very first band, all the members were in the same freshman high school class. I'm the guitar player on the far left with the Peter Tork haircut and no-name guitar. We were terrible, but we played all the time because the bass player's dad took an interest in the band and managed/booked us.

It didn't matter that we sucked because we were too young to join the musician's union, so the only venues open to us were places where other very young and inexperienced bands played.

The fact that we played all the time made a difference, and by the time we were 16 and could join the union, we already had an established local reputation (as being one of the better bad bands. Hey, you gotta start somewhere)

Note the 45's hanging from the ceiling. This particular venue was in a church basement. That's how church ladies thought a hip place should be decorated. I'm pretty sure there were also black light posters. ;-)

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