Unite Webzine
Bad Trip
James: How did the opportunity to play the reunion come about?
Brendan: 
It pretty much came out of the blue, when Mike contacted Fred. It's been 20 years since we toured the U.S. with Go! (and the 20th anniversary of the beginning of matinees at ABC No Rio, and he was in the process of putting together a show at ABC. He thought it would be cool to see if we would do the show.
At the same time, in a way there had been a sort of buildup, thanks largely to facebook and other websites. I had lost touch completely with many of the people from the hardcore scene, but started getting back in touch with them in the last year or so. Also, we'd occasionally hear from somebody that they had seen discussions of Bad Trip on various websites. It was hard to believe that people still remembered us! Ultimately, though, it seemed that the time (and the place) was right.
James: How long did it take to get everyone on board?
Brendan: Amazingly quickly. We seriously had never planned on ever getting back together. We're all still friends, but I think we all viewed it as a great part of our past that was best left there. Once Mike proposed the idea, me, Fred, Erik, and Luke all pretty much took the attitude that if everyone else was into it, we'd do it. I'd say it only took a day or two before we decided to go forward with it.
James: What about Marcos and Luke?
Brendan: As much as we all wanted it, we just couldn't get things to come together with Marcos. He lives 3000 mil
es away, has a small child, and has too many things going on with his career. I felt bad because I know he really wanted to do it. Of course, I live walking distance from ABC No Rio, and it wasn't that easy for me to do this, so I can certainly understand why it would have been unfeasible for Marcos. He's still a great friend and a great guy (and a great Hollywood director).
We were very lucky to have Tom agree to play with us. He's a really good guitarist and a cool guy, and fit right in. As Aaron from Go! pointed out, somehow we've always been able to find good new replacement guitarists.
James: How long had it been since you last played together?
Brendan: Fred, Erik, and I last played together at our last show in 1995 at CBGB. We last played with Luke on our European tour in 1992. Fred, Erik, and I have been in pretty regular contact ever since the band broke up, though, and Erik played in Error Type 11 afterwards, so I used to go see him all the time.
James: It sounded as if you never missed a beat. Did it come back naturally?
Brendan: We only practiced a few times, and only once with the full band, so it was amazing how smoothly we got right back into it. Of course, we're lucky to have Luke, who's such a great guitarist and had absolutely no problem getting right back into it. It was a bit more of a challenge for me--I've never been what anyone would call a natural musician, and the first time I took out the records and tried to play along, it was pretty ugly. We were all really committed to sounding good for this show, though, so we took it pretty seriously. Once we got together, I think we got right back into the familiar groove really quickly.
James: I noticed how right after GO ended their set a better looking crowd started to fill the room. Did you bring in some ringers?
Brendan: Fred, Erik, and I, along with my brother Brian, who was the original guitarist, and Jordin Isip, who did a lot of our artwork, all grew up in Douglaston, Queens, which is a very close-knit neighborhood. We all hung out before we ever started the band, and had a big group of friends from the neighborhood. Although a lot of them were only marginally into punk and hardcore (and some weren't into it at all), and were not part of the NYHC scene, our friends from the neighborhood have been loyal supporters since day one. A bunch of the people there yesterday had been at the first house party we ever played, in Corona, had been at our first gig at Right Track Inn, all our CBGB shows, our ABC gigs, took road trips to see us in Boston or DC, and a few of them even met up with us in Europe. So of course it was awesome for so many of our old friends to come out for the reunion.
James: Whose children were they? Was this the preview of Bad Trip "The Next Generation"?
Brendan: That would be really cool. My son Emmett was there, and Fred has his two sons there, as well as his niece and nephew. They were all definitely interested in seeing the band. My son is very musical, but he hasn't quite embraced punk or hardcore, though. I actually view that as a good thing. I got into music on my own, not because it was what my father listened to. I want Emmett to make his own choices and develop his own taste.
James: I don't think the crowd could have been any more excited and appreciative. How did you feel about the reaction and interaction? Did you expect anything like that?
Brendan: We were mainly focused on the excitement of playing together as a band, which was really cool in itself, as far as we were concerned. We knew that a lot of our friends were excited about the show, so we felt that we needed to put on a good show. We obviously had a great time playing, and having a crowd that is into it makes it even better. Afterwards a few people pointed out how happy everyone was at the show. The whole "family reunion" theme really rang true. It was such an incredible experience.
James: Luke looked like an absolute mad man through the entire show. I can't recall seeing anyone that much in the zone in quite some time. Was he always like that?
Brendan: Luke has basically been playing music professionally since he left Bad Trip in 1992, and has had a pretty decent following over the years. However, we were his first band from back when he was in high school, and I think getting back together with us was exciting and brought back a bunch of memories. He definitely is more animated now than he was back in the old days. He's definitely always been both a very talented guitarist and a total character. He actually had a big hand in writing a lot of our early stuff.
James: I've heard a lot of stories that start with "This was a one time thing." Meanwhile, two years later the band is still going at it. With the high of yesterdays show was there any whispers of "Hey, this was great. Let's do it again." ?
Brendan: Who knows? We never planned on even doing this one show. My life is pretty busy these days. Of course, playing the show immediately brought back the amazing feeling of playing live, which was always my favorite part of the band.
As far as I'm concerned, this was a one-time show. We were around for nearly ten years, from 1986-1995, and far exceeded any goals we ever had when we started. We just wanted to put out a demo tape and get a chance to play CBGB. By the time we broke up, I don't think there was anything else we could have done as a band, and for a few of us, that was the end of our musical "careers." It's hard to imagine having another show that could equal the experience we just had, with everything coming together so well, but we'll have to see what the future holds in store.
James: Everyone I know has a favorite Bad Trip song. On any given day I'd say "Something More" Green Eyed Monster" and/or "Super Metal Brother".
Do you have a personal favorite and do you think is the one song that always makes/made the crowd go nuts?
Brendan: My two favorites are probably "OMDB" (which I wrote)
and "I Know" (which Marcos wrote). The "Something More"/"Super Metal Brothers" combo has always been a live favorite, both for the band and the crowd.
I don't think there was ever a Bad Trip "sound." Our only rule was that we never wanted to have two songs that sounded too much alike. We were always trying to incorporate new ideas and influences into our songs. I have to say, I thought Fred and I wrote some pretty good lyrics. It was very gratifying to play the show yesterday and see that people enjoyed the music after all these years. Thanks again to to the bands that played and the people who came out to see the show!
James: Last but not least. This one’s for the big money.
Once you got things in order. Reunion is on and show is booked.
Who was the first one in the band (or outside for that) to say “Trampoline”?
Brendan: Hmm, I can't really remember. I think we all simultaneously decided that we needed to have the trampoline. ABC was where we first started using the trampoline in 1990, and then we turned it into a regular part of our shows and brought it with us on tour. Thankfully, I'm not aware of anyone ever getting hurt while using it, and I'm glad to see that that continued for Saturday's show.
Interview and images James Damion
Related Interviews:
Sunday, June 13, 2010
