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- Despite forecasts of rain and thunderstorms, the
weather was extremely warm with the sun glistening on
June 12. It was perfect conditions for the OOBS summer
rawk spectacular entitled, "The End of the Skool Year
Blowout!" Due to the massive amounts of propaganda
distributed many days prior to the show, the
attendance was an expected 60+ people. Posters and flyers
were hung throughout Richard's neighborhood during the
morning of the show making it an official OOBS concert
area. The approximated scheduled starting time for the
first band, The Hyperactive Ensemble, was 4:30
p.m., but there was only about 12 people in Richard's
grandmother's backyard (the concert site) at this time.
However, after a brief sound check, The Hyperactive
Ensemble decided to perform despite the low
attendance.
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- The OOBS band Hyperactive is a solo drone-pop
project by Gregg, but for this live performance, he
recruited an "ensemble" that featured Andy Yaros on
guitars and trombone and Rob Crane on drums. They had
their first practice the day before the show in which
they wrote a few songs and decided that the rest of the
time could go towards improvisation. The Hyperactive
Ensemble opened with a song entitled, "Skool's Out!
(Summer Rawk Theme Song)," in which Andy and Gregg had
dual vocals screaming about how they don't have to go to
science class during the summer, although Gregg still has
to calculate answers to numerous Chemistry problems for
his AP Chemistry course over the summer. They continued
to play through their 60 minutes set that included solo
songs by both Andy and Gregg. Their was around 11 "songs"
performed within the hour, and because of fan requests,
"Skool's Out!" was played two more times (in the middle
and as a closing number) during their set. Two other
notable numbers were "No Duh!" and "I Was Almost the
Beach Boys." The Hyperactive Ensemble, as a whole,
drifted away from Hyperactive's keyboard drone sound
during their performance and progressed into a more
pop-oriented, full-band sound. Gregg said after the show
that he enjoyed the "new" Hyperactive sound and
wished to continue to evolve as a band.
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- By this time, people were arriving and leaving the
show at a steady pace. There was around 15 people in
attendance at all times throughout the show. The total
population of the concert was estimated to be 35-40
people. Following The Hyperactive Ensemble, the
movie starring two-thirds of the OOBS personnel was
aired. This infamous cult classic is "The Super-Cool
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln." You could hear
everyone's groans of disgust as John Wilkes Booth (a.k.a.
Richard) regurgitated chewed-up bananas and ketchup all
over his face following his brutal shooting. Overall, the
film was well-received by the loyal OOBS fans.
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- The next band scheduled to perform was Infoseek
Velocity 128, but the only person out of the four
band members in attendance is the one and only God
(a.k.a. Jesse Shelmire). His set-up included a Yamaha
keyboard, a compact disc player (for the prerecorded
music during the set), and a microphone. "God" played for
around 10 minutes, during which he earned himself the
title of "Master of the Demo Button." He improvised two
separate pieces and astounded the crowd with his stage
presence. There was a battle between God and Gregzilla
planned to take place during Infoseek Velocity 128's set,
but it never occurred. I don't believe the audience could
have handled any more entertainment within one band's
performance anyway.
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- After the crowd settled down from God's performance,
the celebrated Vanilla Ice scene from "Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles 2" was played through Richard's VCR and
television set-up. Members of the crowd could be heard to
chant, "Go ninja, go ninja, go!" during this time. As
"TMNT 2" was being worshiped, soundsystemscheckOK
began preparations for their live musical development.
soundsystemscheckOK was Richard's former solo
project on OOBS Records, but moments before the concert,
he drafted a neighbor to be his drummer. The crowd
increased to around 20 people as Richard was setting up.
soundsystemscheckOK waited 10 minutes after the
movie concluded and then began their performance. They
opened with an enticing cover of Bikini Kill's "Star
Belly Boy." As Richard shrieked out lyrics of, "I can't,
I can't, I can't, I can't cum!," the crowd, mostly made
up of teenage girls, seemed somewhat disturbed and
confused. soundsystemscheckOK's set was
interrupted many times at first because Jim had gone off
beat, but as the set progressed Jim's drumming gained
momentum. At times soundsystemscheckOK produced
dancable beats and riffs, while at other times
soundsystemscheckOK's set was deep and melodious.
