| CHAPTER ONE: 4 April 1997I was scheduled to make a trip out to Cleveland, Ohio to look at colleges and to visit my friend Jen. About a month before the trip, I was chatting with Ted and Richie online, when I accidentally came across the tour schedule for DGeneration. I also happened to notice that their show in Cleveland coincided with my trip. What luck!! |
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| Once in Cleveland, Jen's parents drove us (Jen, my brother Adam, and me) to Coventry. The show wasn’t scheduled to start ‘til 10:00, so we had some time to kill. Originally planning to stop by the Grog Shop first and get tickets, we pulled into the parking lot across the street from the club. Immediately intimidated by the older audience occupying the bar, we decided to shop around and avoid the bar until it was closer to 10. We looked around in several clothing and record shops, then headed over to "Big Fun," a store with tons of old toys and other junk. It was a great little store.
A bit later, a guy with a leather jacket and spikey blue hair walked into the toy store. I looked at him carefully before telling the others that I thought he was in the band. I wasn't sure, though, because I hadn’t seen the picture enough to identify him completely. Jen and Adam didn’t seem too interested at first, so they looked at toys. I kept glancing over, trying to figure out if he was, in fact, in the band. Later, we were talking about it, when two other guys, one with braided black hair (who I immediately recognized as Jesse, the lead singer), the other with spikey blonde hair, walked in. We continued to shop, but started making brief comments about the band, like "I’ll pay you ten dollars if you ask that blue-haired guy if he’s in the band." Jen kept wanting to "ask that guy with yellow hair if we can get our picture taken (in one of those photo booths in the store) with him." |
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| Sometime in there, Jen’s dad came in to check up on us. Right before Jen made him leave, he mentioned hearing that the show was sold out. Not quite sure whether to believe him, I convinced the other two to check things out. We started walking down to the bar when we noticed a small crowd forming outside. Being the outgoing kids that we were, we completely avoided everyone, instead walking back and forth down the street. Upon the passing of a restaurant, we noticed the blonde-haired guy talking on a pay phone. When we walked by again, Adam waved to him, and he waved back. This got our confidence up. We still debated going to the club when I decided to ask this guy if HE knew whether the show was sold out. We sat halfway between the bar and the restaurant, waiting for him (Danny Sage). |
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| We sat and talked for a bit...then we saw Mr. Blue Hair (a.k.a. Howie Pyro) walking towards us. Jen just blurted out, "Hey, are you in the band?" "What band?" he asked. We sat there looking stupidly at him, and he had this little smile on his face, but wouldn’t say anything. Jen had forgotten the name of the band. I wanted to say something, but I just...couldn’t. Adam finally stumbled, "D..gen..eration.."
"Yeah. Well I’m not in Fluffy, cuz that’s all girls and they’re from England," he joked. We all laughed. Jen asked him if he knew if the show was sold out or not. He didn’t think it was, but he wasn’t sure, and said to ask the people at the bar. He talked about that for a bit, then waved bye and left to eat. Mission accomplished. We had made fools out of ourselves. |
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| While walking back in the direction we had been coming from, we noticed Danny away from the phone and walking our way. We intercepted him at about where we had been waiting earlier. Jen just managed to get up the courage right away and asked if he was in the band Dgeneration.
"Yeah," he said, smiling. |
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| "Cool," she said quietly. Then, not knowing what else to say, "Can I shake your hand?"
"Sure, of course!" he said. He shook her hand, then Adam’s, and finally mine. While shaking my hand, he noticed the guitar pick on the chain around my neck and asked if I collected them. "I play guitar. Well...I try," I explained. He laughed. "Me too." Then he handed me one of his guitar picks. "Thanks," I half stammered. I was surprised. This guy was great. Jen reached out (motioning that she’d like one too) and he gave her the other one he’d dug out of his pocket. Then he reached into his jacket pocket, looking for one for Adam. After digging for a bit, he produced a small paper bag from which he extracted another pick for Adam. |
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| "Are you guys going to the show tonight?" he asked later. We told him our predicament - about how we heard it was sold out and we didn’t know if it was all-ages or not (Adam was only 14). "Well I could talk to my tour manager and see if we can do anything for you guys..." he said, seeming a bit hesitant. As we turned to walk to the club, Jen mentioned, "They came all the way from Indiana to see you guys!" |
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| "Then we’ve really gotta’ get you guys in. It’s the last stop on our tour, you know." He told us to follow him, and we all walked down to the club together. He said a few words to his tour manager outside, then told us to wait out there for a minute. Danny came back with a piece of paper. "No problem. The show’s all-ages." He said just needed our names, and we were all set. When all three of us were ready, he went ahead and motioned for us to follow him into the bar, then talked to the guy taking the money. They guy asked, "You guys on the guest list?" We gave him our names and we were set - we didn’t have to pay, either. We were feeling special now. |
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| Once inside, we staked out a place to stand - right on one side of the stage (only about 3 feet from the stage or so…which was good cuz we could see all of the band members without dealing with big crowds of people). We stood there and talked about how cool we were. It was kinda’ warm in there at the time, and people were sitting at tables drinking. I don’t think the show started at 10 because we stood there for what seemed like forever. I was tired of standing. It was crowded with all the guitar cases stacked up and the roadies standing around. |
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| Two bands played before Dgeneration finally came on - the first was a band from Cleveland and the second was Fluffy. It was rather entertaining, but we were pretty overwhelmed from the heat as well. We were tired of standing still, and every time we thought no more people could get jammed into that bar, they let more people in. We took deep breaths of cool, fresh air every time they opened the doors. There was no relief because there was no re-entry. After Fluffy finished their set, we got a bit of relief when they were followed outside by a large number of men. As the band got ready, all the guitar cases were taken away, as well as the crate in front of the amp, so we moved up and leaned on that. Someone had also put a fan up on Danny’s amp, so that cooled us off a bit. After all the sound checks, the band finally took the stage - Richard and Howie were on the far end of the stage, Jesse was in the middle, and Danny was right next to us. The show was great. Their set consisted of about 17 songs, 2 notable fights, and one planned encore. Afterwards, we went outside and saw Jen’s parents standing there. Jen’s dad handed her a key, saying he found it on the ground. He told her to ask the guys in the band if it was theirs (hotel key). The door to the van was open, so Jen asked Danny if it was his. He said to keep it cuz they were done with hotels anyway. Then he got out of the van. Jen thanked him for letting us in, and he said thanks for coming all this way to see them. We all shook hands again, then waved goodbye. |
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| Ears ringing and picks and posters in hand, we all piled into the back seat of Jen’s car and, not being able to hear very well, talked loudly about the night’s events. It was definitely better than anything we had expected. All we could think of was getting home and telling everyone about our adventures with DGeneration. |
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