Dave Repellent Jr. and The Repellents

First of all, thanks to everyone who has wrote back, I will be getting back to everyone, I'm just in very poor health due to a spinal cord injury and I am undergoing my 7th operation in 8 years on December 2nd. Keep me in your thoughts!

About Dave Repellent Jr., I just had to laugh when I read that Dave said he had some trouble remembering the lyrics to our songs before the reunion show. I can give you my personal "theory" for that. Dave Jr. NEVER sang the same lyrics twice! And that made it fun for me, cause I never knew what was coming, but I knew it was going to be funny.

My all time favorite Dave Jr. lyric change came with the song I wrote called "Freakshow", which I don't think the Repellents played after I left, cause it's got something like nearly 35+ different bass notes. Anyway before anyone get's mad, I have to tell you that I'm a straight shooter, got a photographic memory and I tell it like it is and was. For all of the time I played with the Repellents, the Zero Boys saw us as Rivals, that started after the first show they saw us play. I can't say it was the entire band, because I know Tufty didn't feel that way.

Of course, we never saw them as Rivals because we didn't even play the same kind of music. The Zero Boys were "New Wave" which is why the "Zero Girls" were able to get on the dance floor and actually DANCE to their music. We just wanted to be a "Punk Rock" band and like Dave has said, we were big fans of the Ramones. I didn't even know anything about 'Hardcore" or what it even meant at that time until we played a show with Husker Du and when we were hanging with them they said, "Wow, you guys are really Hard Core, we didn't expect to fine that in Indiana." Of course this isn't a direct quote, but it's basically what they said.

But because some members of the Zero Boys saw us as Rivals, we always had to open for them.

One night we start "Freak Show" and Dave Jr. starts it off with "Way out here in Hoosier Land, the Zero Boys think they got it all in their hands, but the Repellents are rockin on a Saturday night, do you wannna dance or do you wannna to fight."

That was my #1 favorite, following very close behind for the #2 spot was when we opened for the "Red Hot Chili Peppers" (who hadn't even been togethor even a year) at a Gay Bar in Cincinnati. Seeing as nobody really knew who the "Red Hot Chili Peppers" were, we had about a 75% Gay male audience and 25% Punks. Poor Yukki had to be looked up and down everywhere we walked by dozens of "fans" and I don't mean of our music.

We hit the stage and the first thing Dave does, is grabs the microphone and says, "It takes a man to appreciate a man" and then "1234" and we start jamming. I had just enough alcohol and marijuana in me to nearly pee my pants and had to play like that for the next 30 minutes!

#3 - Dave made us 4 hours late for a show in Chicago, so they were only maybe 30 people left (I have this tape off the soundboard). And the reason he showed up late was why he usually showed up late - Fishing! So we jump in the van and like many times before, Dave is wearing Fishing boots to the show. We take the stage and the first thing he says is, "Man these f#ckers feel like Boat Anchors!" We put on a great show for the 30 people there and you can hear them cheering and screaming after every song.

Were we mad at Dave Jr? Not really, we just didn't take ourselves that seriously, we were just perturbed that we had the Van loaded at the trailer Yukki and I shared and we kept thinking he was going to show up any minute. If we would have had cell phones back then, Dave couldn't have just called or we call him and we could have just went back in the trailer and smoked our selves silly!

Uh, I have to make this disclaimer, I haven't drank or smoked pot in over 23 years and I don't want make it sound like I condone it or glamorize it.

That's all for now! I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving. I'm too sick to make it, but my daughter, her fiance Carl, Baby Liam and my Husband are going to my Aunt's as is our custom.

Jakki