After a while of the guitar and drum duet, Richard went
over to his make shift table, that he created by putting
a slab of wood on top of his keyboard stand, to play the
Casio cz-101 Cosmo Synthesizer. This make shift table was
somewhat like the center piece of the
soundsystemscheckOK's "stage." Richard had
strategically placed his Toshiba T1200 lap top computer,
cz-101, and microscope on this table, which were all
utilized during the set. The T1200 was used for some
brief and inaudible QBASIC programs, the microscope was
used for some extensive research during a drum solo, and
the cz-101 was of course used for sound synthesis. On the
front of this "table" Spaztik had placed his poster that
commemorated Ginger Spice. The poster read, "I love you
Geri! Goodbye Ginger!" and had pictures of our beloved
Geri Estelle Halliwell.
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- As Richard announced that they were going to playing
their final
song, Gregg asked if he could play the Casio cz-101
during this particular piece, and Richard said, "Sure!."
They improvised through a five minute song, and after a
few seconds of silence, soundsystemscheckOK plus
Gregg began creating a tremendous bulk of noise using
their instruments to their full extents. Richard leaned
his guitar against his amp and began waving a microphone
in front of another amp dispersing shots of feedback into
the audience. God walked up from the crowd, plugged in
his keyboard, and joined the noise development, although
his noise was barely audible since he neglected to plug
his instrument into an amplifier. Richard, Gregg, God,
and Jim continued their sound assault on the crowd of 15
people, until the crowd got up and left. This occurred
after 10 minutes straight of unmodified high-volume
noise. The members of soundsystemscheckOK,
Infoseek Velocity 128, and The Hyperactive
Ensemble seemed pleased with their accomplishment of
driving the crowd out. They continued to produce layers
of noise despite the fact that no know was there to
watch. As they were banging on their keyboards and
screaming fragments of words through broken microphones
Pittsburgh's own Operation Re-Information, walked
down the driveway and sat in front of the performers. The
performers finally stopped to receive an appreciative
round of applause from Dr. Spectt, Agent Triplex, and Dr.
Spanglestein (the members of the O.R.I. sound team). The
performers went into another improvised noise piece, and
as
Richard, Gregg, and God each decided to go and sit down,
the members of Operation Re-Information displayed
their talents by picking up the abandoned instruments.
After some time, the only people in the stage area were
O.R.I. and Jim(on drums). But soon Jim left his post, and
Agent Triplex sat in on drums. Agent Spanglestein took
control of the CZ-101, while Agent Spectt played the
guitar. The other artists sat in the yard and enjoyed the
show, and, by this time, some of the earlier fans were
coming back to watch O.R.I. in action. This progressed
until finally O.R.I. sat back down to watch some short
videos at the request of Richard and Gregg.
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- O.R.I. and the remainder of the audience then sat
around the glow of the 13" television to watch "The Super
Cool Assassination of Abraham Lincoln." This video had
already been shown, but the ORI sound team was not on
site to view it, and was greatly interested in seeing it.
Next, Spaztik put in the underground, yet hilarious film,
"Night of the Living Bread." ORI watched it while Gregg,
Richard, and Jim set up to play their final song, "Acid
Police," which was originally recorded by the Boredoms on
Chocolate Synthesizers. "Acid Police" showed the
most definite benefits of having a live drummer, for
Jim's addition of drums on this song made it all the more
better. Gregg and Richard's dual vocals were amazing as
well. Half way through the song Richard dropped his
guitar to join in again in the dual vocals, and then
continued playing the repetitive guitar riff until the
conclusion of the song. This final number was a beautiful
masterpiece, and proved that this concert was an
undeniable success! Kids everywhere will one day rejoice
in prayer to thank OOBS Records for all of this solid
gold entertainment throughout the years, and this concert
will be a landmark event . In conclusion, OOBS is good
and digital!
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- Questions? Comments. OOBS
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