PLAYING GIGS IN MY UNDERWEAR.
Before 1997 you’d never see me in shorts on a gig. Well, there was one exception... my chosen “uniform” in DIVER DOWN where I wore the “Fair Warning” era referee stripes and shorts. But that was only because it was a show business requirement.
I turned 30 in 1996 and came up in an era where you just didn’t wear shorts on gigs. Through the early MEZZ years I never did.
Jeff Mezzrow and Rick Kolow were always in black jeans, boots, and buttoned shirts. I was just following the rules.
The bands I’ve been in over the years have played the type of music that requires digging deep. But none of them were more physically demanding than CLAYMORE was on the drums. I loved the challenge.
What I didn’t love was my jeans feeling as though I’d just jumped into a pool by the third song.
Solution?… Go out and buy a pair of cool and comfortable basketball shorts like the ones I’ve got on in this picture from 1999?
Nope. In 1997 those weren’t “me” yet.
So in a bizarre period from the summer of 1997 til early 1998…in a practice that I only remembered just a couple of years ago…I’d get set up in my jeans and then before we were about to play I’d take my pants off and play the set in my underwear.
Boxers, of course. Tighty whities would’ve been a bridge too far. But even with the boxers……
WHAT THE HELL WAS I THINKING?!!!
I’d recently quit drinking and hadn’t cleared up yet.
Thank goodness I play barefoot. I hadn’t discovered sandals yet. I’m sure an attempt at removing jeans over socks and sneakers during a hasty set change would’ve ended with me falling over, banging my head on a monitor, and lying there unconscious on the floor.
I eventually came to my senses and entered the wonderful world of gigging in shorts. I love it. But that’s as casual as I’ll get!
My friend Bill Close says
“If you appear on stage in sweat pants…. you’ve officially given up”.
Stephen Hart.
