A month ago, Burnt Ramen had our first show since March 3rd
2003. It went well enough, so I decided to have our CD release party here ("The
Pet Goat" - BRR005).
To keep people off the street, I made a corral out of pallets. I set up the
back gated area with the ‘Dark Whore’ blocking the entrance from the view of
the street. I asked the girl who lives upstairs, ‘Taylor’ to work the door.
I had my ex-girlfriend working merch. A friend had promised to work the sound
board. Fraggle got the crowd herded into the back so they could "donate" to
the bands. Then Los Pepes set up. Steve is their drummer. You may know him from
Bitesize and/or sound at the Stork
Club. I was surprised how rocking they were. And this was their first
show!
Hurting Crew was originally scheduled
to play second, but JoAnn (drums) was
sick due to overwork. Arnocorps were up
next. They were down a guitarist, though still a force to be reconed with. Flag
waving, smoke machines and crushing Austrian machismo. What more could anyone
want? What did you say? You want Blood? Well you got it!
- Myk Ramen
So we made it over to burnt ramen last nite for the ill gotten
gainz record release show. lots of people showed up. lots of friends. good times.
The first band, los pepes (i think?) were really good. havent heard them before,
but i want to see them again. good straight forward punk rock. and steve's their
drummer. does steve post on here? Arnocorps played next (2 out of 3 guitar players
so they werent as powerful as they usually are) and this is why no band should
ever have to follow arnocorps. they destroyed the place. lots of drunken "moshing"
(if you can call it that). circle pits are no fun when my beer gets knocked
out of my hand. i really like the new arnocorps song - last action hero. there
was no set list so people were yelling out song names which was fucking great.
also, jumping on stage and singing along is great. Fracas went on next. i watched
them set up a fence on stage. watched them play a couple of songs with their
new bass player as people were throwing shit against the fence. had to get up
the next morning at 6 to be at work at 7, so i bailed. Unfortunately, having
left early, i missed the ensuing craziness. Iheard the story from a couple of
people, but i know that at least 3 (maybe 4?) Fracas
members are on this list, so i'll let one of them explain what happend. lots
of blood was involved though. and it wasn't joe's blood this time...
- Mikhail (Jewdriver)
I'm not in Fracas, but I saw the whole thing. They had set up
a flimsy chain-link fence in 4 sections in front of the stage. Their new guitarist
was having problems with his rig and while he was trying to get set up, people
where throwing all kinds of shit at and over the fence. It was raining beer
cans and plastic bottles and cardboard cartons and stuff. Dan was taunting the
audience from behind the fence. Anyway, mid-way through the first song, the
fence gets thrashed and torn apart. Joe (Franke) folds the 3 remaining pieces
around Dan to make a sort of cage. They start playing "I will not be denied"
and Joe picks up a bottle, breaks it over the top of Dan's cage, and jabs Dan
in the head a couple of times with the jagged end, cutting him up pretty good.
Dan kept playing but it became obvious pretty quick that he was in a bad way.
He was bleeding pretty heavily. For a minute, it looked like he was going to
collapse on stage, but he finished the song. Immediately after, he put down
his guitar and went for Joe. They tussled a bit and were split up by Garrett
and a few others in the crowd. Some folks wrapped up Dan's wounds and took him
off to the hospital. Anna said his skull was exposed and he had a cut on his
neck near his jugular.
- theluddite2001
Being behind the drum kit, I often miss a lot of what's going
on during the show. The first thing (out of the ordinary) that I saw was Dan
with blood gushing down the side of his face and possibly out of his neck, and
then I noticed the pool of blood on the stage below him and knew the show was
over. He almost finished the song, but he was having trouble hanging on to his
guitar. I'm surprised he made it as far as he did. Joe often will often stab
his forehead with a broken bottle so that he bleeds when he's on stage. That's
all he meant to do to Dan, but things obviously didn't quite work out as planned.
- James
Wysynski
Ok, I've been laying off of this to see how bizarre it could
get, but that'snot as amusing as I thought it would be. The Joe referred to
in the story is indeed the singer in the band. Yes, he did break a bottle and
poke Dan with it. Yes, Dan did, in fact, bleed a whole fucking lot. Beyond that
the story is sorta off the mark from what actually happened.
- Joe Selby
p.s. - ew. visible skull. Funny thing is, I HAVE been to a
show at burnt ramen, and no. You won't ever see me
at another one. Why would I go all the way to Richmond? Burnt Ramen is in a
shitty fucking neighborhood.
- Anonymousgirly
You people missed out. I didn't see any skull. I saw torn flesh
and a lot of blood, but no skull. Dan's fine. He got some staples put in at
the Emergency Room and will survive this incident just fine. Joe was feeling
pretty bad, but he and Dan were laughing about it on the ride home. All's well
that ends well, as they say. And come on Girly, as if we're ever going to see
you at a show in Richmond. This was obviously a vast conspiracy to help rescue
me from the inevitable embarassment of not really knowing the rest of the songs
in the set. A clever ploy, if you will, to make people feel like only hearing
three songs was still more than enough entertainment for one night. Or as Debbie
Harry said, Accidents Never Happen. ...Not that I'm a huge fan of random violence
or anything but I've definitely seen much worse than what happened last night.
And ultimately it was just two friends fucking around until one of them got
hurt. Not really all that remarkable.
- Joe Selby
I think Fracas was just trying to one-up ArnoCorps. (which
I guess they succeeded in doing)
- Holzfeuer (Arnocorps)
As a matter of fact, yes. So let this be a lesson to you bunch
of Austro-freaks. Don't push us or we'll be forced to use high explosives.
- Joe Selby
After the mayhem settled down, the cage of rage was dismantled
and taken away. We set up for what was to be one of our longest sets. A lot
of people had cleared out. It was Sunday night and most people had gotten their
fix of violent entertainment for a while. Knowing Dan and Joe pretty well, I
was certain they wouldn’t be mad at each other for long. "What’s a little blood
between friends?" I asked the crowd. We had a pit going right away. Early on
I got slammed in the face with my microphone. I had blood on my nose and the
taste of it in my mouth. Looking down, there must have been a quart of Dan’s
blood on the ground and the stage. It reminded me of my old karate instructor
‘Mountain Kim.’ "Blood from ear, no point, blood from mouth, point!" George
threw ‘Crackering Balls’ into the pit. There was just no way we could match
the level of frenetic craziness that had just transpired. For his part, Erik
broke a bass string. We managed to get through a few more songs. George ended
the set by throwing himself across the drums. Cymbals and toms scattered over
the stage. George landed on the cement. The mayhem was over. Dan and Joe Franke
came back from the hospital a little while later. Dan was still wearing his
hospital gown. He showed us the staples in his head. Graciously, he left us
his gown as a souvenir.
- Myk Ramen
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