I first saw The Effect play at the Homecoming picnic in 1987. It was my senior year of high school, and they were 4 decent players…but one of them sang off key and made up words to La Bamba. I thought to myself: “Man, I should sing for those guys…and we would rock!”
A week or so after that I was leaving the vocal music room, past the band room, and ran into three friends of mine having a conversation about what to do…they needed a singer. These three friends, Alan B, Pat M, and Paul R were three of the four members of The Effect. They needed a face man, and I needed a gig…why not see if we fit?
So we got together in Paul’s basement (he was the drummer and that’s where he kept his kit.) They had a school dance set up in December, so if I was going to sing, we had to put together a set list of songs that we all knew.
We put together some standards that we all knew: Sunday Bloody Sunday, Sunshine of Your Love, Should I Stay or Should I Go?, Message in a Bottle, and Just Like Heaven. We hit Budget Record & Tape to flip through 45’s and get some new material…well new to them (it was all new to me.) We gathered, we rehearsed, I sang in more places than the shower, and our playlist grew.
The night came, and we set everything up for the show. We tie-dyed a sheet to hang behind us. Alan even arranged for a local talent agent to come and see us play. Hey, if he could book us some shows for money…cool after school job!
It was one of those nights that still remains clearly in my mind…even 20 years after the lights went out. Though we never heard from the agent again, we had a good dance. In all reality, I feel most comfortable on a stage. Any inhibitions that I may have fade away, and I can freely express myself. If it’s a play, the character channels through me easily. If it’s in front of a band…ROCK ON!!
We set up a gig at a house party in February…the night of the Sadie Hawkins dance. They paid us with a keg that they set behind us. Now mind you, that didn’t mean that we were the only ones who got to use the keg, it just means that we were allowed to play in front of the keg. We rocked the house. Hands down it was the best party that I saw in my high school days. That night also convinced me of how lucky I was to have never thrown a party while my Dad was gone…that house was trashed.
Summer came, and it should have seen my exit from the band. Pat (bass) and TD (keyboards) were both off to school. Alan (guitar) and Paul (drums) were both underclassmen, so they had at least one more year left to play together. Me…hell I was a loser with no plans in life. I just wanted to hang out with my friends and not worry about the future. Even though I had graduated, I stuck around and sang with the band.
We had a Labor Day concert set up to play at the Lakewood On Parade. We grabbed a guy that, as it turns out, was a pretty great keyboard specialist (I want to say that his name was Mike….) As more than half of the band had left, we changed the name from The Effect to Boxer Probs.
We added some new songs like Spirit of Radio, The Wall, and our first original piece Come to Jamaica. We had an hour on the afternoon stage. We played strong for the hour, flirted with cheerleaders from the high stage, and basically ROCKED THE PARK.
That’s when I screwed it all up. I mean, it’s not like I was going places anyway. I should have just stayed. Maybe I succumbed to the wily pressures of the Nichiren Shoshu Buddhists that constantly surrounded me. You see there was this retreat in the mountains with some Buddha Big Wig…an invitation only event. I had the invitation, and I knew that I would have to bolt right after the concert to make the retreat.
How was I supposed to know that the act for the next hour’s block had cancelled? The event organizers came to us. They liked our sound, the crowd was moving, and they wanted us to keep playing. I felt the pressure from the band, the pressure from the Buddhists, the pressure in my head.
I sang a couple of songs and dove off of the stage into oblivion. Alan did all that he could to make me stay and finish the show. I don’t blame him a bit for any of the steps that he took. If I had been thinking straight, I would have stayed for the whole thing.
Instead, I dove off of the stage, out of the band, and deeper into oblivion. We can’t go back and fix the past. Who’s to say that it’s really broken anyway? Regretting what we have not done takes time away from doing. Regretting things that we have done equals wasted strength that we can never recover.
I am glad to know that Alan still jams after all of these years. Now that I am learning to play the guitar, I realize the incredible talent that these guys had to hear a song, pick out the tune, and play it as tight as they did. Lyrics are relatively easy…most of them are printed in the liner notes. Mind you, this was in the pre-web days when guitar tabs weren’t just a Google away.
I hope that Paul is playing hard somewhere. Flat out he is the best drummer that I have ever been around. That’s probably not saying much as I have not been around too many drummers. Still, if I had my choice of anyone to play drums for me…anyone at all…I would choose Paul.
I ran into TD and his wife one day while I was working at Haaga’s Mattress Factory. He could put together the music on the keyboard after a few spins of the 45. If you didn’t catch that…I can’t help that the music industry has deprived you of singles and then bemoaned the digital download age.
I want to say that Pat is in law…or running from the law…or doing something legal—I don’t know. I just know that we really missed his baseline when he went to college. He helped provide the power that drove the band. I hope that he’s still slappin’ the beat—or something hip like that.
Me, I sing to the captive audience of the shower. My wife gets the benefits of my silvery voice and impromptu lyrics. We both have a habit of altering lyrics for our own little effect. Some of it has to do with our love having melded us into one being…but mostly we are “ew.”
