As part of my “Time Capsule” series, I've been dumpster diving in my own garage again, looking for clues to what my past music self once was up to. Today, I found an old poster advertising a show in Austin, TX, at the beloved Hole in the Wall venue—a place that was undoubtedly one of my favorite spots to play and see bands. I'm really glad I have this poster because it documents the one and only show Unabomber ever played. Unabomber, you ask? Why would anyone name a band after this? Simply put, I was obsessed with three to four things in the news cycle of the day: The Unabomber, Ruby Ridge, OJ Simpson, and the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah building in Oklahoma City. I guess it made sense at the time. Please note that naming a music project is a really difficult thing to do. By calling our band Unabomber, we in no way intended to praise or pay tribute to the life of Ted Kaczynski, a murderer.
Unabomber was a trio made up of myself, Tom Hudson, and a bass player I just can't remember. He was a bit older than Tom and me, from Seattle, and quite a great bassist if I recall. We kicked him out promptly after this show. I'll tell you the story…
This gig was in October of 1995. Considering Tom and I moved to Austin in July 1995, we obviously wasted no time posting an ad for a bassist and getting our first gig. We played a few originals left over from Crogan, the band Tom and I were in with Jeff Albertson back in Moscow, ID. We played a Built to Spill cover called “Joyride" and maybe a Versus cover called “Frog.” I don't remember it being too bad for a first gig. Perhaps Tom and I knew before we even played that we were going to move on from this bassist?
I say this because in attendance at the show would have been John Hunt and the entire Boston crew that followed him down to Austin a few years prior. It was John who offered to play bass for us that very night. I think his exact words were, “Fill in until you find someone.” Well, we would soon find out that playing with John was absolutely perfect. And thus, Silver Scooter was born. We toured the country many times, played in Japan, and released three albums, and numerous singles and compilation tracks. Thanks for filling in John!
Also on the bill were two bands that we would get to know fairly well. One, of course, was Spoon, and the other was Audrey, a totally awesome band from, I believe, Denton, TX. They would soon be one of the first artists to release a 7" record on Travis Higdon's soon-to-be-formed Peek-a-Boo Records. We played several shows with both bands, at least until Audrey broke up and Spoon went on to playing larger venues.
Maybe one of these days I'll find evidence of the Air Supply cover band I started with Jim Eno, the drummer from Spoon.
Also, I'm continuing to use ChatGPT to edit my grammar! AIOU anybody?