Transcript
Speaker: I'm Steve Brown and I'm Mark McBride and welcome to season two of the Yo-Yo Player podcast where a couple of dusty old farts grab some friends and reminisce about the 1999 Fiend Magazine Yo-Yo Tour.
Speaker: On today's episode, New Tour, Old Friend. I what this episode's about! Yeah, well me too, dumbass. I was there. laughter laughter laughter
Speaker: Oh, man. Let me start. So we started off, and the first day of the tour was actually at San Antonio, Texas. San Antonio. San Antonio. That was like the only day that in, uh, that Miami. There's no basement in the Alamo.
Speaker: That Miami, the only two days that rained. The first day and the last day. Yeah. It rained lightly that first day. The last day was nasty. What a great way to end. yeah right wait to and i mean it was It was not just like a thunderstorm. It was like ah it was like the hand of God saying, the Warped Tour is over, go home.
Speaker: Dude, talk about the celestial period. But we're getting ahead of ourselves. We're getting ahead ourselves. We're back in San Antonio. So first the tour, we're all hanging out. We wander over to less than Jay booth, and I say hi to Sean.
Speaker: Say hi to all the rest of the guys in the band who I haven't seen in like a year at this point. And I realize that there's this large structure next to their tent. They brought a friggin' dunk tank with them. Blessed and Jake brought their own damn dunk tank, complete with a basketball hoop.
Speaker: And every single day, Darren, the sax player, got into the dunk tank wearing nothing but a but a Speedo, a pair of water wings, and goggles. and that was it And that was it. And they had a giant reserve tank of water in the top of the tank.
Speaker: But what they would do is, when he wasn't looking, they would pour ice, like buckets of ice into this, so that he got hit with this ice-cold water any time anybody made a hoop. was nuts. If they made the basket, they got a poster and got to watch Darren freeze his nuts off.
Speaker: The first day was San Antonio. So it was, I mean, you know, it was like the usual, like first day jitters, right. It was like figuring out ah how to get the fucking tent set up and how to, you know, anchor it so that it didn't blow away. And, you know, dealing with weather and dealing with, you know, just figuring out like, because the the thing is, is that what what we had done is we had like a little riser stage with us. Yeah.
Speaker: And we were in trying to do 12 inches. Yeah. So it wasn't high, but it was high enough that, you know, we were above technically above the heads of the crowd. Um, and you know, we had like a little PA system and we had like X amount of swag from each company that we, you know, to give away each day.
Speaker: And we had to kind of figure out like, okay, how, what are we going to do? How are we going to do this? but So what shook down was the routine that we would, the, the daily routine,
Speaker: Was it we, you know, wake up, get breakfast at the catering zone, and then you'd have to set up, you'd have to set up your tent.
Speaker: So yeah the stuff would be dropped in a place. Yeah, everything would be dropped in it. So you'd show up and like your, your tent and your tables and your chairs would just be like sitting in a pile. Yeah, you're, I think they would put your tent up just to demark where you were. And then everything else was a pile and we'd have to pull it out and get it ready. We'd do that. then Then everybody would come in. They'd open the doors. Now, that also meant that you had like a one-hour window to go take a shit in the porta-potties before they got disgusting. before Before they were absolutely fucking horrifying.
Speaker: Here's the thing, though. Turns out, like I thought the porta-potties started disgusting. No, it turns out a fresh porta-potties actually quite nice. Yeah, it's really not bad. i mean, it's a little warm, but also it was early in the day, so they hadn't gotten to see me yet. yeah And you're not allowed to shit on the bus. That's like tour rules. And that's not work tour. That's like tour rules.
Speaker: Don't shit on the bus. like Yeah, bus rules. So the toilets on tour buses cannot actually like handle that solid waste. ah It just clicks it clogs the plumbing, and then it becomes like a huge fucking problem because you're all traveling around in a shit-smelling torpedo. Exactly. Yeah.
