Sunday, January 23, 2011

Moon


Of all the shows my band ever played, probably the best loved and most remembered was in the basement of a kid named Nick Moon. Dominic dug up a blog a couple of years ago that referred to it as the legendary Wax Theatricks show in Nick Moon’s basement.

This was in the 70’s at the height of the Punk scene.

Although it was pretentious by punk standards we loved to pour on the special effects. We considered ourselves an art band and only had one real punk song. It was a song Dominic wrote called Ronald Reagan. I think it was actually written before he was President but I could be wrong. At the song’s climax Dominic ran to the front of the stage with an explosive plunger.

Strobe lights flickered as he hit the plunger that detonated a flash bomb leaving rubble and smoke machine fog pouring into the audience. Somehow this was more effective in Nick’s basement than it had ever been at the clubs. It blew everyone’s minds.

Nick lived in a mansion on one of the private streets in the Central West End. He was an only child and had terrible social skills. He tried desperately to win respect but he was just too awkward.

He thought we were spiritual brothers because we both loved Roxy Music. There didn’t seem to be too many Roxy fans at that point.

Nick was always in your face and had way too much enthusiasm.

My friends George, Tony Patti and I think Fojammi had an apartment at Clayton and Taylor. Like so many of my Central West End apartments, it’s now a Washington University parking lot. One snowy night at Nick’s we decided to visit. I’m not sure who all was there but I remember Benet was.

Nick was always trying to impress us. He decided to steal his parents antique Mercedes. He had no business driving at all, let alone a manual transmission you had to double clutch like a truck. Every moment of the drive was hair raising.

He took the corner at Taylor and Clayton way too fast. We turned on our side and drove on two wheels like a stunt in a movie. I remember, miraculously, we drove up on a sidewalk between a telephone pole and a cyclone fence before we rolled all the way over.

I remember excruciating pain in my hand as I looked over at Benet. He was unconscious. Nick scoped out the damage before yelling, “My mother is going to kill me!”

I don’t think I ever saw Nick after that. I did hear stories about his being cruel to animals like Jeffrey Dahmer. I never wanted to believe it, but Nick was just a bit off.

This Mercedes pic looks right, even the right color.

2 comments:

Tracy said...

Oh man, I remember that show at Nick's. I heard I met Michael Stipe there...but I barely remember. I do remember eating snow-peas out of their garden though. For a long time Nick was the front buss at Duffs on Saturday night and I was the back bus. He would disappear in the middle of the rush, like just leave... He was always in my face saying "Don't ya just LOVE IT!!!??" and I was like "no not particularly". We also had Roxy Music in common. Those flash pods could get scary. When we were on an actual stage, quite often, people would be leaning on the stage with their face just near the flash pod thingys, and I'd be trying to shoo them back when I knew they were about to fire. Usually they would stare at me not understanding and just laugh or ignore me. Then I'd give up trying. The next thing I knew it was like that video from the airport in Moscow but with less carnage.

Anonymous said...

Maybe I'm wrong, but didn't you tell me that at the time one reason you were scared was because when you saw Benet unconscious, you thought he was dead?
Dylan