"Saint John" (featuring Wade Allison)
Wade Allison’s birthday today… his (and my) friends Charlie and Scott talked about the Grace and the Grackles song “Saint John,” which featured him on guitar… video is below… from Charlie’s YouTube channel…
Charlie Willhoit: Okay, here's the thing about Wade I will say. First thing, we met, 2000, 2001, which was the first Fallcore, and I was 12 years old and I was high-fiving people on the way in, posi style, and Wade thought it was so cool, he introduced himself to me… you know, embracing the moment, he was 18 and I was 12. ‘82 and ‘88. (…and at one point, you know, pretty close before Wade died, he texted me, saying “I’ve known you half of my life,” and I read it wrong, and said I’ve known you way more than half, and he said, “no, my life, half of mine…”) And so then, I mean, this was the coolest guy in the world… the show was at Fitzgeralds, the place punk and hardcore shows happened, and I regularly went there and it was home, you know. It didn't feel, like, crazy to me. That was two thousand.
Next one I really remember was when Drop Out played Patrick Harry’s house, Posi Pat, in suburban Houston—Sugarland. I would say 2003, three or four… Who became the first Deadhead we ever heard of… Jack Daniels’ band Daggermouth played, they were a party band—I have tapes in the other room, Sami: Where We Stand, Vitality… I have Jack Daniels’ entire discography in the other room-
Snake: besides Ecstasy…
Charlie:—that was the vibe, a party, and it was at Pat's parents house, even though he was, like, 24, in the suburbs. So I pull up to the show in my three-month-old Escalade before it burned out and I was parking, and a kid jumps out into some bushes, hiding from me and I was like... God... I was used to hitting cars when I parked... He’s like “oh, I thought you were my mom?” His mom drove the same car. I was straight edge back then… he was in sweet relief when we parted ways…
So I go in by myself. During the show, the Drop Out set, they raid the cupboards. Everyone at the show, that’s how we knew we were in a suburban house, flour and sardines getting thrown around... if you were, like, a parent coming back to look for your Ferris Bueller heir, this would be it. They play, and the shirt I have is from that show. I still have that yellow shirt, spray painted with red on it. It says Drop Out… I remember even buying the shirt from Wade there, and we obviously met at that earlier show, and I just remember that… I remember him smirking at me, thinking about it, obviously, and it was a remembrance, and not just a random moment… that wasn’t just a random high five, for either of us… those are the second big wave moments...
And I guess when I moved here, Austin, it was so crazy because I thought we were friends, Wade and I... I assume you probably feel some immediate feelings like this, where you're like, I got to see and meet the coolest guy, and respect the way someone exists, artistically. You know, he was very friendly to me, with a lot of leeway and credence to me, when I was young, a lot of people were, too, but to think that later in life we would be sort of best friends, you’re making my dreams come true in a band [Strongblood], and you look at the course of your life, right, and I was just 13, high-fiving a guy… and it grows into that. And I knew Claire in a totally separate way, and I knew him before they knew each other. Well, that's cool…
The record… the Grace and the Grackles song… I’m looking at the CD now. And it was Jared and Wade Allison and Nate and Jase, who are now in Pure X. Nate, who was also in Far From Breaking and Just Short of Living, right? Who were like, even more obscure... the recording… my guess is they probably recorded it at… was it at San Marcos or Austin?
Scott Richter: That was when Jared and Nate and Austin were living in that one bedroom house on Alta Vista…
Charlie: The song, the one here, it was the last song on the Drop Out record, the reissue of their demo on vinyl, which came out at Chaos in Tejas maybe in 2009, at Emo’s, on Parts Unknown, 100 copies, with whoever on the back cover, Jason Scheller’s head, and it indicated Wade’s great humor about everything, and you think about how Wade was wild and contrarian in every respect… but you could also think about the people we knew… his friends, people like [name redacted]... Wade literally cherry-picked kids who couldn't be accepted. And when Jody calls, to this day, I answer. I mean, only one tenth of the time, but when I do, I’m like, Wade, fuck you, dog…. That was his long con. He really picked people that just had it part of the way, but not all the way, and that is so amazing when you think about it... we accept this madman…
All right... here it is at Emo’s, my tape, the original demo, literally says “Drop Out of heterosexuality,” written on it… it’s repressed on a 12”, and at this show, Wade’s singing in sunglasses, Casey Watson is there, and he’s going wild, he picks up a trash can, tries to throw it at Wade, but it doesn’t happen... Wade is singing that Akon song, “Nobody wants to see us together, but I got you,” which is the song on the radio, over four different Drop Out songs, more songs than he actually sang the way they were supposed to be sung, this was the only band he had sung for… Terry, the bouncer, was trying to throw Casey out… it was wild… skunk-haired Terry...
They repress the demo, and Wade tacks on “Saint John” by Grace and the Grackles, the band he did with Jase and Nate and with Jared… and let’s contextualize it… the Drop Out record, it's pure Black Flag shit, one regrettable lyric, general bullshit, fuck it, nothing matters, that’s the vibe, you know, and then it's a very fingerpicking-style folk song, a beautiful guitar thing, Feelies style, almost sounds like if Dylan was emotional, like the Lilys… Kurt Heasley and the Lilys, that’s the only American analog, and I think Wade knew that…Wade knew this version was a hot track, and had this perspective about it, which is why he included it on this punk record, which is not as harmonious as the song... if you put a joke song on that’s noisier than the rest of the record, that’s OK, but it’s funnier if the song is prettier than the rest of the record… and to me that's my favorite Wade thing, the not... true middle finger but a middle finger with, a, you know, great song at the end, it’s a beautiful way to play it, right?
Scott: Like just... Wade’s constant push to like, turn things on their head.
Charlie: Oh well, I can keep going... at some point I had Wade’s number memorized… 903, 426 9290…
Scott: I just know he was 903… it’s not just New Boston, it’s North Texas, Northeast Texas…
Happy birthday Wade…