Speaker: Which has also given rise to what the guys from Less Than Jake affectionately refer to as trailblazing, where you take a black trash bag and you put it into the toilet. You line the toilet, essentially, with a black trash bag, sit down on the toilet, take a shit into the trash bag, and then you just close it up and then you leave the bus and then you just hand it to the first person you see and then walk away.
Speaker: So, I mean, you know, the respectable normal thing to do would be to like, go find a trash can, throw it away. But they, they started doing the blaze Olympics where they would, you know, somebody would trailblaze and then they would step off the bus and just immediately try to find somebody to hand it to and then leave.
Speaker: and And by the time the person realizes like what they're holding, it's, it's too late. You're just holding a bag of human shit. ah So we were there, you know so then we would have the day. And we would, you know, so the bands would be playing, they would have a schedule, open a close. And then what we would do is like on a like basic, you know, i i can't remember how many we would do or how we broke it down, but it was like every 20 minutes, half hour, something like that, we had to do a show
Speaker: So we kind of mapped out, like we basically looked at like how much stuff we had, like how much stuff do we have budgeted to be able to give away every day? and then we sort of backed it out from there and we're like, okay, well, we've got we can give out like eight prize packs or nine prize packs. So that means that we can do you know a show every 20 minutes or whatever. or we can do you know one like every 10 minutes, but every other one is the one where we actually give away the stuff. Because sometimes we just get up, do a routine, get down. But then every other...
Speaker: you know, or every third, then we would actually like pull people up from the crowd. And yeah I mean, and it was pretty dumb stuff. Like we weren't trying to get people, we weren't trying to like put a go in their hand and teach them how to, we were literally trying to like, all right, we're going to throw this yo-yo and you're going to catch it your butt cheeks.
Speaker: Yeah. There's like the, some of the, the, some of the things were like, okay, can you get it back to your hand? Yeah. Can you do it standing on one foot? Yeah. Yeah. You know, that it was that level of like, yeah. It was like, oh, if you can catch it, you keep it. And we'd throw a hard sleeper and put it on their finger. And if they tugged it and that if they actually caught the yo-yo, they could keep It it was like, yeah. yeah Yeah. And then we started to try to entertain ourselves as far as like catch it with your butt cheeks. So like I would, you would do a forward pass between someone's legs and just be like, grab it. Yeah. yeah
Speaker: And the, but it was great because like, you know, and this was, this is another one of those ways that, you know, like looking back, like, yeah, we were kind of ahead of our time here. Like the whole point of like, it's always going to be easier to get people into yo-yoing. If you just make it look fun, if you make it look like here's this thing that you need to dedicate a shitload of time and effort to like learning properly, you're just going to fucking scare people off. Like the only people that that attracts,
Speaker: are like hyperactive 14 year old boys who are like in dire need of something to satisfy their competitive streak. Like if you just want casual people to like enjoy yo-yos, then make it dumb, fun and casual for them.
Speaker: And so like we figured out, you know, this is one of those things that, you know, Mark and I specifically, you know, you and i specifically had, had figured out really early on that, like not everybody who picks up a yo-yo needs to end up being good at yo-yoing.
Speaker: Exactly. There is absolutely nothing wrong with like buying a yo-yo, keeping it in your pocket, only ever learning how to do two things with it and being perfectly content with that. Exactly. So we really like tried to make, like tried to make it as goofy fun as possible because you you just got, that's the, that's how you got the best response. i mean, that was the most fun. And we had, there was a I can't remember how we broke it out, but we did have a way where like,
Speaker: we all kind of were able to run around and we did it in shifts. So you didn't have to be at like, we weren't all the tent all at the same time. Yeah. Cause we also, I mean, you know, we were all young, like we were all like early twenties and we also wanted to go fuck around and see bands play and stuff. So it was also one of those things where we would get the stage schedule at the beginning of the day. And people would totally be like, I really want to go see bouncing souls. That's right. I really want to go catch. And so we would kind of map out like, okay, well then I'm going to take a break.
