Buz
Reports From The Road
From:
Buz
Sent: Tuesday, March 24, 1998 9:40 PM
Subject: !1st Update from the Road!
Hello
All
The
first Chrome show in over 15 years went well at the Troubadour in
Turn
out was "modest" but most notable was Buz'z Mom and also Quentin
Tarantino (didn't know he was a fan). Certain "numbers" were
exchanged between he and Helios after the show (who knows where THAT will
lead).
We
are now in
More
info as it happens or I feel like writing about it.
Questions,
comments, flames, idle chit-chat or dirty pictures appreciated.
Date-posted:
28-Mar-98 10:24:44
Well, we've rocked Texass....
Relatively full house at Emo's, Austin. GREAT town. LOTS of music. Friendly people.
Drunk girls dancing on stage. Small "pit", even. Fun times for all. Really
good "Wraps" (we call 'em Burritos in The-Mish.) from some S.F. expatriates
(thanx Michele & Andrew).
The Orbit Room in Dallas last night started bad...continued to be crappy and completed
(for a change) by sucking. Creeps working the club (NOT the owner, however),
creeps in the club, creeps AROUND the club (ahhh PuNk RoCk), fistfight between
two club employees (yes...employees. See the last sentence.), stage the size of
a postage stamp (who'd they think we were...Cream?). And to top it off...the
great Chrome had a lousy gig. Tried our best but when the keyboards get knocked
into the players lap, the song tends to loose it's "momentum". Sold a
lot of merchandise, though. Go figga?
The
good news... The A/C is fixed in the truck (sorry CA, it's been clear and warm
the whole trip (knock-knock) and somehow, all of our hotel rooms have been across
from good Indian food (no, not Native American...although that sounds good,
too). Ya gotta love
On to the 8 hour drive to
I wonder if Elvis's ghost will be there.... I still won't to put him on the
list.
Date-posted: 29-Mar-98 15:49:44
After another crazy 9 hour drive session we arrived in
Fortunately, about 11:00 the opening band came on and the whole club
personality changed.If you ever get the chance to see "Mr. Quintron",
do so at all costs. The guy lugs a full size
We had a great show for not too many people but they were all BIG fans. We didn't
get off the stage until 04:00. The promoter made really cool posters and we all
signed many autographs and sold a lot of Ts and CDs.
Out truck is starting to hiccup a bit. H took it in and we are now in the worst
Travel Lodge on the planet (not the place, the employees. They're all named Apu...no
kidding).
Well, back to channel surfing for strange public-access TV. .....Oh my god ...I
just saw Colonel Sanders dancing on a Lawrence Welk rerun.. There is a God.
Date-posted:
6-Apr-98 21:54:50
OKAY!!! We've finally got a few days off with some really cool people in a really
cool place!
Cat's
Cradle -
Very nice club, but unfortunately not too good a turn out. We pulled off a good
show and some great folks drove up to 4 hours to come see us (sorry y'all had to
come so far but we're glad you did!). Hey to Sarah and friends.
Ottobar -
Well, we tried. Club WAY too small for an all encompassing band like CHROME. Some
audience members actually applauded. Special thanks to the "dancing
girl" up front. Unfortunately the club filled with smoke from a
construction site next door being worked on at 01:30 for some Satanic reason
and we had to cut the set a little short.
Nick's Upstairs- Philadelphia, PN........................................
What a media event. At least 4 camcorders going with two audio decks. Look for the
bootlegs soon....and PLEASE send us a copy! Fun place. Good crowd. Good pizza.
Blew up our second P.A. of the tour. Thanx to the sound guy for getting us
through the show. He hit my MUTE switch and scared the poop out of me... I thought
my amp died. Special space-jam version of "The Jaw".
Coney Island High -
Ever seen Soylent Green? Or that episode of Star Trek on the over populated planet?
Well that's NYC (and you guys know it too!) No insult intended but it is a little
overwhelming after being in the great wilderness called "
Wow! Whatta gig. We were given the extreme honor of performing with the Solar
Fire light show. Man, these guys know how to put on a light show. Digital video
should be duped soon, too. MANY BIG THANX to Big Jim, Scotty and the whole Hawkwind
posse in
Up next...
