The X-Club on February 2nd, 1997:
This was our one and only chance to play at one of Hamilton's better known venues, that is until it shut down(coincidentally, not long after we played. More on that later.) This was also Ahmed's last show, and strangely enough, the first one we played in it's entirety. The club seemed almost empty, there was about a hundred people there. We introduced a couple new songs that night, including "Utopia", "Domtor Express" and "Chimes". We played fine, well except Ahmed who left his extortion(distortion) on the whole night. It completely ruined our set and our hopes of being in the top twenty and appearing on a CD put out by the sponsors of the battle, the Secondary Press. We finished with a dreadful 51. The only band that did worse was Marlie On Ice, it's kind of strange the way that worked out.
Fortune Village on February 30th, 1997:
Wow! Two shows in one month! Man, we were in demand! Well, sort of. We got called back by R.O.R. because we made them a ton of money and they wanted to milk us some more. For some reason, we went along with it, and made Gary another $250 on top of the $400 we made last time. Well, by this time we had kicked Ahmed out of the band and Mat was on guitar. Days before the show, we had written "Mechanical Corfasheekie", which was the first song in our "new" sound. Basically, the song had three guitar parts, which was new territory to us. We still got a fairly good slot, but no sound check. Right before our set, we decided to urinate in the vase once again. We went on and nothing remarkable happened, except in Desire/Despise when Nate started the song before Mat was ready and he had to play with a nickel. Well, we weren't as nervous as usual, so we didn't get as excited afterwards. We once again didn't win, but that didn't really affect us. This was probably our best show to date.
The Big Sound on July 2nd, 1997:
Well, I guess our demand went down a little. Why was there a huge gap between shows? I don't know the answer, but we definitely improved in that period of time. We had written lots of new songs which debuted at the show including "Poison Shrine", "Park Of Grass" which was titled "Chocolate Covered Voyage", "Positive Song" and probably others that I've forgotten. We were thrilled to discover that our competition for the show was comprised of:
(a)An aging 80's rock band, with an overweight mid forties woman as the vocalist.
(b)An aging 60's rock band with an overweight mid forties guy who sang like a woman.
(c)Lastly, a not so aging nineties band in the vein of Our Lady Peace, with a kind of
blues thing going on. The guitarist was a bit of a show off.
This one was easy enough to call, band letter "C" and us would go on. Well we were wrong. Somehow, the aging 60's band won the night, and the bluesy band finished second, so they both moved on. This goes to show you that judges can be complete morons. Shortly after we played there the owner called us and talked to us about being their house band. We were to play 2 2 hour sets a night. Half covers and half originals. We figured this would be awesome because we knew every Nirvana song that existed, including all the rare import ones and songs that Nirvana covered. But, much like the X Club, the place closed down. Hmmmm..... I sense a pattern forming.
The Redwood in on July 5th, 1997:
This marked the first of six appearances at the Redwood Inn. We had recently hooked up with BYUS, a band that would become one of the most important groups of people that we've ever worked with. This was their first show and they were rather excited. Well, the thing I remember most was the confusion of us arriving early and waiting. Actually the thing I remember most was Dan Boyko, the lead singer of Byus, pulling up in a U-Haul full of people. I've seen guys ferry people to their shows before, but this guy brought like 30 people in the back of a truck which was also full of equipment. We played our longest set ever, it came to about 45 mins, so we basically played EVERYTHING we knew. At the time it was hard to fill up that amount of time simply because we were still playing the stuff off "My Boss Is A Jewish Carpenter", and most songs of that last about as long as this it takes you to read this sentence. "Park of Grass, But A Street" still not owning a name was titled "The Boys In The Back Wear Summer Clothes". The crowd was comprised of either BYUS maniacs or hicks, both equally intoxicated. In a way though that was good, our set went over fairly well and people came congratulating us.
The Redwood Inn on July ??, 1997:
Since our first journey into the land of Binbrook was so successful, we decided to go back. A new stipulation was added which allowed the four of us to each have about $15 worth of food. This was basically our first pay. I got chicken fingers and I think Mike got shrimp, I don't remember too much. We played again, ate through most of BYUS's set and had one cool occurrence. There was this bald guy there named Steve, (who I now believe may have been Stone Cold himself), who had a management company. He told us he was interested in having us sign on, this was pretty exciting. Turns out it fell through, to this day though Steve remains a pretty cool guy. Instead Dan Boyko became our manager.