Speaker: I'm going to take a break here so I can go catch this band or going to take a break here. you know Yeah, no, that's exact. Yeah, that's right. We would always break it out at the beginning. Like who's taking what band and,
Speaker: Which was really funny for the guys on the tour who didn't know shit about any of this music. They were like, i don't know. Eminem seems popular. were like, yeah, go for it, fucker. Exactly. So, yeah, actually, that I'm talking about, I think it pretty much was you and I knew the bands.
Speaker: And I think that, like, definitely, like, probably, like you know, Jason and Nick were like, this he didn't know what the fuck they were asking for. had no idea. Absolutely no idea.
Speaker: But Rick, like Rick got into it like quick. I mean, Rick was like, you know, big Ice-T fan. Rick was a big fan of Seven Dust and like got to be yeah really tight with those guys during the course of the score.
Speaker: I didn't realize it at the time because I didn't think about it, but the 1990, 1999 was the year that they added hip hop. Like they were experimenting with adding hip hop to the tour. really Absolutely. Right.
Speaker: So, you know, well, Ice-T, he had his group Body Count, which was kind of a rock group. um And he's been hip hop from a long time. Eminem was just starting to blow up.
Speaker: Black Eyed Peas were starting to get their groove. So this was before Fergie. um There was a girl named Kim Hill that was the the the lady of the group at the time.
Speaker: So, you know, they was experimenting, like you just said, and you know, just whatever happened, happened. And i think that was a opening, eye-opening um of event for a lot of people to recognize where hip hop, punk rock, and just, you know, rock in general just kind of grew together.
Speaker: it's It's the funniest thing because
Speaker: the first time I met quote unquote Seven Dust was at a reception here in Kansas City. Actually in the city I live in, Olathe, Kansas.
Speaker: And i was hearing some rock music going on an event at a reception. I was like, what the fuck is going on down the street?
Speaker: So I excused myself from the reception. i was like, holy shit, this is crazy. And I see this black dude doing a rape, so it was the black album. It was so some just some hardcore shit just going on. was like, oh, fuck.
Speaker: So I didn't introduce myself then. But, you know, I guess the way in the room whatever happens. I am meet this guy in 99 on Warped Tour and then we become friends and we you know we're still friends to this day. ah Whatever reason, he moved to Kansas City.
Speaker: you know He's here because I guess Ashley, I i know why he moved here. but um so He's here now and you've moved fucking 10 minutes from my house and, you know, we just, you know, continue this friendship um from this point. But, you know, if the story continues on part two, thisin this isn't where he kidnapped my ass from Providence, Rhode Island to New York City. So we'll save that one.
Speaker: We'll save that one. Yeah.
Speaker: Julius buddied up or clung to, I don't know. The, uh, blink one 82. Um, you were very much like I'm buddies with, with less than Jake. So you were all about the less than Jake.
Speaker: yeah but it didn't take long. it didn't take long before. fact, actually, i think it was like the second date. I think the second date we were on stage with less than Jake.
Speaker: Yeah. And, and I mean, here's the thing is I had been like, I'd been on stage with less than Jake, like dozens of times before that tour happens. In fact, the night I met them, the fucking night I met them, they played a show at the student union in Tallahassee at Florida state.
Speaker: Okay. And would, I, i went up and like, was like chatting with them at the merch table before the show. And like, I gave them a couple of yo-yos and they gave me like a t-shirt and some stickers and we're just hanging out talking. They're like, all right, we're going to go play a show. And I was like, Oh, cool. And I'm standing there and I'm hanging out with them. And they're sitting there like watching the show. And then Chris broke a string on his guitar.
Speaker: And, you know, this is very early days. So they just had to stop the set while Chris changed a string on his guitar. So while there's while that's going on, Darren is just like, dude, get up here and do some tricks. Stall for time.
Speaker: i got up on the page and like was doing fucking yo-yo tricks to stall for time while Chris is laboriously changing a fucking string on his guitar.
