Sugar Ray

Sugar Ray 6/26/98

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I really wanted to go to this show to see Loudermilk again. They were a local band that in my opinion were second only to the Ladybird Unition. I went to school with the drummer, Isaac Carpenter and bass player, Shane Middleton. I met all of them at one point or another because I had friends that knew them and they had all been in different local bands prior to that. They also used to practice in my first girlfriend Daisy’s barn. They ended up getting a record deal, moving to Seattle, then Los Angeles and changing their name to Gosling. The problem with this show is that I misjudged the time that they would go on stage. I was out in the parking lot of our local fairgrounds drinking beers until the time I thought they were about to go on. When Jason and I started walking toward the entrance we spotted Isaac. I went up and asked him when they were going on. He said, “we just got done.” Shit! The good news is that it wouldn’t have been the first time I had seen them and would not be the last. We did stay for Sugar Ray, which were about as good as the first time I saw them. Nothing to write home about but I did hear a rumor later that Mark McGrath was downtown asking around for some cocaine…

311 11/5/97

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Less than two months later and my whole world was about to be rocked. Roscoe and I decided to make a trip to Seattle to see two consecutive nights worth of concerts. The first of these concerts was this 311 concert. I believe we stayed with my friend T-Bone. The first opening band was a then little known band called Incubus. They were touring for their second full length album S.C.I.E.N.C.E. Brandon Boyd had long dreadlocks and beat the hell out of a hand drum on “New Skin.” I remember thinking they were pretty good but then forgot about them until after Make Yourself came out. Next up was Sugar Ray. They were enjoying the success of the song “Fly” from the album Floored. I thought they were alright but the singer, Mark McGrath, was pretty funny because he was so sarcastic. Then came 311. They just flat out rocked. They were on tour for Transistor but I had got into them via Rose right after the self-titled album came out. Some short random girl asked me to put her on my shoulders, which was cool because she was cute, but that got old fast.