The Redwood Inn during the summer of 1997:
Another night at the Redwood, it seemed like we were playing every weekend. Something crazy happened that night and we didn't get our food. Nothing else to really remark about, the crowd was slightly smaller than the first two nights.
The Redwood Inn during the summer of 1997:
This show is only remembered because it was the last time we played with Neil and Big Jay from BYUS. Got food, small crowd, had fun.
The Redwood Inn during the summer of 1997:
Well, tonight Dan Boyko hatched one of his more realistic schemes. He decided that every week he would do a jam night and we would be the host band. He wanted to have each night as a mini-battle. The crowd would watch the three of four bands and vote at the end of the night, the winner would then get $50. Well, the crowd wasn't really into it, and Dan just told them to vote for us. We won, but Dan had trouble getting the money from the owner, so that was the first and last of "jam night at the Redwood Inn, hosted by Empathize".
The Redwood Inn on ???, 1997:
We were invited to play this show by Nate's cousin Jay, who was playing with his side project, which was basically a cover band. Anyway they had a drummer who had only eye! It was really freaky. Once again we got paid in food, there were no other cool occurrences, except an awesome thunderstorm. The four of us went out and watched the storm form the back of the place, it was very cool, definitely one of my favorite Empathize moments.
Joe Butt's on ??, 1997:
This time Dan hatched an ingenious scheme to turn us into a headlining band. We had Fink open up for us and we played for a really long time. In fact, we played songs that we hadn't played in months. The lighting was cool and the disco ball was on for Park Of Grass. We packed the place which was good for our first "headlining" show. That night we got our first paycheck...$65. That same $65 later became the first deposit to band fund. The whole night was fun, but much like the Redwood, we played there so many times, it all becomes a blur and it's hard to distinguish individual memories.
The Ramada on November 28th, 1997:
One word, four syllables. Supernova. If there was a hierarchy of scammers, these guys would be kings. First, they charge $10 a head, which they justify as "18 bands for $10, that sounds good to me". First off, I would rather give $10 to the guy who could sit through 18 bands without wanting to castrate the sound guy for not turning all the bands off. We actually had to pay $25 to "audition" for these guys. That I guess should have been the first bad sign. Next was definitely the decision that "each band must sell 50 tickets to have a chance at winning.". Let me clarify that "each poor little helpless band must make us rip their friends, relatives, and teachers off for a total of $500 before we even consider sending them to the slaughterhouse" ,(a.k.a recording studio). Well we went in their with what I guess was a premonition to our future "bad ass" attitudes which we have been labeled with. Anyway, we decided that we would make them no money, and instead use up stage time. This of course was at the urging of Dan, who refuses to pay anything to play anywhere. Well, we went on first and I guess we played okay. Nothing special, it was the first time we played Stay Here Cya L8R though. We spent the rest of the night doing other various things, including,( though I won't name particular members), almost committing a crime while the cops were around, comforting a girl from Fink, and getting frisked repeatedly (on purpose for that matter!). The other bands were not really that cool, with the exception of the Fuzz and a band then called Malice, which I don't think is related to the current Malice at all. Sara Somebody won and that was that.
The Continental Club on Dec ??, 1997:
People say that the Corktown is the dirtiest place in Hamilton. These people have obviously never been to the Continental. The place is located in the middle of a ghetto, which was scary enough. This show turned out to be rather significant. We were playing with Fink, and the latest incarnation of BYUS, which included a child molester on drums and Nate's cousin on bass. Before the show even started, craziness broke out. I was feeling kinda crazy, (I think I was having an anxiety attack) so I decided it would be best if I lied down. Well, bad choice. Out of the bar walks this Indian lady who starts asking me questions like "Are you okay?" and "Are you sure you're okay" and "Do you feel okay?". Well, that in itself was actually kinda nice. Just when I was starting to feel better, she started crazy talking. She told me things like that she was a doctor, who "can prescribe any drug I want, opium, heroin, cocaine, you name it I got it.". She also told me her name was "Dr. Slicer" or something like that and that her kids were making "millions" as actors on North of 60. That was only the beginning. I eventually ditched her and the show started. This is the one show were BYUS finally acknowledged that we blew them off the stage. Coincidentally, it was the first time we ever played Loser Vision, a song that got very good remarks from most of BYUS. Well, sadly, it turns out that this was the last time we ever played with BYUS, they broke up not too long after the show. Of course more reincarnations followed, but this was the last gig they played.
