The band formerly known as Guido & The Blowfish regrouped with a new drummer and changed our name to Surface Tension. It was the old case of "break up the band and reform the next day with a different drummer" routine, and it worked for a few months. The drummer in question was Mike Howes, who was one of my drum students and colleagues in the Mount Vernon Guard Fife & Drum Corps. He was only 14 at the time (I was 18, Kyle 20, and Kevin 22) but he could slam the hell out of the drums. While we were on one of our trips with the Guard, I gave him Hemispheres by Rush, to listen to on the bus, and he immediately fell at the feel of Neil Peart, as ya do. And he actually pulled it off, and was able to incorporate those styles into our original music and it really upped our sound. We had a really solid set of songs, some new and some held over from the Guido days. We had a big outdoor gig booked, for our big debut, scheduled for this Thursday evening in July. We rented all this gear and were going to record it and everything. The moment we finished setting up, the clouds ripped open and it then became a scramble to pack everything up as soon as possible. As this was before cell phones and internet, it was quite a fiasco, trying to sort out an alternative plan. We ended up setting up in the Crosby's basement and performing for as many people as we could cram in. It may have had its flaws but this was a blast. Sure, it would have been awesome on the stage with a loud PA and lights, but this was relaxed and we were with our friends, and that took the edge off a bit. After this evening, the band started to fizzle out. The other guys wanted a new singer (in their defense, I had not found my voice yet and was not good at all) but I wouldn't have it. So I think they pulled the "break up and reform with another dude" thing, but I had already moved on to Cold Shot, which morphed into Carpe Diem. So it's all good.

Sadly, this is not the complete performance. Recorded on VHS, the tape (from which this audio is extracted) ran out before we did, so who knows where the show went from there. Fortunately we have what we have. It's cool to hear the old Guido songs with Mike playing drums, and even cooler to hear all the new songs that we had worked up for a second album that never happened. I do wish we had done that before we split but that's the way it goes. Again, very grateful for the archive.

-CA, 10/27/22