9:30 Club

Washington, DC

July 21, 1988



This oh-so-telling interview was done by me and my friend Pam, and published in '88 in our ?zine, No Scene 'Zine. During the show, Pam's camera was confiscated by a monstrous 9:30 Club bouncer. When she started whacking his gigantic chest to get it back, we were plucked from the stage (one under each of his arms) and thrown out front into the hallway of the club. The film he?d ripped out of the camera was thrown into a trash can there. We did some diggin? and the photos that resulted are what you?re looking at. The band got us back in and backstage afterward so we could do this little interview. Note the ?totally 80s? comments. R.I.P. Dennis Danell (1961-2000).





JOHN: Just hold onto it, it should be alright. You don?t have to stick it in his face (the tape recorder).

US: Okee dokee. Is that your roadie?

MIKE: Yeah. Sway?s the roadie. Sway, say something on tape, man! You?re missing this interview!

SWAY: Hi everybody! Workin? hard!

US: Last time you toured was '82, right?

MIKE: Yeah.

US: you guys play around LA a lot?

MIKE: Yeah.

US: You do? A lot?!

MIKE: well, not like every weekend. We try to make it so we don't burn out our crowd. We try tonake it os it?s moreof an event than just ?oh yeah, they?re playin' again?we just saw ?em.?

US: What?s it like being on a big label? You've got a lot of riders on your contract, like "no pictures"!

MIKE: Well they took us out to dinner in New York?what was the question again?

US: (shouting) WHAT'S IT LIKE BEING ON A BIG LABEL?

MIKE: We're not on a big label.

US: You don't think it's a big label? You guys have a CD out.

MIKE: I want to get on a major label! That's our goal.

US: And having a fan club?do you like that?

MIKE: Yeah, uh-huh.

US: Do you have a lot of fans? Like how many?

MIKE: Yeah, uhhh?I wouldn't know.

US: Is your new album selling well?

MIKE: Yeah.

US: We like it a lot.

MIKE: You like it? Still S.D.!

[Lots of unintelligible sounds in the background like farting, yelling, laughter?]

US: Tell us about jail. What did you go for?

MIKE: I've just been in and out a few times.

US: Does that mean anything? [pointing to spider web tattoo on his elbow]

MIKE: [blah blah blah?drug related things]

[we are rudely interrupted by the 9:30 Club bouncers because we took pictures during the show?oh my god!]





US: (to Chris) Dod ya have fu playing tonight?

CHRIS: I had the time of my life. I'm having so much ding-dang fun out here. I've never been here?

US: Hey, when we start doing shows, will you guys play OUR shows instead of this FUCKIN' PLACE?!

[immense laughter from everyone]

MIKE & CHRIS: Yeah!

CHRIS: You guys are a lot cuter than the gusy who run this joint. You're probablya l ot nicer, too.

US: Yeah. We don't break peoples' cameras!

CHRIS: Yeah.

US: We'll just bust ?em in the necks! Did you hear us yelling all during the show?

CHRIS: I heard people singing the words louder than our amps. I've never heard that before, except for tonight.

US: We were loud.

CHRIS: You guys were screaming! I heard a lot of people!

US: Did you hear us singing while you were on stage?

CHRIS: Yeah, mercy mercy mercy, you were singin' up a storm. Not a lot of places can do that.

MIKE: Do what, man? [to some guy, John] ?See ya later, man. Thanks for coming out. See ya in September.?

US: Yeah. When they play our show. Do you have t-shirts or stickers you can give us or something?

MIKE: No, we sold them all.

US: Gee-od. You sold them all out tonight?

MIKE: No. At our shows before.

US: Where'd you play?

MIKE: We played in ah?NJ, that was good. We played Connecticut, Sunday in New York City at the World.

US: Who'd you play with?

MIKE: We played with HR's band, Illegal Weapon?

US: Who'd you play with at the Anthrax?

MIKE: I don't remember. Oh, what was that band called? [to Chris]

CHRIS: Splatcats. They were cool, I thought.

US: Where did you write most of the new songs?

MIKE: In my home.

US: Do you live in LA?

