Milemarker

Milemarker - March 6, 1999 at the Maumee House (ten years ago!?!!!)
such a strange night.
More kids came through our front and side doors than any other night - I'd like to say combined, but that would be a flat out lie. Anyway, it was a lot of friends and strangers alike and it was a great, but albeit a short and awkward show.

Dave's (one of the singers and the guitar player) brother called me before they arrived, I am still unsure how he had my number, to inform me that Dave's Grandfather had passed away and I needed to tell Dave to come home immediately to be with the family.

Sometime later Milemarker pulled in and I had to be the messenger. I was a little bit unsure how to deliver the message, I would have been pretty upset by such news, and so I was even more awkward than I normally would have been.

I delivered the message and Dave was shaken, and had to figure out to get to a Kinko's to get on the internet - oh the days before internet was in every home. They played a rather short set. I was so stoked that I wanted to record their set, however I forgot to press record, and only captured the last 2 songs, they played a really short set as it was, I don't recall but it was probably about 20 minutes in total.
So these two songs (Battleship and Super Position) were recorded with 2 crappy microphones in our basement, but sound alright.

After the show Dave took off to the Kinko's and I attempted to interview the rest of Milemarker, but Al was more interested in hitting on one of my friends, Mary, and I wanted to keep the conversation light, in light of the message I had to deliver.
Al and I had gone back a few years, as I had seen Hellbender (of which he, and the drummer of Les Savy Fav were members of) on their first tour when I was in my early/mid teens in Findlay, Ohio - in fact I get confused if it was them or Laughing Hyenas that was my first show, as these two shows took place at the same venue within the same week. Chronology, whatever. Then I set up a show for Hellbender in Fort Wayne, I think in 1995, luckily for me Al called a few hours before the show and canceled as the venue backed out at the last minute, and I didn't know what I was doing yet. I also distributed their records to friends at lunch in high school, seeing as we didn't have a scene or shows to sell them at. Al and I also exchanged a few letters and phone calls. One time one of my checks bounced when I bought some records to distro. I saw Hellbender one other time in Kalamazoo, MI (which a live recording of I, Thermostat was on a comp). My sister, Chris (Lawhorn) and I drove up for that show, and picked up some kids that were lost looking for the venue that was named 31g. I saw quite a few good shows at that venue. And one last interaction between Al and I was when Cataract Falls played a show in Bloomington, IN the spring of 1998, and we were lost, so we drove by the house we had played previously the year before and there was Al sitting in the driveway. I was super fucking confused and asked him what we was doing there, and how strange to run into him, his new band, Milemarker was playing a show at that house. So we played our show and I ran across town to catch their set while the other members (james (had replaced stacey) and chris) slept from exhaustion. I was blown away. So I bought a few copies of their 7" to take home to give/sell to friends.
So a few months after this show/interview I picked up an issue of Punk Planet where Al was complaining about how people on the tour were not taking the band as serious as he wanted to, and sited our conversation in particular. Which resulted in some emails and he explained himself.

By far my most favorite of the shows we had (aside from the show Grapes of Wrath played and I rammed myself through a wall, and the last show we had when it was upstairs in the living room, instead of the confines of the basement). It was at this show that Al was the first person to compare DLA to 400 Years, and I thought that was a great compliment at the time. Other people would say it independently after this point as well.

Also, I hope you recognize that idiosyncratic trademarked yawn at the very end of the track Superposition.

Milemarker Live 3/6/99