Thursday, April 22, 2010

September 4th, 1998: Disembodied, Overcast, Zao, Darkest Hour @ Supreme Imperial, Baltimore, MD

Jamie Arthurs and Chris Brady booked this show. I made the flyer. This was the last show we did at the original incarnation of the Supreme Imperial. Again, we arrived to find no one around to open up for us so we broke in so we could have the show. I don't remember an amazing turnout but I think it was decent. If you were a fan of heavy metallic hardcore, then that was quite a line up, minus the corny-ass Christian rock element, but that was Jamie Arthurs for ya. I thought that Disembodied 10" was solid but I can't say I've listened to it in quite some time. Ferret Records had a pretty quality reputation for a while before they decided to follow the money trail. I actually enjoy Overcast more these days than I did then. It was a bit too much for me at the time, but I get it now. By that point we had had it with not having anyone show up to let us into the space so we moved all of our upcoming shows to various venues. The reggae band returned from tour at the end of the month and informed us that they were getting evicted by the landlords for not paying rent for a few months. They filled us in on how the guy they had set up to take care of their bills while they were on tour was spending the money on himself and then got arrested for selling weed. We acted pretty bummed but saw this as our opportunity to take over the space. We gave it a week or so and called them up asking for the landlord's phone number. Sometime in October we got in touch with the landlords and worked out a rental deal that included a clause that they needed to take care of a bunch of repairs to the building before any rent would be due. Things like putting in new windows upstairs, putting a security gate and new front door in, fixing the garage door so it was secure, fixing the furnace, etc. They let us have access to the space right away so we could get to work on cleaning it out, building a stage, painting, etc. We re-opened as the Chop Shop on November 4th, but more info on that when we get to that flyer. For more details on the history of the space, see my "Partial History of Supreme Imperial / Chop Shop" at deadvenues.com.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

hahhaa that's so strange, I actually dislike Overcast now, compared to back then when I thought they were the greatest thing since sliced bread. I was listening to Expectational Dilution awhile back and remarked "what was I thinking?"