MIKE: I live in Orange County.

US: Are you married?

MIKE: No, I'm not married. I'm single and uh?(unintelligible..)

US: We interviewed the Adolescents and they said ?Kids of the Black Hole' was about your apartment.

MIKE: Same as the playpen. Same apartment.

US: Same one you live IN now?

MIKE: No.

[Later?as we're leaving]

DENNIS: (yelling in funny southern drawl) I'm the best skateboarder in the band, dude! Better than Guns-n-Roses. Yuk Yuk.





AFTER WORD: We rode down to Richmond the next day with our friends in M.F.D., who were playing there with Social D. at the Rockit. During their set we wandered outside a bit, coming upon a warehouse door bearing a tiny GWAR sticker. ?Wouldn't it be funny if Gwar lived here?? we laughed. We rang the doorbell. Out popped a man with long curly black hair two stories above us. ?Whaddya want?? he growled. ?Um, uh?we're Pam and Shawna from No Scene ?Zine in DC,? we stammered, like it made it ok to ring his doorbell. ?Does Gwar live here?? He threw down a set of keys and yelled ?Come on up!? It was Gwar's prop-house/storage loft. We believed the guy who threw down the keys to be BalSac the Mighty or Beefcake, but who knows? He was just sitting down to a salisbury steak TV dinner but gave us a tour through their intestine-decorated guitars, paper mache ?armor' and hideous masks. We missed SD's whole set, but wouldn't you?!



2 months later?September ?88. Social Distortion's back in town. They don't play Safari Club but do want to see the museums and monuments of DC, so we take a couple of them everywhere from Georgetown's Exorcist Stairs to the White House.



This silliness took place that night after the show. It never was published because the last issue of our ?zine never came out. It's probably a good thing



US: Did you guys have fun playing tonight?

MIKE: Yes, we had more fun than a barrel of monkeys.

DENNIS: DC's alright. Thanks for driving us around and showing us the sights, too?John Maurer and I.

US: No prob.

DENNIS: This is our follow-up interview?it's better the second time around.

MIKE: Yeah, we've been playing every night for the past three weeks, so it wasn't, like stressful. It wasn't like ?Oh, we're playing DC and haven't played here in 5 years.? Like last time it was ?what are they gonna think? Should we play our country song?? You know, we felt much better.

US: What'd you think of Richmond?

DENNIS: Richmond sucked! The only thing I liked about Richmond?GWAR!!!

US: Where are you playing next?

MIKE: Rhode Island.

US: When do you play with Iggy Pop?

MIKE: Oct. 7 at the Hollywood Palladium. That place holds 5,000. It'll be packed.

US: Plans for another album?

We hope to record again in November.We've got a lot of new stuff.

DENNIS: ?One who has no mother.' [in fake high-pitched Mexican accent]

US: What???!! [laughter]

DENNIS: Social Dismadre. One who has no mother.

MIKE: That's what Social Distortion means in Spanish.

US: Really? How did you find that out?

MIKE: A bunch of Mexicans told us!

US: What else do you want to add?

DENNIS: GWAR!!!

US: What did you think of the show tonight, John?

JOHN: [sticks his tongue out and makes a raspberry sound]

MIKE: Hey?how about doing trivia info for your ?zine? This came to mind today. The original lyrics to ?I Want What I Want?, second verse, were: [sings] ?I wanted a girl with great big tits??

DENNIS: [laughing] You gotta hear the rest of this!

MIKE: What was the rest? Oh yeah. It said somethin' somethin' somethin' [sings] ?an dthen some guys tried to hit on her, andi told him to shut his fuckin' hole??

[laughter, then the WHOLE BAND SINGS] BECAUSE I WANT WHAT I WANT?

US: Ok. That's great. John, you didn't give an answer.

JOHN: An answer?

US: Yeah. What did you think of the show?

JOHN: Yes?yes?

US: Ok, closing comments?

CHRIS: We haven't gotten any parking tickets yet. I went to the Aerospace Museum and saw the plane that flew around the world without stopping for fuel.

DENNIS: Bye!

MIKE: Ok, see ya later, ?tater.