Deftones 11/6/97

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This was the second of the two shows I went to see in Seattle. I had first heard Deftones on The Crow: City of Angels Soundtrack. Based on that song, “Teething,” I bought Adrenaline and was a full on fan by the time Marvin showed up at my house with Around the Fur about two months before the album was released! (His college roommate worked at the Central Washington State University radio station) So…when Deftones rolled into Seattle about a week and a half after the album was officially released we already knew all the songs. I remember being pretty drunk at this show because Roscoe and I were drinking out in the car prior to the show, which was nothing unusual for us. The RKCNDY is now defunct but back in the day it was a really small place to see a show and when a band like Deftones comes through there with only two albums worth of material to choose from you better bet your ass it was rockin’. Deftones have since matured into something otherworldly but back then they were at their heaviest.

Shortly after this is when my world really did get rocked. The day I left for Seattle I gave Jack my half of the rent because it was due that day. I didn’t think twice about it but then about two weeks later we were getting our apartment sprayed for bugs. They had left an instruction sheet with us on how to prepare the apartment but we had lost it. I went to the rental office to get another and the manager asked me which apartment I lived in. After I told her she said, “Oh, you’re the guys who haven’t paid the rent yet.” My jaw hit the floor. “No. You must be mistaken.” No mistake. I stormed back to my place and woke Jack by throwing his door open. I think I said something along the lines of “What the FUCK is going on?” He then explained to me that he had been fired and didn’t want to tell me because he knew I would give him shit. Jack was the kind of smooth guy that could get hired anywhere but then would get fired because he did not want to wake up after a hard night of partying, knowing he could just go get another job. This particular morning got a little sweeter when I demanded my half of the rent back. He informed me that part of the money was used to keep our electricity on, since he had not been paying his half of that either. Things just spiraled from there. I quit my job (the only job I have ever quit) because I needed to go straighten things out with the property management and my boss was being a dick. When I told the other supervisor I quit, he quit too. It was a very empowering feeling but then reality set in. I had no incoming money and a debt to settle. I had to worry about two full months rent because our lease was not up until December and I didn’t have any confidence that Jack was going to be contributing. He had already fucked up his credit by then but mine was perfect. The night I quit I went to a party to take my mind off everything and some girl ended up kissing me. When I told Rose (who had moved back by then) what happened, we broke up. Then my Veiled Chameleon that I had just gotten months prior was on his deathbed. Then my 1981 Pontiac Firebird got stolen and I had no insurance! I had put it up for sale thinking I could pay off the lease, get a cheaper car, kick Jack out, and get the money out of him later. I had also just signed up for Community College but now had no way to get there. This all topped off by the fact that it was a pretty cold winter. At that moment I decided that I would never go back to that situation again and I never have. I knew things could only get better from there and my new mantra was “it could always be worse.”

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