Dislocated part two

 

Part two in the story about my first band The Dislocated – When I left off I had quit my job to go back to college and also devote more time to the band. It’s about time I told you a little more about my band mates. I had known Mark Taylor since the 1^st grade, but we really didn’t become friends until we were sophomores at Riverdale High. We were both obsessed by rock and roll, specifically Van Halen and AC/DC so would spend study hall drawing guitars and talking music. Of course he had one big advantage - he had been given a guitar by his uncle and soon he was playing it non-stop. I met Mike the night we went to see Van Halen in February 1984. He was just a little kid then, but he liked what Mark liked when it came to music. I tried out Mark’s SG copy that night and for a brief instant I must have channeled Jimi Hendrix as the chords to “Foxy Lady” came out of the guitar astonishing Mark. I didn’t have a clue as to what I was doing. We went to a couple more concerts that year; Ted Nugent and Nashville’s once annual One For The Sun concert which featured Alcatrazz with Yngwie Malmsteen, Peter Criss, Gregg Allman, Kick Axe, and Ratt that year, but Mark got a steady girlfriend his senior year and it wasn’t until 1987 that we started hanging out together again.

 

Mike had learned guitar and bass by this time and he was just downright amazing. I wouldn’t say he was better than his brother, but he seemed to learn songs with ease while Mark would tend to struggle before getting things right. Mike was just a natural talent. One evening Mark and I were going to Nashville to see local speed metal band Intruder and before we had left Mike was starting to learn Hendrix’s “Little Wing”. Mark said that Mike would have it learned by the time we returned and he was right. Mike could play it with ease after just a few hours. Mark and Mike would switch between bass and guitar for most of the life of the band.

 

The drummer was Mike’s school friend Tim Baird. He was absolutely incredible playing with top energy all of the time. We always held practices at his house and it was a blast. His parents supported us all the way letting us take over the den almost every weekend, while we played songs that didn’t always have parent friendly lyrics. We doing are two originals plus tracks by Black Flag, D.O.A., S.O.D., Descendents, Danzig, Black Sabbath – “Hand Of Doom” was always a favorite of ours, Megadeth, Odd Man Out, and Living Color – which one of those bands doesn’t belong here? We weren’t eve called the Dislocated at this point, we were actually going by the moniker; Dalai Lama Death Squad – D.L.D.S. naturally.

 

We practiced on and off for most of 1988. I was lucky enough to not have to work at the time so it was a carefree year of college, skateboarding, and music. I bought a guitar at the age of 21 determined to learn how to play. The Taylor’s gave me some pointers, but I made very little progress. This was okay though since the band had begun to compose more original tracks. By the start of 1989 we had began work on the tracks “Complications” and “P.G.” with Mike handling the music and me handling the lyrics. We decided to rename the band, The Dislocated, after I dislocated my thumb skating. We started to seriously consider playing some shows around town so Mike and Tim managed to land us a gig playing in front of the entire Riverdale student body later in the spring. Man that was insane!

 

Riverdale had always had shows while Mark and I were students. Local Murfreesboro hard rock band, The Leonard Brothers, played during our sophomore and junior years and even though they just a cover band we were tremendously impressed by their act. I was always daydreaming about being in a rock band and perhaps going back to play my high school, but those were just daydreams. It’s obvious, but reality is a whole nuther thang. We started jamming like crazy to get ready for the gig. Our two new originals weren’t ready yet and our other two were just not appropriate for the show – the plug would have been pulled in an instant if we had tried to perform “Work Sucks”.  Most of our covers would have to jettisoned for that one performance which meant Mark brought back many of the tired dogs the band had been playing before. We did manage to keep Black Flag’s “Jealous Again” and Danzig’s “Mother” in the set list. We also wrote a tune called “Mosh And Slam” which featured a cowbell break lifted from the Riverdale High pep band’s songbook. While preparing for this year I got us another gig at local Murfreesboro dive bar, Jabb’s, that would take place a week before the Riverdale show, which made me breathe easier knowing our very first show in public didn’t have to be one in front of about 1,500 students.

 

In part 3 – here all about our gig at Jabb’s and then the show at Riverdale.