Concert Countdown Week: #4 - Wakefield CD Release, 1998
(Quick side note: the full trailer for Harry Potter 4 has been leaked. Check it out here).
During our last year of high school together, we recorded a CD at Rolling Hills Recording Studios in nearby Damascus, Maryland. It was a great experience; hearing our basement practice sessions realized as studio-quality tracks was extremely satisfying. CD technology wasn't all that old, and most indie / smaller bands were still using the more cost-effective solution of cassette tapes. We pooled our resources together (thanks, Washington Post paper route) and went for it.
The band was never too business-savvy, but we wanted to throw something together for our CD release. Problem was, there weren't many places to play a gig in good ol' Fairfax, Virginia. Someone got the idea to call the Government Center and ask them if we could book a public venue. Before long, we were sitting in a posh boardroom with leather swivel chairs. A lady named Michelle Chapman Campbell was our contact, who was in charge of a county-sponsored (aka drug and alcohol-free) entertainment series called "The Zone". After some brainstorming, we decided to hold a full-fledged concert in the Wakefield Recreation Center gymnasium, with our friends the Boys of Skabinson and a solo act named Clint Coo opening the show (MCC said he was good). Thus the Wakefield CD Release Party at the Zone was born.
The turnout was unbelievable. Apparently "The Zone" had a decent marketing budget and the show was mentioned on the radio and in flyers around town. We played on a multi-tiered stage with an awesome backdrop of large windows looking out to a forest. The Boys of Skabinson (our high school was called "Robinson"...oh, those clever ska cats) rocked the place, and I remember lead singer Adam Crowley rocking out on the kazoo for one song. Clint Coo was...good at playing Duncan Sheik covers...but he brought in a small non-Robinson crowd. And then it was our turn, and we played straight through a full set. Everyone in the audience got neon glowing bracelets upon arrival. I can still remember looking into this dark sea of green and pink lights from the stage and thinking that this was the coolest I had ever felt. The show ended with our friend Dave Broussard and I wearing jumpsuits and doing rock versions of the Beastie Boys' No Sleep Til Brooklyn and Mase's Feel So Good.
Our future together in college was uncertain, but making the CD and throwing a release party capped off our high school days well. I've always disliked the business aspect of booking / promotion, but it somehow clicked this time around. In the end, we were just four high school kids spinning around in government-owned boardroom swivel chairs.
(Tomorrow: The bloodiest OKS concert ever...)
Monday, August 22 at 9:00 PM
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