in front of the Jerry's Place patrons of August the 2nd, 1986, talk to me then!
Jerry's Place was the bar that Ted's family owned. It was a dive (I'm not saying anything Ted wouldn't agree with). LOOB had played Jerry's Place the year before (pre-me) and had apparently had a good show (at one point, during "I Cried", Hubie jumped up and started dancing on the bar, to which Ted's Dad shouted:"Hey Twinkletoes, get off my bar!").
That was then, this was now. Different night, different crowd, this time LOOB didn't get off so easy. Don't get me wrong - I'm sure it sucked for them, a bunch of working class dudes, they go into their favorite bar on a Saturday night......and the pool table is gone. And the owner's kid has got instruments set up in its place to play...what do they call this.... new wave?
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| ...and then there were these guys.... |
It wasn't all bad. Hubie plays some great solos on "Wine, Women, Song". I was digging Ted's bass playing - at the time, Ted got no respect, to put it mildly, but listening now, he's the best musician onstage, at least that's how I heard it when I listened just now. The first "Above The Grass, Under The Moon" is a bit of a mess, but the second version (at the end of the show) was great; as we did the great Ward break ("moonbeams shimmer...") a spectacular, dramatic lightning storm was going outside the window behind us, couldn't have been timed better. "Feast Of Reason" sounds really good. "Job Security" is classic.
As far as attendees, I remember Leighton, Valerie, Sara & Jane, Ben Moss, and a few others, arriving en-masse mid-set (you can hear Hubie exclaim "our friends have arrived!"). I seem to remember them staying close to the band for most of the show....can't say I blame them! Frank and John Russell were there also; I first met Frank that night in the parking lot, actually. I also slipped in a little musical "message" to John Russell during the first of something like three or four drum solos over the course of the night. It gets a little excessive with the drum solos. believe me, I'm aware of it at age 46....when I was 17, I apparently had different ideas!
I remember after this show, driving with Ted to WUSB, he had a shift that night! Remember? He dee-jayed Saturday nights, super late! Anyways, I remember playing this tape to one of the radio guys there, Bob Longman, and asked him what he thought of our music. Bob - who had just heard a recording of LOOB all but have tomatoes thrown at them - said: "I think you guys need to learn some R&B". Ha!
Ok, I think I've cataloged all the humiliation I can think of regarding this show.
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| ....oh wait......one more thing....... |
The Recording
Inexplicably, this cassette appears to be a dub of a dub.....ERASING the original master recording. In other words: this is the original cassette that recorded the show that fateful night. I must have made a copy....done some kind of editing somewhere (you can hear a weird edit during the second "Above the Grass, Under The Moon"), and then REDUBBED it back on to the master tape, over the master recording, erasing it! To which all one can say is.....my god....what a fool.
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| Ted playing the closing night of Jerry's Place, a few years later. |
A Happy Ending; or Payback's A Bitch, Iddn't It?
Because of tragic circumstances, Ted had to leave college after only attending a single semester, come back to Rocky Point and run the family business, and that included tending bar. If you know Ted, you know Ted would be a fantastic bartender, think about it. Just not Jerry's Place! It has to have been one of the absolute low points of his life, and definitely one of the least enjoyable jobs that he ever had to work.
But it did have this one benefit.
You know the asshole who is heckling us, throughout this tape? Mr. Comedian, Mr. Ha-Ha? Well, Ted - on one of his bar-tending shifts - was provoked into physically ejecting that guy from Jerry's Place... and with Ted's own tender, bass-playing mitts.....yanked this guy by his collar and dragged him through the whole bar, like the smelly animal he was - remember how long that bar was? - well, Mr. Saturday Night got dragged down and on and through it, and by "Jerry's Kid" himself who, upon having had enough of this guy's bullshit once and for all, threw him the fuck out....out on to the hard, cold, crunchy, unforgiving pavement, scuffed palms, bruised kneecaps, scrapes and cuts and my god, that hasta hurt. And so, dear friends....Life Out Of Balance, your friends, our heroes.... was properly and decisively avenged! I just hope as he tossed him out the door, Ted gave the dreg one last boot in the ass and shouted "....and that one's for Rich!"
Life Out Of Balance at Jerry's Place, 8/2/86
I Cried
Heart And Mind
You Can't Always Get What You Want
New World Today
Above The Grass, Under The Moon (version 1)
Job Security
Feast Of Reason
Time Is Cruel
A Colder Wind
Iowa City Nazis
Cheap Sunglasses
Rain
Wine, Women, Song
Sooey Suzie
Policeman/Don't Despair
Above The Grass, Under The Moon (version 2)
Ward Regan - vocal, drums on "Cheap Sunglasses" & "Rain"
Hubert Poole - guitar, vocal
Ted Schreiber - bass, vocal
Michael Goodman - drums, vocal
Richard Wittman - introduction, and vocal on "Rain"
recorded on a 2-track cassette deck
download here:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/hi8t4p3k831w3os/1986-08-02+Jerry%27s+Place.zip#39;s_Place.zip
or use this temporary Dropbox link (only up for a week or so)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/y7x5093lmj38nhu/1986-08-02%20Jerry%27s%20Place.zip?dl=0
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| So bad was the tape, I couldn't even finish writing our name on the label... |