Ladies and gentlemen…
…from the shadows of the Rocky Mountains…
…I give you…THE EFFECT!
A week or so after that I was leaving the vocal music room, past the band room, and ran into three friends of mine having a conversation about what to do…they needed a singer. These three friends, Alan B, Pat M, and Paul R were three of the four members of The Effect. They needed a face man, and I needed a gig…why not see if we fit?
So we got together in Paul’s basement (he was the drummer and that’s where he kept his kit.) They had a school dance set up in December, so if I was going to sing, we had to put together a set list of songs that we all knew.
We put together some standards that we all knew: Sunday Bloody Sunday, Sunshine of Your Love, Should I Stay or Should I Go?, Message in a Bottle, and Just Like Heaven. We hit Budget Record & Tape to flip through 45’s and get some new material…well new to them (it was all new to me.) We gathered, we rehearsed, I sang in more places than the shower, and our playlist grew.
The night came, and we set everything up for the show. We tie-dyed a sheet to hang behind us. Alan even arranged for a local talent agent to come and see us play. Hey, if he could book us some shows for money…cool after school job!
It was one of those nights that still remains clearly in my mind…even 20 years after the lights went out. Though we never heard from the agent again, we had a good dance. In all reality, I feel most comfortable on a stage. Any inhibitions that I may have fade away, and I can freely express myself. If it’s a play, the character channels through me easily. If it’s in front of a band…ROCK ON!!
We set up a gig at a house party in February…the night of the Sadie Hawkins dance. They paid us with a keg that they set behind us. Now mind you, that didn’t mean that we were the only ones who got to use the keg, it just means that we were allowed to play in front of the keg. We rocked the house. Hands down it was the best party that I saw in my high school days. That night also convinced me of how lucky I was to have never thrown a party while my Dad was gone…that house was trashed.
Summer came, and it should have seen my exit from the band. Pat (bass) and TD (keyboards) were both off to school. Alan (guitar) and Paul (drums) were both underclassmen, so they had at least one more year left to play together. Me…hell I was a loser with no plans in life. I just wanted to hang out with my friends and not worry about the future. Even though I had graduated, I stuck around and sang with the band.
We had a Labor Day concert set up to play at the Lakewood On Parade. We grabbed a guy that, as it turns out, was a pretty great keyboard specialist (I want to say that his name was Mike….) As more than half of the band had left, we changed the name from The Effect to Boxer Probs.
We added some new songs like Spirit of Radio, The Wall, and our first original piece Come to Jamaica. We had an hour on the afternoon stage. We played strong for the hour, flirted with cheerleaders from the high stage, and basically ROCKED THE PARK.
That’s when I screwed it all up. I mean, it’s not like I was going places anyway. I should have just stayed. Maybe I succumbed to the wily pressures of the Nichiren Shoshu Buddhists that constantly surrounded me. You see there was this retreat in the mountains with some Buddha Big Wig…an invitation only event. I had the invitation, and I knew that I would have to bolt right after the concert to make the retreat.
How was I supposed to know that the act for the next hour’s block had cancelled? The event organizers came to us. They liked our sound, the crowd was moving, and they wanted us to keep playing. I felt the pressure from the band, the pressure from the Buddhists, the pressure in my head.
I sang a couple of songs and dove off of the stage into oblivion. Alan did all that he could to make me stay and finish the show. I don’t blame him a bit for any of the steps that he took. If I had been thinking straight, I would have stayed for the whole thing.
Instead, I dove off of the stage, out of the band, and deeper into oblivion. We can’t go back and fix the past. Who’s to say that it’s really broken anyway? Regretting what we have not done takes time away from doing. Regretting things that we have done equals wasted strength that we can never recover.
I am glad to know that Alan still jams after all of these years. Now that I am learning to play the guitar, I realize the incredible talent that these guys had to hear a song, pick out the tune, and play it as tight as they did. Lyrics are relatively easy…most of them are printed in the liner notes. Mind you, this was in the pre-web days when guitar tabs weren’t just a Google away.
I hope that Paul is playing hard somewhere. Flat out he is the best drummer that I have ever been around. That’s probably not saying much as I have not been around too many drummers. Still, if I had my choice of anyone to play drums for me…anyone at all…I would choose Paul.
I ran into TD and his wife one day while I was working at Haaga’s Mattress Factory. He could put together the music on the keyboard after a few spins of the 45. If you didn’t catch that…I can’t help that the music industry has deprived you of singles and then bemoaned the digital download age.
I want to say that Pat is in law…or running from the law…or doing something legal—I don’t know. I just know that we really missed his baseline when he went to college. He helped provide the power that drove the band. I hope that he’s still slappin’ the beat—or something hip like that.
Me, I sing to the captive audience of the shower. My wife gets the benefits of my silvery voice and impromptu lyrics. We both have a habit of altering lyrics for our own little effect. Some of it has to do with our love having melded us into one being…but mostly we are “ew.”
Ladies and gentlemen…
…from the shadows of the Rocky Mountains…
…I give you…THE EFFECT!
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