Sudsey Malone's -
Date-posted:
08-Apr-98 21:03:31 -0700
4/7/98
I-71 Southbound listening to my new (old) Gary Numan CD bound for
4/8/98
Fun show at "Sudsey Malone's" last night. Cool place to do your
laundry (which we did), drink some booze (which we did) and Rock-Out (did that,
too). Small but appreciative crowd. Deaf sound man (...Too loud buddy, even for
us...) Some friends made really neat Chrome lion-head pins out of etched metal
(Ummm ...did you guys see a "Pussy Galore" poster go anywhere???).
Hopefully we'll have some to sell at up coming shows. BTW, we have Kosik posters, T-shirts and 2-CDs for sale
for all you coming to the next shows.
Had our first bad weather of the tour (knock-knock). A massive rain storm hit as
soon as we are ready to load out last night. Once we got soaked getting the trailer
loaded, it stopped of course. But by the time we got back too our plush "Hotel"
(spelled T-R-A-V-E-L L-O-D-G-E), there was a strong tornado warning in effect
(no wonder there wasn't anybody on the streets). Us Kalifornia kids don't know
what to do in a tornado. Isn't there supposed to be some old lady riding a
bicycle who rides up to warn you to get in some kind of basement somewhere? We
thought it would be best to sleep in our boots and duct tape ourselves to the
beds. It might be kinky but safety first! :)
Our set is getting really tight. I don't want to spoil it for any of you coming
to future shows but you're in for a real treat. And this is probably the only chance
you'll ever get to see Chrome live. There is some talk of "fly-out"
shows next year but we'll have to wait for the offers. In the mean-time, there have
been camcorders at almost all the shows and lots of stills being shot (We'd
love copies BTW - Just let us know how we can get them).
On to
Date-posted:
10-Apr-98 17:44:58
4/8/98 @ The Magic Stick (or The Majestic)
Big place. Some little kid's birthday party going on when we arrived to load in
(not our usual crowd). Located above a working really cool bowling alley (playing
Iggy Pop and such on the juke box). Wish we had time to bowl a few and hang
out. Leopard carpeted stairs, huge PA, great barkeep, incredibly gorgeous door-girl.
Tommy's been having some trouble with the Moog Liberation so if any of y'all
know how to fix those, let us know. Silver Apples opened again. Those guys are
so great. Don't miss a chance to see them if you can. Simian's set up is not to
be believed. He's the only musician I know who needs to keep lubricating his
instruments with WD-40. We put on a really good show for a good size crowd
(especially for the
4/9/98 @ The Empty Bottle
Alright. If you were in
Samra started the show with a fire dance to a Silver Apples song. I
unfortunately missed this due to stuffing my face at the good
restaurant next door,
"Bite". Opening was a band made up of bar employees (sorry folks I
forgot the name). Kind of a love/hate kind of band. I haven't seen
anyone eat
dinner while performing in a while. Samra came back between bands with
another few dances (one to another Silver
Apples song). She's really great and very professional.
SLF can be found at http://www.now-online.com/jmfinity/. We can't thank these guys
enough for driving all the way to
BTW: If anybody has a copy of the Chrome articles in the Chicago Reader and Tribune
or any other articles or reviews on Chrome (even ads), please send them to us.
I'm sure we can dig up a sticker or a used guitar pick or something for your
trouble.
"Ocayz Corral" in
Date-posted:
15-Apr-98 11:14:32
4/11/98 Minneapolis, MI - First Street
Thanks to a very attentive crew at the club we managed to unload in the
middle of
a huge basketball game starting right across the street. Really pretty
town. We
played on the small stage of the same club that Prince filmed Purple
Rain (...what
ever happened to him?). VERY smoky club. Are we getting old or are
people
smoking more? What's with you people...that stuff is BAD for you. We
played
with some good opening bands (for once) and had a good time. MIs not
known for
the rad-kick-ass shows however. Loosen up guys...you don't get to see
Chrome every day (or every decade) y'know. -and NO thanks to the person
who threw
glitter all over Helios's equipment.
