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Road Trip by Gayle

We went to Seattle from Vancouver once, to see DOA at the end of a USA tour.
It was their last gig in the States before they came back to Canada and a
bunch of us went to Seattle to welcome them back, and to have a tiny
roadtrip of our own.

We rode in Gary Taylor's Hearse. He was a sometime roadie for DOA, who went
by the name Scary Failure, and he always had Guy Fawkes parties. The Hearse
was one of his toys. It was white and had the DOA symbol with the Chaos
arrows pointing outward, painted on the back of the Hearse. Inside there was
a couch that sat against the side of the Hearse and ran lengthways for us to
sit on. There was a large metal fly and a skull candle in the back. It was
so cute! And we had a chauffeur.

I think the term 'second look' could have been made on that trip. People
would look over to the side as they drove along, look away, then wrench
their heads quickly back to stare, open mouthed. Oh, and one guy drove by in
a lovely mauve Hearse, and he was honking and waving, and so happy we were
alive I think. Guess driving dead people around is boring, and he liked our
back seat crew.

When we got to the border the guards just thought it was hilarious. They
asked what we were going to Seattle for, and we said a rock concert. The guy
said...'Punk Rock right?" and laughed his brains out. It was odd, because we
usually got hassled at the border, but the Hearse seemed to be our ticket in
without a hassle. Note to would be terrorists...I don't think it would work
these days.

We got to the bar. I know it was some notorious Punk bar, but regrettably
was in no frame of mind to notice the name of the Club. It was wild, DOA
fun. End of a long trip for them but always up to the outrageously energetic
shows. Worth the trip down there in the Hearse for sure. Outrageous.

Mostly we saw DOA in town, and worked security on a lot of gigs, so the few
trips out of town we made to see them stand out. We took a trip over to
Victoria once, with a bunch of people and the band, in a van. There was very
nearly no room for Anarchists, but they made some. There were fifteen people
in the van, and they only paid for about six going over on the ferry, and
only two on the way back, cause everyone was passed out in the back and they
never noticed us. We had brought most of a turkey, donated by the Salvation
Army to our poor household, and cooked up by Anarchist ladies. Joe did his
"Rudolph The Rednose Reindeer' with the toilet seat around his neck thing.
That was always amusing. Wonder if he still does that for his kids?

Mining My Marijuana Memory
Gayle