Way Before The Flood

It was the fall of 1995 and I was ensconced in my 2nd year of college. It was time for the annual Great America "Joyfest" concert celebration and, if I'm remembering correctly, I went by myself. Hopefully this doesn't define me as a loser... =) I just really wanted to go. My desires weren't drummed up by friends going or not going, I just wanted to see some cool bands whether or not anyone else did. And I saw some friends of mine at the park, so lay off!!!

Anyway, before one of the shows (probably Plankeye, MxPx or Dakoda Motor Co. or someone like that) a gentleman named Matt Morris got up on stage to introduce the next band. He also plugged his own radio show he had at San Jose State (I forget what it was called...much music or something) and let us know about an upcoming show. Sixpence None The Richer was going to be in Concord, CA with Plankeye! Just a few weeks later! Now, this was before Sixpence hit it big with Kiss Me (obviously) and I was a huge fan of both bands. I picked up the flyer that Matt handed out and it gave the date and time and a location called "The Screem." Sounded harmless enough. It also mentioned another band: Black Eyed Sceva. That was a weird name..but I could certainly endure some no names before bringing on the main events.

So the date of the show rolled around and no one wanted to go with me. OK. This is sounding like loner/loser territory. I'll skip that part because I eventually saw some friends at this show too (more on that later). Maybe one of my roomates, Mike, came. I can't remember. Moving along..... I found the screem and paid my $5 or whatever and ran inside for the show to begin. The Screem was like a warehouse. Err...maybe it was a warehouse. It was a warehouse turned into a church with a record company upstairs (which was home to Black Eyed Sceva I later found out).

Sceva took the stage and the only thing I could think of was "I don't know any of these songs." Just some guys playing their hearts out. Then I saw some people I knew from high school. One of them, Matt, was videotaping the whole thing. Apparently Matt's sister went to the same church as these guys and so they were fans. Well that's cool....that was some sort of connection. A friend from high school I hadn't seen in 18 months has a sister who went to church in Santa Barbara with the guys from Black Eyed Sceva. Interesting.

Throughout their set, the lead singer's microphone kept falling down and they ended up having to wrap some tape all the way around it to keep it up. About halfway through the set something happened to Matt's camera (it was on a tripod to one side of the room) so he grabbed it and started filming up close. VERY close...we were touching the stage. Not that this was a huge show (maybe 150 kids there) but we were right up on it. I can remember a lot of this because I still have the videotape that Matt copied for me.

Somewhere along the way it was announced that Plankeye would not be coming. Boo-hoo for me. At least I had sixpence to look forward to. And they were awesome. And I grabbed their set list from the stage when they were done. And I got them to sign it. And I still have it....
But the thing that caught my ear that night was the final song (before their RARE encore of Twain) by Sceva called "Nailholes." I understand anything else in that song except for the chorus: Thomas saw the nailholes. It kind of stuck in my head....

Fast forward 5 months to March of 1996. I had gotten on some Screem mailing list and it turned out that the SAME show was coming back in March: Sceva and Sixpence. Well, I was still a fan of Sixpence and I had 2 friends that wanted to go, so we went! This time I was determined to by the Sceva CD for, if nothing else, the nailholes song. It was all awesome again and I bought a 6pence hat that each member signed (but the signatures have since worn off). I also bought the Sceva CD "Way Before the Flood" and had each member sign it. Now THAT is something I'm excited to still have....

I brought it back to school and listened to it over and over and over and over and.... I let my friend Joe borrow it and he listened to it over and over and over and...They became my favorite band (and his as well. Then, as he was graduating college he decided to work for that same record company...but that's another fun story). I really listened to the songs and read the lyrics. They were deep deep and the way Jeremy arranged his vocals around the words was really something. Each listening created a bigger fan in me and I was just blown away with the musicianship time and time again.

It was amazing but I think it only spawned one radio "hit" (if you can call it that) in Justified. Which just so happens to be the first song on the album ....