SATURDAY NOVEMBER 15th, 1997
THE NIGHT THE SHAWN TURNED THE LIGHTS OUT ON SAFARI
THE REJECTS
RADIO CAROLINE
DEL STARS
& SQUID BOY
21 & OVER@ Safari Nite Club
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Don't ever complain about what you got cause some day it may disapear. Live that brothers and sisters. Even though Jake took over the club and has done an ok job of it, without Shawn things will never be the same again. I remember when Shawn came into the shop and told me that he was buying the club from Tony. There was fire in his eyes. The same fire I saw time and time again. That fire burns under that mask he puts on before SlipKnot hits the stage and the same fire that burns through their set everything. It's a "Fuck it, fuck shit up" fire.
Des Moines was a goast town since the Foundry closed their doors in 1995 and the candle of Hairy Mary's went out forever. For a while we all sat around twittled our thumbs and ran from dump to dump looking for a home for live music.
I'm not sure just when the scene started to take over Safari but I do remember the first time Radio Caroline plyed there back in the spring of 96. Safari was to the most part a Reggae club and had a bit of a rough drug-trading rep. The owner at the time Tony Trenell(sp?) saw that it was time for a change and started to hire employees outside the Reggae scene. I believe the first one from the scene to start working there was Barry as bar manager. He bagan to hire others from the scene including Joey Hollywood, Lanny and Paul.
The other change was having Bull book the club and who brought in a more rock-n-roll acts. Like with any format change it brought a lot of backlash from the regulars. It was at this time that SlipKnot, Going to Grandmas, Squid Boy, Radio Caroline, The Have Nots and many other local bands played their first shows there. Bull who has a great love for power pop and power punk brought in groups like Fast Ball, House Of Large Sizes and Tribe 8. Also others began to book like Doug and Michelle from Spank bring Blount, Glue Gun and The Fixtures and proved that All Ages can work and the last Total Passover show.
I think it was around August or so when Bull moved to Minneapolis and booking went back to Tony. The difference was tha bands began to take it upon themselves to set up their own shows and pick openers. I began booking (again) regional all age shows in October mainly because our band wanted to play all age shows. The first show I did at Safari was Victim's Anonymous, Going to Grandmas, The Have Nots, Dr Castro and The Skull Caps. Well over 150 kids showed up and the Axiom was in the promoting business bringing bands like Isaac Green and the Skalars, Hot Stove Jimmy, Fi Fi and Welt.
Shawn bought the bar and took over on Febuary 1st, 1997 with the Murphy's Law show. The first thing he did was to give the club a new paint job and expand the stage. The Have Nots got to be the first band to spill beer and play on the newly carpeted stage.
This was the beginning of the renovations including a new floor in the back of the club, moving and building a new stage and building a new shell for the stage side of the club. Turning the ramshackle mess into a club that looked like a rock-n-roll club. Also he added a new sound and lighting system.
The other thing that Shawn did was he didn't listen to the crowd of people telling him that he couldn't do that. By bringing (along with me) national act and name acts into the club that have never played Des Moines let alone Iowa. It moved Safari from being a regional club to a national club in a short 8 months.
So that brings us to the night in question November 15th, 1997. Shawn told me a few weeks earlier that he was closing and selling because of the club taking up too much of his time that he should be spending on his band SlipKnot. SlipKnot was in fact just starting to take off and it came down to a juggling act between the club and the band. So I called and cancelled the calendar of everything set up after the 15th and settled in for the funeral.
I got there late as usual and I beleive it was Movtov Cocktail had already played. The club was packed (why is it that every time a club closes everyone comes out. Is it just me or is there a crowd of people that only come out when a club closes).
As far as bands go I don't really remember much other then the Rejects set. It was the first time I saw Paul filling in on bass. I guess I haven't reviewed the Rejects yet. Well it's Joey's (Have Nots/SlipKnot) band that has been off and on for god like 4 years now. They do a kinda Glammy punk with joke songs about drugs, sex and etc.. They"re always fun but too often the jokes wear thin to say the least. Anyway the highlight was Shawn's sing along to their song Fuck Her Up the Ass.
Shawn had vowed to leave the club open until all the booze was gone. So the place was packed well into the night. I'm still trying to piece together just what all happened due to the fact that I was very loaded. I do remember Shawn getting up on the bar and doing a toast with everyone of Old Crow (Shawn has this thing for Crows). It involved having everyone hold up there drinks while Shawn (quite drunk) tried to give a toast. Josh from SlipKnot had a Bachelor party that night and Shawn and Paul were both really gone to say the least. Paul at some point passed out on the stage and Shawn woke him up. Then the bottle throwing and fighting part of the evening began. I remember there being well over 50 people there and then when Shawn and Paul began to break things the bar cleared faster then a church on Super Bowl Sunday. The Paul/Shawn thing went on and on.
Mick (Slipknot) at some point said something to me that pushed me over the edge. I remember taking off my glasses and then turning around and hitting him a number of times. Then falling into some broken glass and cutting the fuck out of my back (I still have the scar. Funny how everytime sometihing ends lately I get a scar or at least bleed). The whole thing was stupid and I never really had anything against Mick but it was just the fact a of him and me being in the wrong place at the wrong time. To be truthful we get along better now then before.
At some point the let's break up the fight between Paul and Shawn thing ended and they let them go at it. It was short and ended with them kissing and making up. Maybe this should be called the night of the living male bonding or bonding rites.
Eventually everyone left and it was down to Pette, Kevin and me. Kevin passed out in the women's restroom. Since Kevin was the only one with a key and the door was locked we ended up waiting around till I called Shawn and gave up and left some where around 6am.
