November 21, 2000: The Jazz June, Ampersand, Breaking Pangaea, Starcrossed @ the Sidebar, Baltiomore, MD

This is a fitting post for today because I was wandering around the Fine Arts building of my previous, and current, school today and found an Ampersand sticker on a locker that's been there for at least 12 years. I've mentioned them in the blog before and posted their recordings a few months ago. Click their label below to find them if you missed them. Solid band. I've posted about the Jazz June before as well. I was more of an Atari guy. They were decent though. Not sure what any of them are doing these days. Breaking Pangaea were a great indie rock band from southern Pennsylvania. If you liked Cross My Heart, you'd totally dig them. I pulled out an old mixtape from this time recently and it had one of their songs on it and it definitely stands the test of time. The singer, Fred, went on to much bigger things a few years later when he joined Taking Back Sunday. Now he's doing something called The Color Fred. Awful name. He was also in Brody in the mid-90s who were pretty great for the time. The drummer went on to play in another terrible band, Straylight Run. Disregard their later gigs, but definitely check out "Take Apart the Words" on Undecided Records. Great EP. I didn't like their follow up as much so I never bothered with the record they did on Equal Vision. I have no idea who Starcrossed were.

November 18, 2000: De Nada, The Chase, All Is Suffering, Numbers Are Neutral @ the Crispus Attucks house, Hyattsville, MD

I've always loved this flyer. The sort of haphazard cut-and-paste giant lettering over top of the loose "centered" text, with all the "imperfections" bright and clear. Works so well. For those of you too young or not local enough to remember, shows at the Crispus Attucks house were in this strange addition the house that was basically a 15' x 15' concrete block box. They were hot as hell in the summer and cold as a witch's teet in the winter. Pretty much any show "filled" the space as the band took up about a 1/3 of the room. The MD/DC/NoVA scene was pretty strong around this time so turnouts were good to pretty much any show and for a while, the CA house was one of the only spaces for shows. Let's just say that almost every show was cramped and this show, being the final one for one of the area's most beloved bands, was jam-packed. So much fun. I don't remember who All Is Suffering or Numbers Are Neutral were. Somebody help me out there.

November 16, 2000: Gamewinner, Joshua Fit For Battle, El Secondhand, Looks Like Rain, Worn Thin @ the Sidebar, Baltimore, MD

I don't really have a memory of this show. I can tell you that I booked it and I made the flyer. Looks like it was one of Worn Thin's very early shows as I described them as pop-punk. If you haven't heard the first demo, you might not know their origins. That demo was great, but so was the later hardcore incarnation of the band. I'll see if I can dig that up and post it. Also looks like Gamewinner's 7" had just come out. I should post that as well. I can't believe it's been 12 years since that came out. Someone should really convince them to do a reunion. Don't they know how hardcore bands work?

November 12, 2000: Le Shok, Charm City Suicides, League of Death, Revenge of Nigel Winston, Bad Blood @ the Ottobar, Baltimore, MD

Here we have a great flyer from Nolen Strals for a show at the old Ottobar (Look at that early love of hand-lettering!). Pretty sure I only went for League of Death and Charm City Suicides. I'm not sure who Bad Blood were. Revenge of Nigel Winston was a sort of performance art thing from Ben Valis (the Small Intestine, Xibalba, Stars of the Dogon). I don't remember how it went exactly but I seem to recall him reading from a book dressed as a sort of stereotypical late 19th century explorer or anthropologist. That's the memory I have in my head. I could be way off. Someone please clarify if you can. League of Death was Bruce and Nolen's band pre-Double Dagger. They all wore home-made black t-shirts with white skulls printed on the front. I can't remember who was in the band besides those two. Pretty sure it was all MICA students at the time. They played pretty rad punk that wasn't too far off from some of the early Double Dagger stuff. The flyer says "x-Denim Skeleton", but I don't remember that band at all. I've mentioned Charm City Suicides on the blog before. Cool off-kilter noisy punk rock from Baltimore. Walker (Baltimore's Mike Muir) played bass and wore giant Xs on his hands. He's played in South Carey for a bit, I think, but I don't think he's done any other bands since CCS. Mike A. sang and was a fucking wild man. He went on to "head" Human Host, who still plays shows from time to time. I can't remember who else was in the band or if they've gone on to do anything else. The only thing I know about Le Shok was that they were from California and they did a split 7" with Ink & Dagger. Screamy, chaotic hardcore if I remember correctly. Don't know who was in the band or what else they've done.

November 9, 2000: Hot Water Music, Alkaline Trio, Strike Anywhere, Fairweather @ St. Andrew's Church, College Park, MD

Here we have the Carl Caracia version of the show flyer alongside the Jamie Arthurs version. I'm really glad Carl did flyers for Jamie for a while. Anyway, on to the show... This was a real humdinger. Look at that line up. I don't really think much needs to be said. This was probably the last time I saw Alkaline Trio in a smaller venue. After this it was big clubs and small arenas. If any of you have specific memories of this show, please share.

November 5, 2000: Ralph Nader rally, MCI Center, Washington, DC

The next day it was back to DC for me to attend this Ralph Nader rally. I don't recall getting there in time for any of the bands but some of the speakers definitely blew me away, particularly Cornel West and Tom Tomorrow ("This Modern World" comic), who isn't on the flyer. I'm still registered Green and I still believe the two party system we've got going on now is doing more harm than good.

November 4, 2000: 400 Years, Kill the Man Who Questions, Engine Down, Milemarker @ the Wilson Center, Washington, DC

Here's a flyer for 400 Years's last DC show. I can't remember where there actual last show was. Probably Richmond. I actually don't have any memory of this show. I may not have actual been there but I'm pretty sure I was. If you were, tell us about it.