January 16th, 1999 The Brickhouse East Haven, CT
I: Bouree > Grand Scheme of Things > Bouree, Come Softly > See the Light > Magic Fingers, Puppetry
II: Garcian Fishbowl, Born To Be Wild > Attraction to Shade Diddy > Frankly Po Zest, LDZ > Drunk Monk Bar
III: No Quarter > Walk on the Wild Side, No Glove No Love, Superfly Phaddy Fat
I\'m lucky enough, being a lifelong Stavener (hold the applause), to have seen the Breakfast, then known by some other name which escapes me, at their original stomping ground on Main St. in Staven, The Brickhouse, on Saturday nights throughout the winter and spring of 1999. If you there, you know what I\'m talking about. If you weren\'t, it was a total free-for-all. Three sets from 10 to 2, a highly-inordinate amount of underage drinking, and a band that still had vocal kinks to be worked out, but which obviously had immense musical ability that they displayed with an even mix of originals and covers. It was pretty obvious to us in attendance that these four guys were merely scratching the surface. Despite the fact that the band was in the larvae stage at this time, these shows were always well-attended (75-100 was the usual turnout) with raucous crowds, featuring many of Staven\'s finest shitheads.
The personal highlights for my first show included Magic Fingers, an early example of humor infusion; Garcian, the first Breakfast song I ever loved; LDZ, which was the closest thing they had to a straight rock song at the time; and No Quarter, for obvious reasons.
I went to nearly every Brickhouse show and my love for the band increased with each. Eventually, as expected, they moved on to larger places. But the Brickhouse was the only place in Staven that the Breakfast regularly played and it was only fitting that it all started there, mere minutes from where everybody in the band, and at the time all their fans, lived. When they played Toad\'s a few months later, the Staven faithful turned out in full force and new fans from the surrounding towns followed. There\'s no question that a good portion of the Breakfast\'s early success in the New Haven area derived from the energetic Brickhouse crowds, as we took our boisterous manner of positive expression in relation to the band to such area dives like the Short Beach Saloon, Planet Mars, the Star Cafe, and of course, Rudy\'s, only to have others see and hear the reasons for our enthusiasm, then join along. But of course, most of it had to do with band and their immediate ability to play a variety of tunes in a loud, yet sharp manner.
Here\'s an additonal fact: although that was the first time I saw The Breakfast, it wasn\'t the first time, I saw Tim, Ron and Adrian play. That came in June of 1995 at East Haven High School, when the trio opened for Staven death-metal band Chromatis for a free show that took place after school, on the last day of school, which was also the last day of high school altogther for myself and fellow Breakfast fans Lisa Pec and Justin Maturo. Tim, Ron and Adrian would go on to graduate, along with Dave Pec, in (Prom) 97, but not before the trio treated those in the Staven High auditorium to instrumental rendititions of classic-rock tunes such as Fire and Black Dog. And to top it off, they got an encore, which was Sweet Leaf, with infamous Stavener Jeff Neill on screaming vocals. I left that show with two primary thoughts: 1. those guys can play and 2. those guys need to write their own songs.
Flash forward to 1997 and the birth of Tim and Adrian\'s lite-jazz projects, Magic and Moka Jam, then to 1998 and the Breakfast-predecessor, Naked Society, with Ron now officially aboard as future Breakfast songs like Garcian were debuted instrumentally, then finally to 1999, the introduction of Jordan and vocals, the birth of Psychedelic Breakfast (I knew it would come to me), and my friend Justin Maturo saying to me on Jan. 12 1999, "I saw those guys from Naked Society last week at the Brickhouse. They have a keyboard player, a new name, and some new songs. They were great. They\'re playing tonight. You should check them out."
The rest, as they say, is history.
Also for the record, the Brickhouse sponsored a slow-pitch softball team during the spring of 99 that featured many of the Breakfast\'s early fans, including myself, as manager and pinch hitter. We started slow, then hit our stride to finish 15-14 before losing in the first round of the playoffs. Although that has virtually no literal implications on this post, and regardless of the fact that no members of the band were on the team, I felt it prudent to mention this solely for the purpose of official documentation and full disclosure of the many ways in which the Brickhouse played a part in our lives. Lastly for the record, I haven\'t stepped in the front door since the Breakfast\'s last show there.
Pitch
