Al Harris: (on pre-gig incident during the Vibrations)
We were playing Marshalltown in a bar there, Vietnam was going on and Havens; he’s dead now (he died at 41), we were walking around. We had a half hour to kill before we started playing. We were walking around town and this guy, a soldier, met him on the street. Jim was a real kind of an arrogant butthead then. And Jim just stopped and saluted the guy. And the guy grabbed him and threw him up against a wall and said “Don’t you ever do that to me again”, and it really freaked us out. I don’t think he ever did that again. I remember that vividly. We went out that night and we played really good. I mean there was no messin’ around.
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Keith Berg: (during the Tymes)
One of the funniest, one of the wildest stories though, that is really vivid in my mind is somebody new was helping us set up for a dance here at the city hall. Carrying in stuff and setting it up. They took my guitar out of the case, plugged it in, put the strap on it, and hung it from one of the 5 foot tall speaker columns. (They) turned their back to it and the strap let loose and with an axe motion it came down on the floor, breaking the head right off the top of the neck. This is an hour before we’re supposed to play.
   The only thing I could find was an extremely inexpensive Japanese guitar that was like the one I had years ago that I couldn’t turn and look at the amplifier. I couldn’t turn from side to side; I couldn’t move. I really felt abused that night. {Note: The guitar in question belonged to Ron Carlson who happened to be hanging around outside City Hall when the band was loading in. It was indeed a cheap guitar: A Kent thin bodied acoustic/electric guitar. with 2 pickups.} Ended up sending my guitar back to Kalamazoo and having it rebuilt. It’s really in good shape because of that. It looks like brand new.
   It was covered by an insurance policy. We insured our equipment. That was really a good move. That more than paid all the premiums right there! (chuckles)
An early experience while I was in the Agency happened during a practice. We were using Klockseim’s warehouse facility—the former office of the Ogden Lumber Yard just west of the city park—during the summer months to practice in. Many times we would open the windows and leave the front door open to help cool the room we were in. All the windows had screens and there was a screen door too, which let the cooler air in and kept the bugs out. We practiced in a rather small area right in front of the door. We didn’t have much for equipment so the small space worked just fine. We were going through a normal practice when all of the sudden a drunk individual barges in through the front door.
   All of us were startled to say the least and stopped playing immediately. This fellow began to tell us in rather profane language to stop making the horrible noise we were making. We were all like stone; no one spoke or moved. Being between the ages of 14 to 16 we hadn’t had a lot of experience with this sort of thing. Fortunately some of this guy’s friends had followed him and coaxed him back outside presumably to go back to the tavern he had wandered out of in the first place. We didn’t resume playing right away, but talked about the incident and—now that our brains were no longer on hold—how we could have reacted. After that whenever we practiced the front screen door remained locked.
Brian Oeffner: (during his time with Jury)
We ended up out at the Boesen’s greenhouse. That was pretty neat out there! Except one night I remember, a neighbor came over and he said we were too loud. He lived in a house one or two blocks away. We must have had the windows open, because it was hot in there. He came and beat on the door and finally came in and said, “Jeeminy, I can’t watch TV, can’t listen to the radio. You guys are drowning everything out!” (laughter) So Joe and I knew a little of Johnny Cash’s “I Walk the Line” and broke into that while he was standing there. He said, “Now that I can handle, but this other garbage you guys are playing. . .” (laughter)
Mark Boehm: (on a early gig with Spazz & the Electric Circus)
Oh yes! I remember the first performance that we had was down in the Jr. High/north Middle School building Home Ec. room. They opened that room up and made one room. We had a dance down there, our very first dance. None of us sang on key. We all wore baggy, bell bottom clothes. They were so baggy we got the clothes caught up in our cords and our picks. While we were playing we had to roll our sleeves up. Nobody sang on key, but there were a lot of people. I remember just gobs of people. It was fun! I remember the song that I sang was “Crimson and Clover”. I was so far off key that people were walking out. (laughter) I do remember that! But it was fun!
David Sternquist: (a gig experience with the A-Go-Go’s)
There was this one place we played at a lot in Fort Dodge and it was called Tom’s. Tom was kind of a gnarly looking guy. He was kind of short and dumpy; not the most handsome critter on Earth. His teeth were kind of messed up. Also he had go-go dancers and stuff. One of the dancers was after John and me.
   One night he had come up with the (idea) of having a go-go dancer that was male. He was doing a thing along with us too. One night he must have hit on somebody’s chick, somebody’s girlfriend. I remember to this day, he went to go to the bathroom and the minute he came out someone hit him square in the face and knocked him down. It’s not as bad as it sounds. (He didn’t get badly hurt) his face was only flushed.
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