Update: I sent in three drafts (including the one below) to The CN&R, and finally my editor called me this last Wednesday to say that the article just wasn’t going to work. Mostly I feel bad because I’ve let down the band by not being able to promote their show. Oh well. I’ll just know not to fart around like this again.
I wrote this article for my job at the Chico News & Review. Employing everything I know about gonzo journalism, I wrote this stupid story about their love affair that I pretty much completely made up. My editor called me this morning to say it wasn’t going to work, and he was so, so nice about it that I didn’t have the heart to admit that the story was horse shit. So now I’m spending my Friday morning re-writing the article, but here’s the ‘original’ in all it’s glory.
Rebellion’s Ballard
Berkeley’s Street Eaters knew nothing could ever be the same again
by Charles H. Peckham V
This is the story of two very special people— John Geek, and Megan March. They were the sort of people that most of the world didn’t understand, and they made music that reflected their isolation. They’d both grown up on the cold, hard streets of Berkeley, at a time when being a young punk kid in the East Bay really meant something. This was a time when the Bay Area was bursting at the seems with new and exciting bands, zines, community activities, and any other sort of punk rock thing you can think of. And it was in this revolutionary haze, that Megan and John found their calling, and ultimately, each-other.
John became known far and wide as an enthusiastic and prolific contributor to the punk rock community. He started a punk event phone messaging service at the number 510-BAD-SMUT, and was neck deep in the legendary S.P.A.M. Records, who named ‘Geekfest’ in his honor. He also offered his talents to the bands Fleshies, Triclops!, Bobby Joe Ebola and The Children MacNuggits, Harbinger, and Astrolloyd. Still, at the end of the day, there was something missing. It seemed like, no matter how many wonderful things he brought into the world, he would still lie awake at night, staring at the celing, feeling like there was something terribly important that was missing in his life.
Megan’s life went down a similar path. She became an unwavering figure in her punk rock community. She was revered amongst the scene for her work in the bands Wild Assumptions, Younger Lovers, Master Volume, Neverending Party, and Before The Fall. But still she struggled. She’d been with all these bands, and as much as she loved them, none of them seemed to truly understand her. She still felt alone, and desolate. Her childhood dreams of a band that could truly take her unique spirit and hold it tenderly seemed like a distant, fleeting memory.
And this went on for so long. For both of them, life seemed like a giant party where they didn’t know anyone. But that all changed in one amazing day. In a huff of desperation, Megan took a job working at the Giant Cities travel company, hoping that somehow taking a nine-to-five job would pull her into this wonderful world where everyone else seemed to exist. Equally distraught, John decided that he could no longer stand to live in the city he’d called home for so long, and rushed into Giant Cities ready to take the first plane to anywhere.
Megan, working at the desk, asked John for his identification. Taken with her stunning beauty, John fumbled through the contents of his pocket, looking for an ID. Distracted, he accidentally dropped a single guitar pick from his handful of pocket contents. Both John and Megan went to pick up the guitar pick at the same time, and their hands met on top of it. As if truly being able to see each other for the first time, their eyes met, and in each other’s eyes, each of them saw the band that they’d been desperately, painstakingly hoping for all these years. And Street Eaters was formed in that very instant.
But the duo knew that the harsh, unforgiving world would never accept the band that they shared, and so, with no other options and nothing to loose, Street Eaters have set their sights on Chico, where they’ll be playing January 28th with New York supergroup Forgetters, Chico legends Fight Music, and Severance Package, which is the new band of Josh and Robyn from Black Fork.
Megan and John both know in their hearts that as long as they have each other, their band can conquer all.