December 8, 2004: the Rocket Bar, St.
Louis, MO
I think I went to the Rocket Bar maybe four times in the four months it
was open while I lived in St. Louis. Once I saw a terrible
band. The second was to see Ben Lee. The third was to see
Captured by Robots. And the last was to play there in the last
few weeks of it's existance.
The Rocket Bar was basically the center of all things hip in St.
Louis. And if I didn't know any better, I would say that being
given the opportunity to play there made us pretty hip!
Unfortunately, I do know better. It has been my experience that
it doesn't matter if you go to the right hip places and mingle with the
right hip people, it will never make you hip. You either
are. Or you are not. And they can always tell!
Apparently, we (I) are (am) not.
Regardless of our hipsterdom,
this was good show! I think most (if not all) the 'Saddest Girls
Ever to Hold a Martini' were there and so was our new friend
David (formerly of Ring, Cicada).
I think, at some point, I put one of my favorite fake ID's under the
glass on the table I was sitting at.
Yes, I said a fake ID. What do you think I mean by that?
Well, I will tell you.
On a number of occasions during my Sophomore year of college, I worked
with some friends of mine on CSO. That is the Campus Security
Organization, I think. Basically it was our job to walk around
campus all night locking and unlocking doors at various times.
Needless to say, this was one of the best jobs I have ever had!
You walk around campus with jackets that have CSO written on them as if
we were some sort of Liberal Arts FBI! You get a huge
flashlight! Keys to everything! And a notebook-type ledger
thing in which we documented which doors we locked and which lights we
turned off.
You walk into the Union bad as shit!
'Yeah....I'm workin' CSO...' all bad as shit!
As you can imagine, there was only so much time that these simple
duties required. Therefore, a large portion of the night was
devoted to doing whatever the fuck you wanted!
Yes, I have been on top of Hogue Tower! On top of the
library. I have crawled through the tunnel under the Union into
Joy Hall! I have completely explored every building on
campus!
I am not sure if since my time they have cracked down on this sort of
behavior, but I know back in the day, most people who worked CSO did
crazy stuff like this (except for THAT GUY!). And if I ever saw a
guy and a girl working...they had to be bonin'.
My favorite thing, though, was to I make fake college ID's! I
made a ton of ID's! We all did. One of my favorite
contained a picture of me with my shirt off and my hair all messed
up. I think my name was Voston Xander. I was so
creative!
I don't know what compelled me to put this ID that represented so much
to me under the glass on a table in a bar that would soon close.
But I did it. And that is that.
We played with the Maxtone 4 (a St. Louis band) and Kimone (a touring
band). Maxtone covered 'Gay Bar' by the Electric Six.
The whole time, the singer was eying Paul. All in jest, of
course.
I think I have seen more Maxtone 4 stickers in the bathrooms of
midwestern bars than those of any other band. Sometimes I would
write on the stickers things like, 'STL!' or something.
It was a good show. RIP Rocket Bar.
Possible set: Tick Tock, Death, Crow/Love/Sunday
Breakfast, Middle Man, Broken Machine, I Miss You, The Way (I'm
Supposed to Be)
Next Show -->
Shows 2004