BRIEF ENCOUNTER: Hanging Out With Spacehog in 1996

July 10, 1996

Spacehog played at Bogart’s on a quadruple bill with Tracy Bonham, 7 Year Bitch and headliners Everclear, Spacehog’s set was less than an hour. My friend Toby was working across the street at Jimmy D’s guitar store. He was on the lookout for the band at my request. He called me to say, “The Hog is in the trough!” I ran over to say Hi and told them I was at the record shop right across the street. Guitarists Richard Steel and Antony Langdon came over for a visit. Richard indicated they were looking for some weed. So, working alone at the time, I abandoned my post in a store full of people and went next store to Subway where someone I knew was a reliable source. Within 30 minutes I had a bag of weed for them and Richard Steel proceeded to dump it out on the counter to inspect it! I took the opportunity to call them out on the similarities between their song called “Spacehog” and a song by The Stairs from 1992 called “Weed Bus”. Richard BUST OUT LAUGHING and called out to Antony, “Did you hear that? He knows where you got that song!” Turning back to me, Richard said, “He nicked it!” (British slang for “He stole it”.) Antony was staring daggers at me at first but then lightened up as he told me he was friends with the guys in the Stairs and had even been their tour manager at one time. It was a very funny moment to share with those guys and they realized that nothing like that would ever get past a guy who worked in a record store and listened to music all day long for a living! I had a great time hanging out with them that afternoon at Mole’s. After scoring weed for them I was invited to join them after the show on their tour bus. Me and my friend Lori showed up with a bottle of Jack Daniels and drank the whole thing with the band on their bus, smoking the weed I’d scored for them as well. Fun time. One of the very few times I’ve ever been on a tour bus. All four guys in the band were great fun to hang out with for a bit. They were hilarious, really in their element, riding high after the show. We heard some of their stories from the road and they all signed a rare promo CD for me.

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Here they are in Toronto, just a month after the show at Bogart's: