Back in the day there was an underground punk club in the West End. By underground I mean that it did not have any of the legal normalities of a business. It was an abandoned building that Tony P. Dad owned and him and a lose conglomeration of people started a club. Club Op-P. Search the internets and you will find plenty of stories. This is my story of the Soft Opening.
There was a New Year’s Eve Party that was going to occur December 31, 1981. The club organizer’s put together a bill of The Oui Oui Twins which included Tony Patti who’s father owned the building, Anti-Mation the band I was in at the time, The Zanti Misfits and The Felons. But this is not about that.
Ahead of this party there was a soft opening to see how things would go. I believe it was just a party not even an admissions charge. The Oui Oui Twins would be playing. I went with my girlfriend at the time Lyn and Jimmy T and Karen. On the menu that evening for Lyn and myself were Psilocybin mushrooms and beer. I had brought along 2 6 bottle cartons of beer. This was for a very good reason.
When I was a sophomore Mehlville High School for some reason I thought it would be a good idea to trip at school. Oh sure it was fun tripping balls in drama class. But not so much in history. We were in a quiet read time in class reading about Mesopotamia when I had the illusion that my arm was growing as I leaned my head on it. I got freaked and asked if I could do see the nurse. I left the class room and as this was kind of early in the school year and my first year at Mehlville I didn’t know where the nurses office was an the hall looked like a dark labyrinth in some kind of spooky movie so I went back to class and found a fellow long hair, told him my story to him and the teacher allowed him to assist me down there.
Yadda, yada this, yadda, yadda that next thing I’m being loaded into an ambulance in front of a whole smoking area of school kids watching. By the end of the afternoon I’m checked into the Looney Bin on Arsenal street in the drug ward getting shot up with Thorazine just like in the Lou Reed song “Kill Your Sons”
yeah, you could smoke in high school back in the day, in fact I joined the chess club for the express purpose of playing a game of chess and getting to hang in the smoking area for all 3 of the lunch periods that they had
things that wouldn’t fly today
The point of this is so you understand that some times me and hallucinogenics have some bad history between us. Over the years I found that this problem can be resolved by making sure the fear impulses are held in check by alcohol. So…… As I was saying…. I arrived at the party tripping but in control because I had my nerve medicine on hand. Chuck DeClue who was also at the party had neglected to bring his own supply of beer. He kept pestering me about getting one from me. I told him in no uncertain terms I needed all that I had.
The Oui Oui Twins had finished their first set. I was down to my last six holding them to the side yacking it up with someone when Chuck snuck around and attempted to pilfer one from my stash. These were bottles in a cardboard container with flaps on either end. Chuck was working one of the flaps. I look over just as he flips the flap and watch in horror as one by one the bottles come out of the cartoon hitting the concrete floor of the OP-P club and breaking.
Still in shock, Mark and Jimmy approach me about going up and playing some of the recently disbanded Camaro tunes. Nope! Nope! I had to procure some more beer stat.
The OP-P was on Olive Ave in the West End. And while there was a resurgence in the west end neighborhood it certainly had not reached north to this section. Mostly dilapidated warehouses and hookers. Yep, this area was known as the Stroll back in the day. Famous for its selection of street walkers. This was the environment that I now found myself needing to navigate to find replacement beer.
Jimmy agreed to come along as there was safety in numbers. No sooner did we walk out of the doors of the club then a black woman in the street, in work clothes, if you know what I mean, started asking me about a light or something. I turned to her in a total panicked expression and explained I didn’t have time to talk… must get beer. We jumped into the car and as we were leaving I looked out the rear view mirror and there was a police van pulled up and she was talking to the officers in the van. Either this was just a street walker being friendly with the police or an undercover agent looking to snag some johns. Either way it was good that we got out of there as quick a possible.
Another thing about the West End in these days. There were mansions next to slums and fancy shopping areas and ghetto bars but not really any place for a 20 something to pick up a six pack in an unthreatening place to someone who is tripping balls. So we had to go some ways to make the score. To be honest I cannot at this time recollect where but it was not nearby or convenient.
Arriving back to the party with liquid courage in hand I was again greeted with the invitation to put the old band back together for a couple of tunes. The answer was still NOPE! But that did not deter them. After a while as the trauma of the earlier incident subsided and I was mellowing out I finally said, “sure let’s rock.”
Now I had never played music for an audience while tripping before and I would never do it again but I can see how Pink Floyd’s Syd Barret went off the rails by doing such things. Like Syd, I started with my back to the audience. I don’t recall if it was because I was checking on the gear before we started or was going for dramatic effect but we blasted into our punk rock version of the VanMorrison song Gloria and I jumped and twisted to face the audience my face clenched in punk rock malice ready to destroy the world. Then I looked at all the eager faces watching us and while normally this would help me get into it more on this occasion I freaked and immediately turned around so as to not have to face them.
I played bass in the Camaros and looking down at my strings they would normally all be in a parallel plane – but they weren’t. They seem to occupy different altitudes from the pickups. This made if difficult to pluck the strings correctly with the pick. All and all it was an interesting experience but one I never wanted to experience again.
Any way, I survived. ,Escaping the downfall of Syd, well to an extent…like Syd I also ended up fat and bald but unlike Syd, not having a complete mental breakdown,I was able to live a fairly happy and amusing life.
I remember driving back to our apartment for an afterparty and all the street lights looked like Galaga spaceships. However Lyn’s car was not equipped with laser buttons to shot back at them and fortunately they were not shooting at me.
The big New Years show occurred shortly afterwards. I recall having a great time, sans psychedelics, and most everyone else did as well. It went down as one of those epic rock and roll nights and you can still find traces of it here and there on the webs.
