Tales From the Devolver Side Halloween 2000

Greetings everyone. Hope you all enjoyed the last vestiges of the Indian summer as Fall is about to make its presence known.  And the biggest part of Fall is Halloween. But this isn’t about my epic Phish Halloween 1994 show; this is about something almost as epic. I am of course talking about the Halloween 2000 run a little band called Devolver did. 

You can stream it here 

https://archive.org/details/devolvermusic2000-10-27

     By this time, my crew (myself, Adrian, Watson, and Dan) had become pretty tight with the Devolver family. I wouldn’t become manager until Summer/Fall of 2001 but we helped out when we could. At some point, Devolver decided to put on their own show. The band nor we had never really done anything like this so it was definitely learning as we went along.

     Watson found this great little fire hall in Bair, smack dab in between Spring Grove and the 116/30 interchange. Just a cinderblock building with a picnic pavilion outside of it.  A few houses were around it but nothing too close.  Set up was no big deal but the acoustics left a lot to be desired. We solved this by hanging blankets all over the walls. We also had to be done by midnight as they were having a wedding reception the next day and we had to clean everything up.

10/27/00 Devolloween Ball; Bair, PA

Devolver got wheeled out in a coffin & popped out dressed in drag*

Set I: Glasshawk, Alone at the Applecart->Soul Shakedown Party, Surprise Surprise->Surprise Reprise*, The Laughing Clown->Funk II->Super Mario Bros Theme->Funk II, Side of a Mountain, Psycho Killer->Highway 29, El Nino->Bogey->The Wonderous Boat Ride**

Set II: Costume Contest***, Golden Years>Edge of Town, Werewolves of London^, Waiting By the Sand, I'm a Man>Drumz->Cafe Latte->I'm A Man, Turnaround^^ 

*got crazy at begin of 4th verse and went directly into the reprise
**1st time played; From Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
***won by John Volk for his El Nino Clean Up Crew costume
^1st time played since 10/23/99
^^3rd verse was broken down and then went crazy

     Some of the costumes were really good. Watson was dressed as the Chitiqua banana lady. I went as the guy from Funk II, and we had two gun toting postal workers. Jake was dressed as a pimp.  The band was wheeled out in a coffin and then emerged, dressed as chicks. From the back, Andy looked like a chick. But then he turns around, and the goatee is there in your face, BAM!

      This was also the first time I ever took MDMA. WOW!!!!!!!!! Talk about something different. I was expecting something more along the lines of a psychedelic, but man, this was different. I felt like I was James Brown and had no bones within my body. Just one big gelatinous mass able to contort and shift my body however I wanted to do.   

     The band also had some tripped out tricks up their sleeve. They did the Wondrous Boat Ride from Willie Wonka and man, what a freak out. It was really mind bending. They also started their own little Halloween tradition of doing Werewolves of London, which I’d like to take credit for insisting they do it. The lights, the costumes, the treats, it was all too much and came off as a smashing success.

     The band had a costume contest at set break and Bucket won with his El Nino Cleanup Crew outfit. It was hilarious. He got a bag with champagne and glasses in it and proceeded to drop the bag and smash the glasses.

 We had the whole Devolver family there plus a whole lot of people we didn’t know but word was getting around about this amazing band that hailed from Hanover and was taking no prisoners along their march towards world domination. We managed to do a pretty good job of cleaning up which paved the way for us to use the hall again.

     The next night the boys had another gig down in Baltimore at something called the Heady Halloween. It was a gig set up by Ed, who was their manager at the time. It wasn’t in the worst part of Baltimore and they even had an elevator so we didn’t have to haul all the equipment up the four flights of stairs. Voodoo Blue and LaChoza were also on the bill.

      There was a crazy ass rave upstairs and we were searched on the way in. They weren’t looking for drugs though, only weapons. The place was actually somebody’s apartment and took up most of the floor of the building. Nice wide open spaces to get your groove on. Ah yes lovely Baltimore. I made a batch of tea and a lot of us were feeling no pain.

     Devolver was the second band to play and was in the middle of the soundcheck when this guy named MC Crockett, the Chocolate Rocket, comes up and asks if he can freestyle with them. Kyle tries to explain to him that they’re not playing yet, just doing the sound check. Well, he wanted no excuses and grabbed Andy’s mike and started free styling. To the band’s credit, they went with it and laid down a sweet ass groove. His rap consisted of some verses with something like a refrain along the lines of “Are You Feelin’ It?”  It was a pretty good performance with no preparation and they did a really good job. Again, they are masters of improvisation.

10/28/00 The Art Gallery; Baltimore, MD 

Do You Feel It?*, El Nino, The Laughing Clown, Crosseyed & Painless->Cafe Latte, Bogey->Highway 29->Bogey, Bubble Speak, Funk II, Surprise Surprise, Surprise Reprise** 

*MC Crockett the Chocolate Rocket free styled while Devolver gave him a groove (Title by Kempy)
**Devolver was Surprised by the police and had their set stopped early

     The show continued on with some sick ass jams and everybody was having a great time. Then, some dude with long hair came up to Jake at the soundboard and told him to cut the music. Jake asked why and he flashed his badge. Damn, busted by the Man. Some other officers and he were undercover so we’re lucky nobody from the family got busted. It seems the people that put this on didn’t have the correct permits and whatnot. People, come on, let’s get it together.

     We had to hang out while they decided what they were going to do to us. They eventually let us go and I ended up giving Pete Blainy a ride home. He said he knew his way around Baltimore so I allowed him to be my guide in order to get out of Baltimore. And don’t forget I’m flying on tea still this point. First, he tells me to turn on this street and it’s a one way street. And we’re going in the wrong direction. Shit! Cars are coming at us and I pull a U-turn and then he tells me to cut down this alley. This particular alley takes me right behind the Baltimore Police headquarters. Thanks a lot dude. Where did you learn how to get around Charm City, in the back of a police cruiser?

     So we finally made it out of Baltimore and were heading back to Hanover. We heard about a party and the farmhouse the Altman boys were renting. We got there and we were among the first people from the busted Heady Halloween party to get there. George Papoutsis was there with his DJ equipment set up. It seems they were supposed to have a party but everybody went down to Baltimore. Well guess what, they’re all on their way back. Soon, a rather raging party was going on.

      Blunt rode back up with Wendy and her car broke down on a road not too far from the farmhouse. They decided to cut across a field and ran into a swamp. Blunt proclaimed that he thought he was going to die out in the field.  Good times.

      Please enjoy this trip to the Devolver side. I have a new photo album up on Facebook with all the photos from Fall of 2000. Only cool local thing going on this Halloween is Boxcar Social at the Holy Hound Tap room in York on October 27^th at 9:30. Support local music.

Dave Kemp

BA American Studies

PhD Rock and Roll