Speaker: Now, then we got to rewind back to also how did you meet the Steve Brown? I met Steve Brown, Tallahassee. ah these are Late 95, December 95 or. Yeah, it was late. I think that's probably when it was. Yeah. um We played. i don't remember the name. You probably remember the venue more than I do at this point. But you played the student union at Florida State.
Speaker: yes you're absolutely yes you're right um yeah and steve showed up with a razor blade yo-yo and said here put this cigarette in your mouth and uh next thing i know he's cutting he's cutting that cigarette down while it's in my mouth and uh yeah came with the yo-yos for everybody to play with and the rest of that tour i think all all of us pretty much played with the yo-yos you know probably not so much chris but definitely roger buddy and i and So yeah, we just kept going. And then every time we'd go through Tallahassee, which was a lot of that back in those days, um, kept running into you.
Speaker: Yeah. Tallahassee was usually like either your first or last show on the tour. And sometimes both you would just hit it get coming through in or out of whatever. Yeah. Yeah. That first show actually, um,
Speaker: Chris broke a string and because you guys were, you know, this was very early days. Like he didn't have a backup guitar. So he just had to like stop and like change a string, and like retune and everything. And so you yelled, you pulled me up on stage and had me do yo-yo tricks to stall for time while Chris was changing his string. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: uh, maybe in the first time, but it definitely wasn't the last time we did that with you. Yeah, no, that was, that was the first time I ended up yo-yoing on stage with you guys. And there was at least another 50 after that.
Speaker: ah Jesus. When did I, how did I meet up with you, Mark? It would have been, a so it would have been around, might've been in Tallahassee.
Speaker: Um, I remember that we had, Steve and I had gone down to Gainesville for at least one of your shows, probably more. And so I think I probably met you at that point. i remember, i remember meeting you, like, I mean, like, you know, meeting you guys kind of casually, much like you would just like hang out after a show kind of thing. And I always kind of remember chalking it up to like, oh yeah, I have met less than Jake kind of thing. And Steve was like, oh, I'm buddies with less than Jake. where if we go wendy we're we're We're tight. Like, me and my boys.
Speaker: And I'm like, okay, Steve, sure. You know, and so for years, it's like, oh yeah, I'm buddies less than Jake. like, dude, I've been to all the same fucking shows as you. Like, you know, and then later he was like, like and then when we started this, when we started this whole thing, he's like, no, seriously. I so i was like, yeah. He's like, no, I went down to Gainesville for like,
Speaker: bachelor parties with them and stuff. i was like, okay, you got me. You got me, motherfucker. Maybe you actually do know these guys. we We definitely got kicked out of bachelor parties together. yep Yeah, that was Vinny's bachelor party, wasn't it? That was Vinny's. Yeah.
Speaker: yeah Nothing like a bunch of booze and cigars and Roman candles to get you booted from a bachelor party.
Speaker: Yep. We had fun, though. Yeah, we had a blast. Shit, you and I, yeah, there's been bachelor parties, there's been weddings, there's been divorces. ah More weddings, more divorces.
Speaker: Yeah. More weddings. Yep. Yeah, wait a second. I'm just realizing that... I've been, you were both at your wedding.
Speaker: Yeah. I've been at each of your, like i've been each at at a wedding for each of you. You were both at my wedding and yeah, like we've also, we've been around for all, and we've been around for multiple divorces too, for each of, for all of us.
Speaker: I mean, that's, we started this podcast because you were getting divorced. Yeah. So Darren, how did like, uh, how did you end up on the warp tour?
Speaker: um Man. So we first so with Les and Jake, our first Warped Tour was in 96. We did like a week of shows or like a five or five shows or something like that. Like basically a week.
Speaker: um And it was miserable. We had like the last bus ever available. No air conditioning on it. It broke down once, if not twice on that week. um So that was the beginning of my Warped Tour experiences. ah And then the next year, I think we did half of it.
Speaker: A year after that, i think we finally the full thing. And I think the year, talking about 99, right? Yeah, 99. So 99, I think we did the whole thing. um And by that point, you know we had had a couple of records out. We and had some success. And I think at that point, Kevin Lyman might have been our manager.
