Friday, June 8, 2001 -
Julian Fist CD Release Party @ Gullifty’s -
Cellarbirds, Negative Space, Julian Fist, Dead Leaves
Friday, June 8, 2001
Julian Fist CD Release Party @ Gullifty’s
Cellarbirds, Negative Space, Julian Fist, Dead Leaves
Arriving before the doors opened, we sat on the steps while the gal
who came with us, Katie, stood by. Melanie had decided to play
hairdresser with Shannon’s head that evening, so her hair had more
body to it and was sprinkled with sparkly hair coils which the band
Perforated Head had sent her for her birthday. Deciding that the
waves and the coils were too much, Shannon took the coils out and
Melanie skillfully placed them in her hair without the help of a mirror.
Upon entry of Zee’s we discovered that “our” table was occupied by some
glasses of water and a pitcher! And we had arrived so early specifically
to sit at “our” table! So we thought we could take the table on stage
left instead of “our” stage right table. Shannon’s dad said no because it
was too close to the speakers, but we stood around there for a while
anyway. Mitch of Julian Fist came by to chat for a bit and Shannon’s
dad sent him out to get us tickets since we weren’t handed them at the door.
Kyle also came over to give us Julian Fist CD openers. Shannon
was watching the large TV screen that was showing the MHZ TV show
that Julian Fist appeared on. Melanie didn't notice it was playing, despite
Shannon's random squeals of excitement.
Then Jim arrived, surprised to see someone’s belongings on “his” table.
Yeah, that would be our stuff. We ended up moving to a table behind “ours.”
[ed note: we could've/should've talked about all that a bit more.]
We knew that would end up being a problem later. While enjoying our waters,
we decided it would be a cute photo for the site if we took one of us standing
by the guitar that would be won by one lucky party-goer that night. The gigantic
Julian Fist cake was displayed by the guitar for later enjoyment. We also
purchased “Pushing Audio Platinum.” Shannon opened up hers and looking
over the CD booklet, Shannon discovered a thank you to Shannon and Melanie.
Psh, that does not belong in there! When Troy walked by we made him stop
so we could say thank you for the thank you. We got a Troy smile then.
Kyle soon came over and sat down a bottle of beer on the table. Ready to
thank him for putting our names in the CD booklet, Shannon said, "Thank you
so much…" when she was interrupted by Kyle, who surprisingly replied
"Oh, no, this isn't for you!" Shannon then mumbled about how she was thanking
him for adding our names, not for the beer. Melanie tried to help Kyle
realize we're not alcoholics, by joking about snatching his beer. Hopefully
we didn't confuse him too much. Anyhow, THANK YOU JULIAN FISTERS!!
First up were the Cellarbirds who were on the Bruce Bond Late Afternoon
Show in the four o’clock hour that afternoon. The Cellarbirds are Bret
Alexander, Paul Smith, and Ron Simasek, stemming from the Badlees.
They performed original music off their album “Perfect Smile.” We had to
pee, so we missed the last song of the set. You can find our review of
“Perfect Smile” on the site. Ron asked for both of us to review the CD
when we spoke at the ArtsFest.
During the in between period of no performances, Melanie took
Carrie Rapaport of Juiced upstairs for an impromptu interview.
Everyone present seemed to think it went well.
Taking the stage next was Negative Space. Before the set got
underway, a few prizes were given out and Carrie won a Negative
Space tee. Lucky gal! Sean, Stu, Mark, Josh, and Todd had a few
women up in front of the stage dancing with beer in hand. Of
course we were selfishly happy that there was not a huge crowd
so we could just stand by the table and manage to see everyone.
At one point during a song break, Todd looked out into the crowd
and announced, "That's a hell of a place to hang a wheel barrow!!"
Of course, we both turned around, thinking to ourselves that we've
never noticed a wheelbarrow hanging before. After realizing we were
way too gullible, Todd cunningly said, "Hah! Made you look!" Did
anyone else fall for that, or was it just us? We weren't thinking too
clearly, due to our sinuses…yeah, that's a good excuse…They did a
great job and the set seemed to fly by. Sometime that night, Angela
(who we don’t really know, we just saw her link on the Negative
Space Message Board) interviewed Mark and Stu and managed to
capture a photo with all five guys posing for her. Harrisburg Online
also caught up with them. Not only are there photos from their performance
on hbgonline.com, but also photos in the “fun shots” section. It’s craziness.
