Harrisburg New Music Festival (and bar tour)

So here it was, either springtime or summer, although I think it was spring. In a van full of lunatics, Deborah Geary is driving. And what a ride it was.

To pass the boredom we decided to play a road game.

Dead Animal.

To some this may be cruel and uncaring. But in a hot van full of Psychonurses it is run of the mill.

The object of the game is whoever sees a dead animal first yells out....of course.....DEAD ANIMAL. And scores a point.

Whoever correctly identifies what sort of animal or being it may have been scores another point.

There is a mild discrepancy about whether we will actually pull over and check the identities to resolve disputes.

One wondered if Debby was going to try and throw the game by creating her own dead animals, or whether she was just a poor and distracted driver.

So we get to the venue, a lovely outdoor park. An amphitheater. It look s very nice. It looks very large. It looks very comfortable. It looks all the more shiney and new because of the torrential rain falling on it.

And also because of this rain, it looks deserted.

That is because it is.

In the age before cell phones, no one could call you to say "Stay Home! We're Cancelled due to weather."

Which would not have mattered to Psychonurse. Had the electricity been turned on the show would have been turned on as well. More than likely electricuting many of the members and fans and making a nightmare for the special effects people that would have wanted to duplicate the meelee for the next venue.

The rain did not stop Tony Clark from performing random acts of ballet movement amid the raindrops, twirling and pliet-ing (spelling?) around the stage.

The rest of the band is semi sulky but optimistic that in oh, say 40 days from the looks of things, the show will go on.

We sit there all afternoon.

It doesn't.

That night we go to some club. I don't remember the name of it off hand. I can think it up if I concentrate. I know I can.

The guitar player for this occasion's little brother is with us. He is fifteen.

Tonite he is 21.

The bouncer takes a lot of convincing that the older brother's picture on the ID is him. Finally he relents and lets our whole party in. On the way through the door, he asks the guy what his horoscope sign is instead of his birthdate. He gets it right. That maybe because the bartender doesn't know horoscope sign dates.

At this point the trip gets forgetable. That maybe because I got inebriated. Like that was a rarity back then.

All in all, even though the band did not play it was a memorable trip full of bonding, commaraderie and eye opening new experiences for the young and innocent.

I don't remeber who won Dead Animal. But, the name of the club was the Metron. Wonder if it still exists.