2/26/01: Ex Red Sellouts
Kevin and I went out to Arby’s for a late lunch today. When we were about half done with our food, I noticed an Arby's employee sit down across the room from us, apparently on break. When we finished, we dumped our trays and began to walk out. On the way out, I noticed that the Arby’s employee was actually a kid that used to go to all of our shows, wear our shirts, and be all around supportive of Ex Red. He just LOOKED punk rock then. You know the type. He had extremely spiky punk rock looking hair and always wore a black leather jacket that was too small for him with spikes in the shoulders. He looked so normal with his hair flat to his head and his totally non punk rock conformist Arby's uniform. I gave the kid (who is actually a few years senior to us) a friendly nod. He gave one back but as soon as we stepped outside the door he muttered something under his breath. The door closed.

I turned to Kevin, “Dude, did he just call us sellouts?”
“I don’t know, man,” Kevin said laughing.

I opened the door back up and asked the kid in a surprised voice, “Dude, did you just call us sellouts?”

From this point on I’ll do my best to remember exactly what was said. Obviously it won't be exact...but it'll give you the general idea:

“Dude, did you just call us sellouts?”
"Yeah..."
[laughs]"How are we sellouts?"
[looks angry]“Yeah, man. You guys aren't punk rock anymore. You’re ruining punk rock.”
“What?”
"What happened to the underground?" I’ve heard your songs. They’re not punk.”
“Um…but are you SERIOUSLY calling us sellouts?”
“Yeah…I saw your last flier. It said something about you being Valpo’s favorite boy band or something.”
“That was a JOKE, man!”
“Yeah, well I’m not into the whole emo thing.”
“But we’re not emo.”
“I heard your album. Those songs sounded like emo to me. You’re, like, a more poppy punk. I’m not into that.”
“Well, I guess everybody has their own tastes.”
“I’ve been going to shows for, like, ten years. I was going back when Under A Dollar was around and stuff…You guys are ruining the scene.” (So were we…duh. We were friends with UAD)
“Hm…I guess we’re not punk rock then. Oh well…”

We started to walk away.

“You guys need to bring the old scene back. You need more leather coats and Mohawks at your shows.”
“Alright, bro. We’ll see what we can do. Later.”

Whatever…The songs that are on the album this kid is eluding to are the same songs that he saw us perform live. I guess they just came out poppier sounding than he expected on the album. But we're RUINING PUNK ROCK!? I didn't even know we WERE punk rock to begin with. What's the point of all this? If you have a mohawk, come to our shows for this kid's sake! If you don't have a mohawk, GET ONE!

~Dan