Speaker: Um, if he wasn't then he was soon to be. So, um, He was either your manager right before that or right after. is Yeah. And I, I, I don't recall right the second, but, um, either way, you know, we were friends with him and, and friends, everybody on the tour at that point. Cause we've done it so many years. So, um, yeah, I mean, that's, that's how we kind of got on. Uh, I mean, for that matter, after I left the band, those guys continue to be on, you know, there being the,
Speaker: most band, most played band on that thing, you know, the most shows. yeah The most warped.
Speaker: In the sense of, um, we're going out on a summer tour and it's all about the, the fun mayhem and getting some stories. Yeah. I wrote, I brought super soakers.
Speaker: Mm-hmm. As should. And a water balloon launcher. Yeah. And other stuff, including fireworks. um Because but you, my friend, have always been blessed with foresight.
Speaker: So knowing this, yeah, that was like, again, that was like day two. They're like, you guys have super soakers and yo-yos. You want to be on stage? and we're like, absolutely. Sold. Yeah.
Speaker: So every day after that, we were less than Jake's yo-yo water brigade. Yeah. Now, that here's the thing is they actually had – they had – ah They had a guy, ah our friend Tony Winebender, who now runs F.E.S.T. in Gainesville.
Speaker: ah This past year was the 22nd year of this music festival. Holy cow. But 1999, Tony was mr Skull. which meant that every day during the Less Than Jake set, he was jumping around on stage in a red ah work jumpsuit and a skull mask and shooting like a toilet paper cannon off and just dancing and just generally being like a fucking hype man for the band. exactly So they had him on tour.
Speaker: So it was not a stretch at all to be like, oh, yeah, i don't know. Let's get five more fucking guys up there with yo-yos and super soakers and shit. Fuck it. Why not? Let's do this. Yeah. And so it was it it was a natural fit real quick. And so – and I was – and again, it happened day two.
Speaker: Boom. And so that was up there. And then like said, a vet it was not long afterward. Like other – people would come back. Like Julius and Rick would just be like, oh, I'm going up with this band. I'm going up with this band. I think like the Hippos were a ska band. Like yeah, that was an easy fit. So they got up there. you know And it was – OK. Look at that.
Speaker: you know Which Great. Yeah. Yeah. It was a good time. Oh man. I mean, it's, it's, and i mean I mean, it's not like we were selling the yo-yos to the, pro to yo-yo lady pros, but you know, we were getting some eyeballs.
Speaker: But the stories that you tell over time, like one of the most crystallized ones is that like, you know, like less than Jake, you know, Steve knew them from Tallahassee um connections and all that stuff. But like um for me, it was really cool because I actually liked that band as a teenager. You know, when I was in high school, like freshman or sophomore, some of my friends were like real big into ska and I think the first time I saw less than Jake was at like a ska against racism tour and like Anaheim or, you know, in Southern California somewhere. Yeah. That was like a couple of years before.
Speaker: Yeah. There was like two or three of those and they were, those were fucking huge. That was like a, and that was a good bill too. it was like less than Jake and alkaline trio and Mike park and yeah, was good shit.
Speaker: So I had been into them, right? Like my friends and I, we would listen to them. And so that was one of the, actual exciting things going into the tour was like telling my buddies at high school like yeah i'm gonna go and probably gonna meet these guys less than jake because my friend steve is like friends with them and um so hanging out with less than jake was cool right like that was uh definitely a high watermark right i was walking in they were like one of my top favorite bands um and then you get to actually meet them
Speaker: was there anything different about 99 than the other Warped Tours?
Speaker: Um, I mean, I think at that point it had figured out what it was doing and how to do it and how to maximize what it was doing. So I, I think it, it was doing, I mean, the very first one was like what, 93, 94, where they had like, you know, four or five bands.
