Deedle and I went out to Good Records last night to see MXPX play acoustic (and to do a little last minute self-promotion. Selfish jerks, I know). I\’ve never been an MXPX fan, but I like seeing bands play acoustic and was actually looking forward to it. Deedle seemed moderately excited.
As we stood outside watching the crew members bring in equipment, my eyes focused on one them, a bald one. It can\’t be. It isn\’t… It is! It was Stephen Egerton, guitar player for ALL and Descendents. A genuine living legend.
My initial reaction was simply excitment- smiling and pointing him out to Deedle and our friend James, who had just met up with us. Then, cold hard reality set in: Stephen Egerton was a roadie for MXPX. He would be the one adjusting the mic stands to the proper height and handing freshly re-strung guitars to Mike and Tom in between songs. If you don\’t realize the significance here, allow me to submit this analogy: it would be like Pablo Picasso cleaning up the fingerpaints and handwashing the smock of my 5 year old cousin. A true irony. And a heartbreaking one.
I really was affected deeply. I mean, the new Descendents EP just came out last Tuesday, and I have been listening to it non-stop since then. Although, really, it wasn\’t just the fact that he was doing roadie duty for a band that arguably might have one-tenth of the talent he has in his right hand alone that got to me. It was also the conversation I had with him that did it.
After MXPX was finished, I walked against the crowd (who were quickly pouring out the door in hopes of snapping just one more picture with the band) and made my way up to the stage where Stephen was coiling mic cables. I introduced myself, saying how I was a big fan and how I\’d met him a few times before but he shouldn\’t remember me or anything. Then I asked if Descendents would be touring with the release of the new album. His answer hit me like a bullet.
\”No. Milo\’s real busy these days, so I doubt it\’s gonna happen this time around.\”
I quickly followed up with the same question about ALL, but all I got out of him was, \”Well…\” before we were interupted by a big burly dude wearing a T-shirt that read \’Sorry if I look interested, because I\’m not\’ who I can only assume was the MXPX tour manager.
He shouted, Sergeant Carter style, \”Let\’s continue the chatter AFTER we\’re done loadin\’ up!\”
Stephen rolled his eyes, then smiled and said to me, \”I\’ll meet you outside in a few minutes.\”
A few minutes later, he came up to continue the conversation with me, saying how ALL probably won\’t be touring anytime soon because they have a hard time bringing people out to shows these days. He said that when (and led me to believe if) the new ALL album comes out, they may do some touring, but he wasn\’t really sure at this point.
I was numb and literally had to hold back my emotion by not saying anything. Deedle then weighed into the conversation and started talking recording with him (man, when two intelligent studio guys start talking \”gear\”, there\’s not much to do but smile and occasionally nod your head to pretend you know what they\’re talking about). They went on for several minutes, in which Stephen shared his belief (an obvious but often overlooked one) that the bottom line is in order to have a good sounding recording, you must first have good sounding music on tape to work with. Deedle couldn\’t have agreed more (and my head nod was genuine at that point).
The rest of our 15-minute conversation consisted of small talk about Hagfish and Tulsa among other topics, and was interrupted once by a girl who only wanted to ask Stephen if she could get a backstage pass to meet MXPX. (again, that\’s like asking Mickey Mantle how to get the batboy’s autograph, to me anyway). He handled it well, telling her \’no\’ in the nicest most friendliest way possible.
Just after he and Deedle exchanged business cards, the sarcastic-shirt-wearing manager was back, this time barking that it was time to \”roll\”. Stephen thanked us for chatting (he thanked us?) and told us to keep in touch as he slipped in the van and headed off to NextStage for the \”real\” concert.
It didn\’t really sink in until I was almost home how sad I am knowing the chance of seeing ALL or Descendents live again isn\’t too overwhelming. I dropped Deedle off at his house because he was going to the NextStage concert since his friend Rodney had scored some backstage passes. Deedle said when he went backstage, the only person he was looking forward to speaking with was the bald roadie, our buddy Stephen. As I backed out of Deedle\’s driveway and started to drive off, I got the strong sense that Deedle was starting to feel the same sadness as me.
Posted by Matt Riggle @ 2:10 pm
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