| Obscurity was Rick and his brother, Rob's band. They had been playing with the same drummer since they were all in high school together at Sacred Heart. The band had a different name and they played different music, it was more like hardcore. In late summer of 1990, they had their first show at the Stone. The band didn't have a name and they used Neuro Feces as the name they gave the promoters for the gig (actually I came up with the name, it was Neural Feces- for shit brains) I remember their bass player, Sod, asking me (jokingly) if I wanted to join the band - as their singer. I can't remember if I said yes or no. Somewhere in the fall, they got Michelle Dantzman as their singer. I saw them in early 1991 at Morty's and they did look obscure. An attractive, diminutive, female singer. A muscle-bound bass player who played through a bass cabinet about a foot tall. A mop-headed lead guitarist. Another guitarist, somewhat overweight, and resembling a caveman (well, that's what everybody else called him). And a straight-looking white boy with short hair on the drums. Obscurity was a good name for them. Their music was eclectic to say the least, borderline metal, with latin-jazz mixed in for good measure. Sometime in the spring, Rick, one of the guitarists, was kicked out of the band. In may of that year, the bass player deceided to call it quits, and Rob asked me if I wanted to join. I accepted. We played my first gig with the band only two months after I started to learn the songs, and it was only the fifth time I had played with the drummer and singer. This band photo, taken by Michelles's bro, Tommy D the day of the Oakland hills fire. We didn't know what it was at the time, and had previously scheduled to take photos that day. A little while after we were done taking photos, we noticed burnt stuff falling from the sky, like remains of books. We went inside. In early 1992, after we opened for metal band, Fates Warning, at the Stone, we deceided to replace Nick the drummer with Alex Altus, formerly of Extinction. The band broke up in August of 1992 after months of trying to get it togethter to no avail. In the summer of 1992, we began work on a demo, but never added the vocals. |