Speaker: Um, you know So by the time that 96 came around, on my first time, yeah it was a rolling you know small circus. But obviously by the time it got to 99, the circus just kept getting bigger, bigger, bigger. So more stages,
Speaker: um you know more bigger acts and things like that. So
Speaker: production, bigger production, bigger just everything. Bigger venues. So and I think also that might've been the year that there was, they went international too for, they did a European, in yeah Australia.
Speaker: Yeah. There was, I remember there was an Australian leg. Yeah. That we also, we did both Europe and Australia with them. So I think 99 was the year that that all happened.
Speaker: Um, I think he may have done like a a show here and there, like a one European show, um, the previous year or something like that. So I think by 99, I would say that they were peak starting to peak. How about that? did They hit the plateau and, uh, they kept going after that, but it was, yeah. So, um, we do know that it was good.
Speaker: No, please. ah no i was go say And then, of course, you know it was a bigger circus because you know you guys were there. And i think they had more ramps, more skaters. you know At that point, it just became the the rolling... wasn't I mean, it wasn't necessarily a party, but it was just a rolling circus of friends and family. and you know So, yeah.
Speaker: I mean, to us, it just felt like a party. Because our oh our responsibilities were so minimal and casual. But there was paintball that year. They had that traveling paintball obstacle course. They had you guys with the yo-yo stuff.
Speaker: They had us with the yo-yos. They had they had the skaters. They had the ah the BMX guys. They also had the motocross guys. Oh, that's right.
Speaker: and Yeah. the Was it the metal militia? no I remember that. Yeah. I just remember it being on like all their like shirts and it was like M-U-L-I-S-H-A militia. And was just like, what in the fuck is that?
Speaker: We're doing all of this because like I was just the other day saying to ah another buddy of mine, and I'm like, dude, being like just a random merch guy on tour with a band sounds like the most amazing fucking vacation right now.
Speaker: ah Like just, yeah just being like, i don't know, man, my job is I just fucking show up and set up and hang out and sling t-shirts all day and then pack up the shit and get on the fucking bus. Like, no, that sounds like having only that amount of responsibility every day. Sounds amazing. You know what I've realized though, from that chapter, like in the chapter, like the, the time after it, when,
Speaker: Yo-yoing was only part of my career, you know, was that it was really excellent to only do it a little bit, you know, you know, the guys that were on the tour full time, like people who that was their life were not as jazzed as we were.
Speaker: And the people who had full time jobs were not as jazzed as we were. But the fact that we could go in there be on the world tour for a little while and then go back to our normal lives and actually have the, you know, the connections and stuff that you lose with the road life.
Speaker: But then leave that, leave that bound life and, you know, go on rock and roll tour. Like, oh man. How fucking lucky were we? i mean, we were pretty lucky, but honestly, like I, I got a solid taste of that when I was like in the years that I was working for Duncan.
Speaker: Exactly. um You know, and, and being part of the yo-yo scene means that by and large, like a lot of my friends are scattered to the winds and I only ever see them at one or two yo-yo contests a year. Yeah. And, and now that I, you know, like I'm not, I'm i'm so many years away from being like,
Speaker: A, like a demonstrator, right? Where I'm like, I'm out at everything, like, you know, pushing the brand or like being a competitor where I'm out, like competing and stuff. I'm so far away from like really hitting that whole contest circuit every year and doing it in a way where I get to just socialize and hang out with my friends.
Speaker: yeah So it's, it's, I mean, it's very much like, you know i've got i've got i've got buddies who like used to tour with bands and they don't you know that they they used to tour as like crew right so they were like front of house sound or whatnot and they just don't do it anymore like timmy chunks you know doesn't really go out with bands anymore my buddy ryan you know used to do like front of house sound for rancid doesn't really go out anymore and there's just like a ton of relationships there that you just kind of, you know, it's, it's not necessarily that you lose them, but it's not the same when it's just, you guys like calling or texting each other once in a while, as it is when you're like, dude, we're going out on tour for eight weeks, you know, like there's just something about that, that that's like really, it's really intense. And I do kind of miss like having those kinds of,
Speaker: you know, those that in person sort of I mean like that this tour in particular was was one of the best times I had. as
