They play every once in a while.
Really?
Yeah
Oh man‚ if I'm around‚ I gotta go bother them.
You totally need to.
Yeah‚ they're‚ I mean‚ that band was -- you know‚ you can kind of get the idea of the bands and the styles of music I was going to see at The Wetlands.
Yeah‚ well if you're talking about Wetlands and The Nightingale‚ that's early 90's New York City rock 'n' roll.
Yeah‚ totally‚ and that's what I was trying to do too‚ I mean‚ I was in film school‚ but we had bands that were trying to get their demos together to get -- I was never in my own band in New York‚ but being a bass player‚ you can pretty much work. And it was‚ it was a scene. I was too young‚ when I went to New York City‚ I was too young‚ and I was coming from a place that was just‚ it was a small town‚ outside of Boston‚ but it's a small‚ small town‚ outside of Boston. And‚ I wasn't prepared‚ man. New York City‚ it was rough on me.
New York's a bitch.
I was a sensitive kid. I mean‚ way too sensitive‚ and probably to this day‚ remain too sensitive for that kind of environment. I don't mean emotionally sensitive necessarily‚ in particular‚ just too‚ just hyper-sensitive. Uh‚ you know‚ car horns‚ multiple honking incidents in a row make me very… upset.
Jackhammers?
Jackhammers. I can understand -- Jackhammers are at least constructive‚ they're destructive‚ but eventually it will be hopefully allowing something else to be built‚ but the car horns… The people shouting at each other‚ and nobody smiled! If I smiled at people they didn't smile back at me‚ they'd look at me like I was crazy! And I would always find dead pigeons on the ground.
[laughing] Flattened by taxis?
Whatever‚ on the sidewalk -- I don't know how they ended up‚ but I always walked past them. And that just‚ and I just started to associate the whole place with dead birds and car horns.
And having to pay people in order to go play their clubs. That was… I was there for that. But the bands I was seeing -- all The Wetlands stuff‚ I was haunting that place. And I want to know what happened to that half of the VW bus.
Well‚ that one half is in the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame.
Good.
I don't know about the other.
I think it was only the one half.
Well they kind of like‚ hollowed it out and took off the back to make it into the merch booth. But it's in the Hall of Fame now.
Cool. That place was great.
Note: Wetlands VW BUS INFO‚ taken from Ultra VW Magazine‚ Issue 58:
Nothing is known about the first decade of it's life‚ except that it ended up abandoned in a New England junkyard. It was saved by Denis O'Connell Sr.‚ a father of 5 who was determined to save it and continually pieced it together with spare parts‚ putty and paint‚ home carpentry‚ and duct tape. It was passed on to his son. Then‚ due to safety reasons‚ they finally let go of it. The engine was stripped for parts and the remains were sold to a woman in need of the transmission. It appeared to have given it's all and was left to rot in a field on the outskirts of Concord‚ NH.
When Larry and Laura Bloch began looking for a vintage VW Bus to use as the merch booth in their startup Rock club‚ they found the bus. Laura's father Paul Fruzzetti found the bus with the help of the American VW Association‚ who found the abandoned remains of the bus in a remote field. Paul also volunteered to handle renovations that would transform the interior into a small store. Mother Nature had already begun this‚ and eaten the back of the bus. It had also been riddled with bullet holes. They amputated the back and dissected the floor at a friend's Massachusetts auto body shop. A black wooden skirt was secured around the hole in the floor to create standing height for the sales person. It received the finishing hardware‚ a psychedelic fabric ceiling‚ a custom glass display case and storage shelving.