First gig I was able to catch was on the Hopeless Causes tour, June of 1993 at the 9:30 Club in Washington DC. A few songs from the end of the show, I received the flailing limb of a crowdsurfer to my forehead, opening up a gash in my eyebrow that bled considerably (the looks people gave me as I was walking out after the show were priceless; didn't understand why till I got to the car and looked at myself in the mirror), and I still have a scar from it to this day.
--mark
Mark, the date of that 9.30 gig was the 16th. I know because I was there! That gig, featuring Ed and Joolz, was my first encounter with the band. (I don't recall seeing a tall somebody getting pelted, and from the sounds of it, if I had, I would definitely remember. What a memorable night for both of us!)
That 9.30 gig was probably my third or fourth date with Brian-DC, and it was a big deal. I was just getting out of the music industry, so by the time he'd suggested we hear a band play at the 9.30, I'd heard as many crap bands as I ever wanted to. All he told me was that this band out of England never came to the States, but in the back of his mind he's thinking bringing me to see them live would tell him everything he needed to know about me, not to mention there was no way he was missing out on seeing NMA in the States. So from his point of view and mine: If I didn't like them, we were over. Of course, we didn't tell each other how much rested on this one date... But then, it went without saying...
Brian may have played me a cut or two in his car on the way to the gig - I can't remember. But in my mind, my first exposure to NMA is 100% live. As for the gig itself, I don't remember the set list (which kills me since I'm a set list junkie), although of course I know it was The Love of Hopeless Causes tour so I could make educated guesses. But what I know for sure is that the band were IMMENSE. Joolz's spoken word set was riveting, especially as I am a poet / writer who had never heard someone else whose topics were anything approximating mine (of course she's a billion times better...). Add to that this amazing electric violin played passionately and soulfully by Ed, and the vibe from the packed room. I was hooked. Everything was perfect (except of course that Mark got hurt). The club itself (RIP) was a character - a rat-infested snot & hanky with paint melting off the walls, sweat oozing off every scummy surface, and it was dark, with choppy spaces, the kind that shouldn't work but somehow do. That night was perfect. That night I remember knowing -believing- music was no longer dead to me, that it was real, hungry, urgent, necessary, impatient, intense, vital. The industry hadn't destroyed it. Hadn't destroyed me. All was not lost. Five years later I married Brian-DC. And all these years later, NMA remains inextricably intertwined in who we are. Couldn't imagine my life without NMA any more than I could imagine it without Brian. Perhaps it goes without saying...