4/12/98
We are very sorry but we had to cancel this show due to electrical problems with
our truck. It's all fixed now so we don't foresee any problem for the next shows.
4/14/98
WHATASHOW! Wow. It seemed like the whole music community was laying in wait
for us.
Packed house. Big Helios
Creed/Chrome fans here 'tell you what'! We put on a great set with two
encores
and lots of noise (the good kind). People jumping off the stage,
slamming,
pogoing, general chaos and fun. Whish we all had time to hang out more
after
the show but ...y'know. We had the best time playing for you all.
Really makes me wish Chrome did this years ago. Thanks to everybody for
making it such a fun show. Seems like our shows are getting bigger and
bigger.
Once again...Hey guy with the camcorder...WE WANT A COPY!
Date-posted: 19-Apr-98 21:44:52
4/15/98 Bluebird Theater
Big beautiful place. We were followed by some folks who came all the way from the
last show in
___SPINTASTIC: Used and endorsed by CHROME!___
We had to leave right after the show to head for
We just heard about Wendy O. Williams and Roz Williams. Does anyone have any details?
Date-posted:
21-Apr-98
04/17/98 Crocodile Cafe -
Finally made it to
Did not see one plaid shirt or ripped jeans in grungeland (oh...is that
"over"?). Crocodile Cafe is a pretty historical spot with the likes
of Nirvana (who?) playing there in the early days (...early to...?). The place
has a cafe/bar in the front (best veggie burgers in the
Galaxy Chamber opened for us with a spell binding, mystical, creepy, fun show
featuring a guest dancer clad in a leather "bikini" (for lack of a
better term). She proceeded to attach a set of flaming nipples and penis to her
outfit and gyrate on the floor for a song or two. Very impressive. She also did
a fire dance (after her dick and tits were sufficiently extinguished). Thanks
to Crystal, Nick, Mayhem and all the Galaxy folks.
We came on to a full house and killed 'em like usual. Had a great time. We were
joined by Galaxy Chamber's dancer (I'm sorry I didn't get her name ...anybody
know?) and also "Hazelnut" graced us with her presence and quite a
show was had by all (---yes WE like to watch, too!). We did the sexy version of "The Tribes" and sweated to the Chrome
oldies.
04/18/98 Berbatis' Pan -
"Quick" drive to
Opening band Kung Fu (somethingorother) was pretty cool. Nova called them
"Math Core".
Hazelnut came down all the way from
We all packed up and Aleph and I (the rhythm section) split to spend our last $
on a flight home. We couldn't take 11-12 hours in the van with these head
colds. All the rest drove home and arrived in one mostly sane piece).
We're now resting up and revving up for the S.F. show at the
Date-posted:
1-May-1998
April24,1998
Finally home! We had a whole week to recover and get ready for our last (and
biggest) gig. We all slept, ate, healed, restored contacts with our loved ones
and had a general good-mood swing. Unfortunately the professional recording we
hoped to make at the SF show fell through (for the most part), but it was great
knowing Chrome would play "home town" for the first time in 16 years!
The GAMH is a big beautiful place built around the turn of the century. Check
out http://www.musichallsf.com/info/history/
for some nifty history. This place has the biggest backstage I have seen since
the Greek Theatre in LA. Lots of friends and family at the show. Many people who
had been waiting a LONG time for this. We of course wore the full gear: black
boots, black jumpsuits, codpieces, black shades and the trademark
For the future... only the Lion Head knows for certain but we'll keep you
posted.
Please keep an eye on the web sites, I'll be posting tour photos and flyers and
more "stuff" as time goes on. I hope to get a full, final Chrome
history up there as well. I hope y'all liked these rantings and ravings and
thanx for all your support for us and the band. This kind of communication
wasn't even thought of when Chrome first existed and it's been fun and exciting
to have contact with the whole world.
Now go out and start your own band!
CHROME: Signing Off
- Buz Deadwax
Over-and-Out
......whew!