February 15, 2011

Almost four years ago, Lance Bangs shot a short documentary about my friend Ryan Z at my old house and my current roommates’ old house in Allston, Massachusetts. While I am vaguely aware of how Bangs was informed of Ryan’s existence, to this day I’m not sure anyone knows why he was chosen as a subject in a documentary series that has also profiled the likes of Thurston Moore, No Age, and Fred Armisen.

From what I remember, this entire affair was originally going to take place at my old house. Our basement was bigger, and we hosted more parties and shows to begin with. Out of a misguided desire to extend the lifespan of my basement (which wound up being locked forever by our landlord mere days after this was filmed), I delegated the show to my friends across the street, and offered to host a party afterwards.

A person wound up getting madballed (well, mad-D-cell-batteried) the night this movie was shot. Two of these bands never played a show again. There were two or three non-madball-related fistfights. Despite what the footage suggests, two of the major players in the movie weren’t even on speaking terms. Another wound up hospitalized during the following week after not sleeping for days. Over the past three and a half years, I have had at least one conversation a month about what had become of this footage and, until very recently, nobody really knew.

I probably should have known it was about to see the light of day. The signs were there: The movie Happy Feet was on television the other weekend, which reminded me for the first time in years that I went to go see it instead of attending what would be the final show at my old house. Shortly after seeing Happy Feet, I found myself drinking somewhat amicably with the guy who, a few months after this video was shot, would more or less singlehandedly turn the house where this movie is set into a drug-fueled police stakeout nightmare.

After our entire awesome dual-house party zone melted down directly onto our heads (there was a 20-person melee in the street on the night we moved out that, luckily, I was too busy packing in an adderall haze to have been involved with), I remember coming to the realization that my life would never be that crazy again. It hasn’t been, by a longshot, which has caused me to look at these days with a certain kind of soft-focus nostalgia. When I talk about that era, it’s like describing the plot of a movie to somebody. Which, hey.

I would like to know what people coming into this video cold take from it. Given that I am very good friends with basically everyone in the video (Except for the non-Ryan longhair at the very end. Who is that guy?), I’m incredibly bogged down in all sorts of stuff just thinking about it, but I’m pretty sure this is just a video starring a garden-variety drunken posse. I am selfishly glad there’s a document of it, but I apologize if you watched it.

(I cannot account for the terrible haircut I have in this video. I remember trying to stay sober all night to control the chaos but beginning to drink heavily somewhere around fistfight #2. This explains the bug-eye glasses I’m wearing at the end of part two [wait for it], though I can’t imagine where I would have gotten them.)

 
  1. yachtlife reblogged this from lemoniceforever
  2. trivialrecords said: Sweet! When’s part two out?
  3. radioon reblogged this from lemoniceforever and added:
    weird. Click through...my friend Joe’s insane account
  4. bthny said: Flamingo neck tattoo explained.
  5. nsomn said: Can you please explain the term ‘madballed’? The google’s not giving me anything.
  6. lemoniceforever posted this