Even Worse (pt. 2) - Rick Rubin, hardcore life and getting it straight

There were only a few places to play in NYC during the hardcore punk era, but Even Worse played most of them. And when we went on "tour" it was to New Jersey. The first gig off of Manhattan that I remember playing was at Maxwell's in Hoboken.

The thing I remember most about that night was that it was the show in which we debuted the song "1984". I have no idea how I came up with the riff for the song but it remains one of the best (and certainly one of the most complete) songs I ever wrote. The lyrics were a take on the book which I had just finished reading (in 1982) for the second time. Lots of Big Brother talk and there was a break down in the middle that Kenny, our singer, could improvise. This was always my favourite part because Kenny would come up with some crazy stuff, usually from whatever the headlines in the Post were that day.

The song was kind of slow and plodding and the "crowd" (maybe a hundred people) started skanking around in a giant circle in the middle of the dance floor. After watching so many shows with mosh pits filled with flailing arms and legs, it was pretty cool to see the chaos become somewhat organized with a song they had never heard before.

Another "memorable" (more on why I have quotes there later) gig was also one of the most infamous. We had a show booked at a giant hall in Garden City, New Jersey. We were the first of three bands on the bill. The headliners were Millions of Dead Cops (MDC) and Hose, Rick Rubin's (yes, that Rick Rubin) band - sort of a kind of Flipper tribute band.

Rick lived in the same NYU dorm as Tim, Kenny and I. All of this stuff was before he started Def Jam with Russell Simmons. We all sort of moved in the same circles at the time (Rick Moreno, the front desk clerk at the dorm went on to direct a number of Beastie Boys videos including "Fight For Your Right To Party" - he plays the landlord in the bathrobe) and Rick asked me to join Hose. Now, it wasn't that I was so loyal to Even Worse but I really thought that Hose sucked and I couldn't see myself playing that kind of music. Rick was cool and totally understood. We stayed on friendly terms for years and would catch up every once and a while at a Warner sales convention or when I'd fly to LA for business.

Back to Garden City. We were running late and our car got stopped for speeding. We should have turned around right there, but we didn't. When we got to the hall, we set up the gear and took the stage to a sparse crowd of about 50. A couple of songs in to our set a girl hopped up and sat on the edge of the stage. Moments later she lit up a cigarette. There was a faction in the punk scene at the time called 'straight-edge" that didn't condone drinking, smoking or drugs. We didn't call ourselves "straight-edge" but we also didn't condone any of the aforementioned vices. We happen to be playing our yet to be released single "Mouse or Rat" and at the end of the song, Kenny went to kick the cigarette out of the girl's mouth. He missed the cigarette and clocked her right in the face.

Though he apologized immediately (by telling her she shouldn't smoke:) the damage was already done. It turns out that she was the Queen of the Jersey City punks and the crowd reaped its revenge by pulling Kenny off stage during the middle section of "1984" and kicking the crap out of him. It should be noted that neither Tim, Jack or myself came to Kenny's rescue (Thurston didn't play this gig with us) but we did play on. Kenny rolled himself back on to the stage and sang the rest of the set sitting on a milk crate behind Jack's drumkit.

Now, you'd think that that was enough but it wasn't. After our set (which we recorded) we were in the parking lot outside during Hole's set when the hall doors burst open and the crowd came running out. Somehow the sprinkler system had gone off soaking everyone inside.

Now about those quotes around the word "memorable". This story is how I remeber it but last year I got in tuoch with Jack Rabid and in an exchange of e-mails he corrected a few details:

"...that other show you mention was at a place called "city gardens" in trenton, whereas the traffic ticket we got was for speeding in connecticut on the way to a show in bridgeport's pogo's or some club in east haven, i can't remember which (we only played the latter once, with vatican commandos, now known as moby's former band if i have that right, and lost generation--or was it reflex from pain? they all started to sound alike apart from c.i.a. who were fantastic).

there's a paragraph about even worse in the book "american hardcore," but it's got about 12 factual errors including many missing members, misspelling the names of the members actually noted, and for some reason also includes my real first name which they got wrong as well! (it's paul; they had me as pete). a new edition is coming out and i sent a slew of corrections. i am not confident they will get it right or much care. but we will see."