Tales from the Devolver Side 4/6 Bloomsburg, PA and 4/7 New Oxford, PA 2001

 Greetings everyone. Hope you survived the heatwave. Nothing going on for the next few weeks. Going to my brother’s this weekend but the weekend after that is huge. Eyedeal Productions is pleased to announce that on Aug 13th, A Concert in the Park, featuring Frank Miller's Beard, Redwud, and Boxcar Social will be kicking out the jams from noon until 8 PM at Wirt Park in beautiful downtown Hanover, PA. There will be vendors of food and arts and crafts. Fun for the entire family and your brain. So come on out and help us make the scene what it is in Hanover. But today it’s all about going back to the beginning of the scene with a little band I like to call Devolver. Today’s Tales from the Devolver Side focuses on the first weekend in April, April 6 and 7th, 2001.
     This was a typical weekend during the golden age of Devolver. A show on the road one night and a local show the next. This was my life for about 2 years and they were some of the craziest times of my existence. The Friday show was up in Bloomsburg, PA. It was at someone’s house. I had to work and most of the crew left town before I got off of work. Flick and myself rolled up in the early evening. Now this was well before everyone had a cellphone and GPS so we had an address and somewhat of an idea of where we were going.
      We ended up at a frat house that wasn’t like any of the frat houses up at Penn State. It looked like a normal house until you walked inside. Then it was all old broken furniture…. and a nitrous tank. Those guys were getting down but it was obvious Devolver was not playing there. They pointed us in the general direction so we headed back out. Yes, that’s right. I bailed on a tank to see the boys.
     We drove a few blocks, hoping to recognize someone’s car with the classic D Devolver sticker, as designed by graphic artist extrodinaire Andy Miller. We didn’t see anyone’s car but we could hear them. We parked by the railroad tracks and walked towards the sound. We found someone and were led into the basement of a house.
     The basement was split in half by 2 by 4’s that you would use to frame a room. Devolver and their full light rig were on one side and the audience was on the other side. It was like a low rent barrier that worked really well, almost framing the band. Got my tape deck set up but had some power issues. Luckily, someone noticed my deck kept going off and we were able to fix the problem.

Devovler 4/6/01 Bloomsburg, PA
Set 1
Edge, Surprise Surprise >Looking Blind, Side of a Mountain, Everything Comes Around, Bogey>White Room, Highway 29> Psycho Killer> Highway 29

Set 2
Bubblespeak, Turnaround, Pedalic Sax, Funk II, Miss You.

You can stream it here

https://archive.org/details/devolvermusic2001-04-06

Nice mix of covers and originals and pretty good sized crowd. We tore down and loaded everything back up. Flick and myself headed out rather late. We stopped at a Sheetz to get some grub.  While we were there, a whole crew of younger girls came in. Given what my state of mind was during that era, I just assumed they were all on rolls. Flick ordered a chicken sub, which he identified, to the employee as “the chicken sub with all the shit on it”.
     We get back to Hanover very late, probably around 3 or 4 in the morning. All I wanted to do was drop Flick off at his house and go and crash. Ahh if only things were that easy. Flick was passed out and was not in any mood to be woken up. I tried to pull him out from the car and he resisted. He would open one eye, glare at me, and return to unconscieceness. This went on for a good half an hour. I finally somehow got him out and made it back home to beat the sunrise.
     So I got some shut eye and then got up to do it all over again. They were playing at the Old Mill Inn up in New Oxford so no long distance driving required. Devolver had played many times before and always drew a good crowd. With a big dance floor and Bucket’s light rig, it was the perfect place for an Acid Testesque throw down.

April 7, 2001 Old Mill Inn, New Oxford, PA

Set 1
Soundcheck: Surprise Surprise

Soul Shakedown Party, Glasshawk, Strange Red Afternoon>Taps>Edge of Town>Looking Blind>Edge Reprise, Highway 29, Bubblespeak, Tumbleweeds and Mailboxes, El Nino, Pedalic Sax

Set 2
Happy Birthday Song (for Jake), Marina, Applecart>Old Man and his Beer, Drumz>Serve Me up Another, Bogey>Everything Comes Around>Bogey, Comfortably Numb, A Day Gone By, Waiting By the Sand*, Funk II, Turnaround>Looking Blind>Turnaround>Taps>Turnaround
* With Jake Herman on vocals
 
     Very lengthy and solid show. Jake was Devolver sound guy and someone who’s been around the scene as long as I have. His birthday was April 2nd and he wanted to sing something with the band. I admire his balls, as there is no way I would have the guts to get up and sing with the boys. After a hesitant start, he finished in strong form.
     So there you have it, just another typical weekend of sick jams, crazy times, and overindulgence of substances. Everyone have a good next few weeks and I’ll see you all at the Concert in the Park.