It wasn’t supposed to happen. That’s not just some clever introduction meant to grab the reader’s attention either. It’s the truth. “It” — Clown Teeth playing live — was never supposed to happen because it couldn’t. The band consists of just two members, me and my brother (Matt), and we couldn’t play all the instruments (drums, guitar, bass, and sing) between the two of us. Yeah, some of it could have been pre-recorded and blah, blah, blah, but c’mon, we’re not Daft Punk. It just wasn’t going to happen. It couldn’t. It was impossible. So, why then did I drive to Buffalo on June 1 for the first-ever Clown Teeth practice the next day with a drummer I never met?
The answer to that question began rearing its head several months earlier. Clown Teeth made plans to tour. Yeah, yeah, I know I just told you that Clown Teeth would never play out, but this was different. See, Matt and I got (and followed-up on) the fool idea that we should do an acoustic tour — a logical notion considering we’d recently released our acoustic “Year of the Rabbit” EP. Absurd though it was, it would have only involved the two of us. So, we booked some dates and planned to unleash our songs on unsuspecting audiences in Burlington VT, Philly, Akron (Pennsylvania), somewhere in Maryland, and of course, Buffalo. Then, somewhere along the line, we got anxious about playing shows with just ourselves, so we decided to enlist a drummer. Unfortunately, for various reasons, we couldn’t find a percussionist willing to travel with us for a full week — (smart move, percussionists). Meanwhile, a band from the Philadelphia Pa. area whom we were supposed to play two shows with broke up in April, which made traveling all the way to Burlington only to have a big gap in our schedule afterward, nonsensical. So the tour died and my dream of going out on the road for more than a few days croaked with it. Cue the sad trombone: Wah-wah-waaaaaaaah.
We did, however, find a drummer interested in playing the dates we’d lined up in Buffalo. In fact, we found at least three. The man who got the job was Mike McMahon, an affable and easy-going fellow who commands the drum kit for Matt’s Buffalo-based band, The Sneers. Why Mike voluntarily subjected himself to a crash course in Clown Teeth, I’ll never understand, but he proved more than up to the task. Admittedly, Clown Teeth’s music isn’t exactly complex, but this in no way diminishes what Mike accomplished. He went from never hearing our jams to performing them in front of strangers after just four rehearsals. Impressive!
That first Clown Teeth practice (which took place on the afternoon of June 2) went well and I left our meeting buoyed by Mike’s contributions. I did not feel that way, however, a week later, when I came back to Buffalo for our next practice on June 9. This time, we had Jay Deuro, bassist for Buffalo’s 13 Dead Canaries, on hand to give our little trio some much needed low end. Like Mike, Jay performed admirably. He totally stepped up and learned the tunes quickly, and he had even less time than Mike. Again, completely impressive!
So, what was the “problem”? I dunno, the band just seemed off. Maybe we were all tired, hangry, suffering from the Sunday blues, or just stressed out by the task before us, but shit wasn’t clicking and I left practice that night thinking that maybe we should have cancelled the Buffalo shows along with the rest of the tour.
I was wrong. I’ve been playing in bands since the late 1980s, so I know practice doesn’t always go smoothly, especially when the material and personnel are new. Still, I was anxious that we had bitten off more than we could chew.
But, that anxiety was put to rest during Clown Teeth's very next practice — rehearsal number three — on the evening of June 11. Whatever musical demon had sullied our previous practice, it had somehow been exorcised by the time we reassembled. Everything about our third jam was better — the sound, the atmosphere in the room, our attitudes — and by the time we turned off the amps and headed to our cars, I was giddy with optimism. Those feelings only grew the next night, when we returned to the practice spot to run through the set a few more times. Everyone was on and it felt like we had been playing the songs for months. We still had to play the shows, of course, but I was certain we’d pull it off.
That confidence was not misplaced. When it was time for us to start our set at Revolution Gallery on June 13, everyone was dialed in and delivered. We tore through the set with ease and control and it felt great to play songs that, had we stuck to our original plans, would never have never left the nooks and crannies of the Internet. The crowd seemed to dig it too, which I was happy to hear. (Thank you, Buffalo!) It was a similar story the next night at Amy’s Place. Although the stage was a little tighter, things felt a little looser given that our first performance was in the rear-view mirror. That looseness resulted in our mascot Robert the Clown playing a sizable part in our performance and a more entertaining show for the folks who made it out to see us. (Again, thank you, Buffalo!) Friday's crowd was energetic and awesome.
So, while these Clown Teeth shows weren’t supposed to happen, I couldn’t be happier that they did — and I will forever be indebted to Mike and Jay for making them possible. Thanks to them, everyone who came out to see us, and thank you to the talented bands — Yellow Sauce, Rustbelt Brigade, Captain Tom and the Hooligans, Prairie Pavement, TTTT, and Pretty Good State University — who agreed to play with us. Y’all are the best and I hope we can do it all again.
(A note from Matt: Profuse thank you to Mike McMahon (drums) and Jay Deuro (bass) for learning and mastering our music so quickly. They crammed. We crammed. And they killed it. Unreal... Thank you too to the Lounge at Revolution Gallery and to Amy’s Place for hosting us. These places are such great assets to Buffalo.... Thank you especially to all who came out. The response was way better than we could have ever imagined. Thank you.... Thank you to Sarah Bruno for your hard work and images. And thank you to Amy for pulling double duty with Greta. I had a lot of guilt about that one. Man, I really love that dog.)
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