thank goodness for plotka
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1997
First show. Jeremy & Mike had made the ‘Thank Goodness for Plotka’ tape about one year before this show. A friend of Mike’s knew and had seen The Racing Pisshorses, and had bought their ‘…just when you thought you could pick your own grandparents’ and ‘Bipolar Freezerburn Fest’ tapes. Mike ended up borrowing them, listening to them, and becoming surprised, confused, and fascinated. He then wrote a letter to JJ which ended up in a meeting which resulted in this Tiamat Records show. There were approximately 12 people in attendance over the course of the 4 hour show, at least 6 of them being personal friends of the groups. Mike was reportedly fairly cocky and obnoxious at this show; a clue of things to come. more on this show from the pisshorse angle
As its location would allude to, this was the first Toluca youth center show. Lots of friends from school attended. Strange to have a show on Sunday afternoon at 2 pm, no? About 3 sets were played, with breaks of varying length between them. People were amused. Nothing like that had ever been put on locally. Due to Mike’s overzealousness and lack of experience in the matter of flyer making, some people thought the name of the band was “THE GIANT METROPOLIS OF TOLUCA”. In addition, for some reason, some people interpreted the flyer to be advertising a history lecture. This was not due to Mike’s manic compulsive primitive flyer creating practices though; this was probably just due to stupendous wackimonzola copious fume inhalation.
THIS SHOW WAS MODERATELY NUTSO. There were probably 25 or 35 people there. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but if you consider the size of the youth center there, it’s pretty damn crowded in there with those 25 or 35 people. Something like that. Plotka played first. Obnoxious, noisy, and zany. “The trees”, which was Mike and his friend Ken, were active at this time. They played next. Mike snuck the trees into the show’s agenda. They played their droney things until JJ of the Pisshorses told Mike, about ten minutes into a section of the trees’ set where he was sitting on the floor making eerie plucky noises on a guitar, that he needed to stop because people were leaving. During the Plotka and Racing Pisshorses sets people did their “mosh pit” crap and seemed to have a heck of a time. The show ended with the Pisshorses being the radiating force of an all-out implosion of gyrating, writhing humans falling all over each other and everything else too. There is no record of how good anything was, but there is compelling evidence that it was pretty damn fun. more on this show from the pisshorses
This was the first show done at the Minonk VFW. A fair amount of people came. This flyer is a primo example of the ridiculous ideas Mike had about making flyers. The estimated time taken by ordinary people to decipher what the heck this flyer was advertising was somewhere between 8 to 15 minutes. This was the first time Plotka invited The Pheonix to play. They brought some real nice freaks with them who liked to boogie. It was a pleasant change to have people who wanted to flop around like a bunch of goofs at a show. The racing pisshorses did not play at this show. It is reported that JJ was having his earlobes refurbished and could not make it. Union Kane was held together by an incredible local musician named John Hattan. They did a lot of covers of Black Sabbath and things of the like. The man, in his 40’s, mind you, played the drums and sang through a headset mic. There was a fair number of 25-50 year olds present this night (to see Union Kane play-to see John play). It is reported that they did not find much about Thank Goodness for Plotka to like a whole lot. The same reaction, though more intense, was reported in regard to the trees’ segment that evening. The youngies liked it just fine though.
The only people dancing like idiots were people who knew each other already, about 3 of them to be exact. The Pheonix played excellently, as usual. The voice amplification system of the night belonged to them, so after they played they could only stay for about an hour. Thank Goodness for Plotka had a couple hecklers this night, so Mike was extra pointy, yelling nonsensically and being slightly venomous. Plotka set cut short by Pheonix having to leave with the voice amplification device. Captain Beefheart was listened to between sets. It was revealed that night that the Pheonix and/or the random specimens they brought with them knew his music and could do a pretty good impression of his voice. “THEY LAUGH AT HER BODY, CUZ HER HANDS ARE TOO SMALL!!!” (this pisshorses didn't actually play at this show either) 1998
It has been reported that this flyer received a number of comments in regard to its humorous content. The members of the group replied to the comments by stating that no notions of humor implied intentionally. Don’t bring your damn cat to the show. You can, but the damn thing will probably lose its mind and end up hurting someone and maybe even getting away, then you’ll never see it again. Nothing too notable about this show. It happened. The flyer has Mike’s cat on it.
Like communism, this idea looked good on paper –and was real nice conceptually: Mike & Shawn(r tape, etc.) get a special section of the area where the festival was taking place to display their art, the Lotkaps play a set, the Racing Pisshorses play a set, and the Mayonnaise (Shawn & Mike) is the opening group. Sounded pretty fancy and artsy-like to Mike. Within the first 2 minutes of the Mayonnaise’s two song set, 90% of the crowd promptly exited the building. A tape player was set up at each side of the stage, playing daytime outdoor sounds (birds, cars, people) at high volume. Mike was making reverb noises with a guitar. Shawn was making heavily reverbed, high-pitched screeching noises with a bass at high volume. Why would people stay?...yet, why would they leave? About 6 people stayed through the Mayonnaise for The Racing Pisshorses’ set. JJ was mighty p.o.’d at Mike for having induced such a non-quantity of spectators at this, the Racing Pisshorses’ last show before JJ was to take off for Europe for 3 months –thought of then as possibly the Pisshorses’ last show. The Lotkaps played last to a crowd of less than 7 but more than 3 people. Not only did not many people come to see the music happen, not many people came to the damn midstate art conference. A hot, very weird, quiet, long day. It’s seems sometimes that it is a rare thing to find people who are excited about creativity. There is no shortage, however, of people who like eating donuts, decorating with tacky wallpaper, and watching mtv. read the pisshorse take on this show
Last show. Mike decorated the Legion hall with a lot of party streamers. The Pheonix guys made semi-derisive comments questioning whether it was New Year’s Eve time or what. The Lotkaps played second (last). Paraphrases of a two announcements made during Lotkaps’ set: “Our set is designed to fall asleep to, so keep doin’ it.” “This is Jeremy; he plans to become a marine biologist.” The drums and a couple other things were kicked around at the end of the last song. The “woo-hoo” song. (“yes, yes” from Lotkap) No more Lotkaps. It was fun though. Reportedly. |
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ALbums
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