During this break period we happily took the last two Negative Space
stickers. We also had our photo taken by Harrisburg Online, which is
now up. * Shout out to Harrisburg Online guy * The ever tall and smiley
Brian stopped us for a bit. Jim also came over to once again tell Melanie
that she had done a good job on the interview.
The party throwers graced the stage next and the dance floor was
instantly filled with happy patrons. It was officially announced that for
the hour of the Julian Fist set, Troeg's beer would be free. We stood
up and as Kyle, Scott, Mitch, and Troy began to play, Mark walked by
and asked if we were having a good time. We told him we were except
for the fact that we couldn’t see anything. We continually pointed at
the open space by Troy at the corner of the stage that we could
easily stand by if Shannon’s father would get his bum up and stand
with us. A few songs into the set he did get up and walked us over.
We happily bopped around a bit with cameras in hand. At one point
Mitch took out a paper and began to do thank yous. Looking over
towards us Mitch announced, “We have a graduate in the house tonight.”
Realizing immediately it we her, Melanie stepped behind Shannon.
Cheers from the crowd rose, even though they had no idea who the
graduate was! Turns out Shannon had asked Mitch to do that for her.
Getting back to the music, Troy had some of the same women who
were up for Negative Space staggering around in front of the stage
laughing and smiling. Next to them were two women each with a florescent
sign and glitter. One said “Julian Fist are ROCKSTARS” and the other
read “Scott is a ROCKSTAR.” When Troy ventured a look at us we
gave him cheesy grins, but didn’t get one back.
On Harrisburg Online there are photos of the non-smiling Troy and the
rest of they guys performing and also them screwing around in the
“fun shots” area. Don’t miss the ones of Carrie and some other
Juiced members goofing off in the “fun shots” from that night.
Julian Fist finished the set with “Fly Away” as per request from the
crowd and the small print on the set list. Scott, who we could not
see all too well, went on to tell the audience that “Fly Away” was for his
sister who tragically died all too early in her life. The entire album
was dedicated to her memory.
When the hour was up and the beer was once again drank at a cost,
the cake was cut and served. Melanie was handed a big chunk of the
layer cake, so Shannon took one layer and Melanie took the other.
Mmmm. Did we hear Kyle shout that his mommy made the cake?
Good job Mrs. Kyle and Mitch Mommy!
Last to perform was Dead Leaves. The floor was emptier from the
Julian Fist set, but not by much! These guys are popular! Remember
back at MMC when they put their CD in the Buzz Bags? They were
known as Bead then, but that wasn’t all that long ago, so everyone
should remember that. Opening with the song “heroine” pleased
those on the floor, yet disturbed Shannon’s dad, who decided it was time
to go. Slowly dragging our feet out, we pushed open the doors and
stopped to say goodbye to Joy. We asked her if we could take the
two Julian Fist posters advertising for the nearly over party and
she dazedly said why not. We carefully took them down and thanked
Joy again and explained how “heroine” did not strike a chord with
Shannon’s dad, so we were leaving. “Soon enough. Soon enough
girls,” was her reply. Never soon enough though.
Outside the fresh cool air came as a welcome relief. In front of the
Gullifty’s we saw all of the Negative Spacers and Harrisburg Online
Guy. Shannon mumbled something like, “What's going on out here?”
and Melanie whispered, “Can’t you tell? It’s a secret meeting. We’re
not invited.” Walking by, everyone said good-byes to us. Josh also
wished Melanie a happy graduation. We said bye as we continued
walking and Melanie said a quiet thank you to Josh.
At the car we had one more incident. Shannon’s dad picked one of
the many mayflies off the car and began to walk toward Shannon
with it. She started to back up a few parking spaces away as
Melanie headed back toward Gullifty’s. We’re girly girls and
were squealing. We did get back into the car safely to leave
without any bug attacks.