Many potentially great bands used to fill the hallowed halls of the Monaca V.F.W. and Center Stage. Bands like Paris Green, Liquid Brick, Bunjie Jambo, MSC, and Wormhole used to play in the area almost monthly.
After a while, these bands got sick of dealing with the pressures of trouble makers and vandals attending their shows. The halls in which they played also grew tired of having their property and that of the neighboring facilities destroyed. Because of this, some bands chose not to play in our area while they were at the apex of their musical careers. One can only speculate the reason for this, but in our eyes, the answer is obvious: Heroin T.
Heroin T was a band from Ambridge. There was a large clan of groupie types that followed them to every show.
These fans were a rowdy bunch. They loved to cause trouble at every show, often destroying the hall in which the band played and forcing the attendance of some unwanted guests, the police-not the band the Police, but the actual law enforcing officers.
This caused other bands to avoid playing with them for the fact that an average fan would not enjoy being arrested right before the band took the stage. But Heroin T just wouldn't go away.
Heroin T were egotistical types that brought their own posters and even a band photo album to every show. There would not be too much interest by other bands to play with a group like that.
This could be one possible reason for the end of the vibrant local music scene that used to fill the area. But the true answer no one knows.
For those of you who don't know, let's a take a quick look at some of these bands we mentioned.
Wormhole was a big favorite on the local scene. They were actually from Pittsburgh, but played at the VFW and Center Stage on several occasions.
Wormhole's music could be described as punk with a melodic twist, which most people that attended their shows enjoyed. They are still together, but they are nowhere near local anymore. About a year ago, Wormhole moved to San Francisco and transformed into Wormhole X.
Not that it matters, but Wormhole was Jeff's second favorite local band.
They have a couple of 45's available on Rise records and a very good full-length CD out on Red Devil Records (under the name of Wormhole X).
Liquid Brick was another band out of the 'Burgh that played in the area frequently. The music they made definitely leaned towards the indie or alternative variety.
Liquid Brick was a very talented band who attracted large numbers of fans wherever they played.
Additionally, Liquid Brick was Ryan's favorite of the locals. But again like Jeff, it's not like that matters.
They produced their own tape called Liquid Brick which is not on a record label but sounds decent. They also have a 45 on POP BUS records.
In 1995 Liquid Brick came to the end of their musical road like most of the others, and they are truly missed.
Our bologna has a first name, it's J-U-M-B-O. But this ain't no ordinary bologna, it is the band Jumbo that we're talking about.
Jumbo, a band from Pittsburgh, was a frequent attendee at local shows. Their music was basically aggressive noise rock reminiscent of the band Unsane.
Our memories are limited to just one more juicy tidbit about Jumbo: one of the band members actually fixed Jeff's roof. His name was Cleve, and he was an awesome guitar player. We know, we know, like you really care.
Ahh...Blunderbuss, a band from Pittsburgh who showed us all a thing or two about indie-rock music back then. They are still around today and can be seen playing at clubs in Oakland.
Back in the early years, Blunderbuss was more of a hardcore/thrash band but slowly progressed into a more melodic indie band.
Blunderbuss scored quite well with the local and the Pittsburgh scene and acquired a record deal on Homestead Records (which was also the former record label of Sebadoh). The CD is called Conspiracy, and is a bit hard to find now. Jeff purchased it at The Wall quite a while ago, but it has since disappeared.
Blunderbuss has several 45's available on POP BUS (spell backwards for fun) records that can be found at Paul's CD's in Bloomfield (an excellent store by the way).
Next up on the list of long gone local bandies are those little hippies called Bunjie Jambo. The thing that sets them apart is that they still are a band today. Bunjie Jambo is a band from Pittsburgh who has a very reggae influenced ska punkish style.
Their original singer was a very energetic character who used to put on one heck of a show. He would beat pots and pans to the rhythm of the song and often felt the urge to sing while standing on his head. They quickly became a popular favorite among the local crowd.
After a while, Bunjie Jambo acquired an additional singer who was a 40 year old disco type (actually he doesn't even sing, he just jumps up and down and talks) named Waldo, and suddenly sounded exactly like the Mighty Mighty Bosstones.
They have released one or two 45's and two CD's on Sin Klub Records. The first CD, Morning Breath, is one of the best CD's that we own. But on the other hand, their second effort, All Balled Up, is nothing short of terrible. Excluding one or two songs, it is basically a horrible Bosstones.
MSC was a band that hailed from Monaca. Their music was of the heavy metal slash punk rock variety, actually leaning more towards punk rock. Most people thought their music to be simple and easily played, but they still had their place in the local scene.
MSC put out several tapes that were on the Air Bladder label. There is also a full-length CD available for a cheap price at places like Eide's, but there are probably not very many left, so get out there and get one.
On the whole, the shows that MSC played were at the Monaca VFW along with four or five other bands monthly. However, they came to their end approximately a year ago.
Another favorite local band of ours was Kol-Nidre (which is also a Jewish prayer). You should all know of this band because the members of it were all Beaver students at one point. The band consisted of Chris Hinzman, Nick Roberts, Greg Lehman, Chris Becherer, and Mike Miksch.
Kol-Nidre was a loud noise-rock band that usually made mules of themselves wherever they played, but continued to be very influential and creative at the same time.
The show that sticks out most in our memory was when the singer (Mike) got a crappy acoustic guitar and broke it over the "FAYD stage diving platform" (we will not mention FAYD in this story once again), and pieces of broken guitar went flying through the air with one of those pieces hitting Dan Komara in the head and bloodying him. It was great.
A four-track cassette appropriately named Kol-Nidre was released and sold pretty well. But the band soon broke up due to college, and the rest of the tapes were sold to Air Bladder Records.
Last but not least, one of the most respected and arguably talented bands of their time, Sub Rosa (later known as Paris Green).
Another band straight out of Beaver High School, Sub Rosa was solely responsible for creating our local music scene. They were the people who rented out the halls and invited other bands to play.
Formed in 1987, they quickly established a few very small shows around town, but nothing that really got them much recognition.
Then, the first show at the Monaca V.F.W. was held with Kol-Nidre, Cyber Christ, Liquid Brick, and Sub Rosa. The turnout was quite impressive and it all went uphill from there.
During the next year or so, the band learned of another band that had the name Sub Rosa, which basically forced our Sub Rosa to change their name to Paris Green. According to Webster's dictionary, Paris Green is a poisonous bright green powder containing copper and arsenic that is used as a pigment and an insecticide. Again, not like that matters, but we just thought we'd tell ya.
The band quickly developed a large fan base around town and they even started attracting bands from farther towns to play. To many people, it started to look like they were going to make it.
Time passed on and everything seemed to be going well, but then the news came: Paris Green were to play their final show. The reason of their demise is unknown to us.
Paris Green has several tapes available. The older one is under the name Sub Rosa and the newer one is named Paris Green. Pretty clever, eh?
After this happened, pretty much everything went downhill. Lots of other bands broke up and the people who rented out the halls refused to do so anymore because of damages and complaints. Thus the local music scene dwindled.
Bill Merante and Steve McMillan, former members of Paris Green, are in a very talented and well-worth-seeing band called Irwin. Irwin mostly performs around Pittsburgh.
The Bagamery brothers, the other two members of Paris Green, are now in a band called The Gene Pool, but do not play in the area often.
All in all, the local music scene will always be an important memory for us, and we wish good luck to all of the bands that are still out there.