Dillinger Four Played There Once

A brief introduction:
I started this with the intention of sharing memories from my youth.  My time doesn't really allow me to make and play music anymore so I thought I'd try this to fill that creative void.  This isn't some lousy attempt at trying to become a writer or journalist, I just like telling stories.  I've found as I get older I'm starting to forget things more and more, so if details are blurry or you remember things differently I apologize in advance.  After many years of skateboarding, playing in punk/hardcore bands, five years in the Marine Corps, and everything that goes along with those life styles, my brain ain't as sharp as it used to be.  I also changed some name in case the actual people didn't want to be a part of my dumb stories.  So sit back a take a trip back to a time period that spans roughly from 2000 to 2010.  None of these tales will be in chronological order.

Dillinger Four Played There Once


The doors to Rubber Gloves have been closed for a while now.  I currently take classes at UNT thanks to wonderful GI Bill (no sarcasm, it really is great), and sometimes after class I'll go for a long run.  I always run past bars I stumbled out of, a house or two where I played a show in a living room, and places where I had some great times with great people that I never see anymore.  The other day I made my way over to Rubber Gloves, just to say my good byes and take a few pictures because I am a pretty sentimental guy, incase you couldn't tell already.  As I took a few pictures of that old venue I looked around at the changing landscape of Denton itself.  In a weird way this town had a lot to do with the person I am today.  As a million memories ran through my head they all brought me back to my first visit to Denton without my parents, when me and a friend went to Rubber Gloves.
I think it was late 2003, I had graduated high school and had no idea what to do next. I lived at home with my parents and went to community college while working as a package sorter at a UPS hub in Dallas. My friend Biggs was going to UNT at the time and lived in the dorms at Bruce Hall. One night me and my friend Wedge made the trek up to Denton, I think to attend a show that Wedge was interested in going to, but I could be wrong.  My exposure to Denton had been minimal to say the least, but Wedge told me this show was at this place called Rubber Gloves and all we knew about the place was that Dillinger Four played there once. 
We met Biggs at Bruce Hall then walked around campus a little bit and over to Fry street to eat (none of us were old enough to drink legally).  I just remember thinking this place seems kinda boring and all these college people don't seem like they'd be a whole lot of fun to hang out with.  These people weren't very friendly, I feel like all they did was complain about politics and tell me the music I liked sucked.  Needless to say I was ready to check out this venue that Dillinger Four played at once.  The doors were about to open so Wedge and I got into my red truck and drove to this venue that was outside of the downtown area but looked like it was in the middle of nowhere.  It had the looks of a building that nobody really took care of for many years.  There really wasn't a sign for the place, except some dim yellow neon letters that read "RGRS" above the door.  At that time it seemed like a place you really had to look for to find, it wasn't like the deep ellum venues I used to frequent.  My first thought was "I really wish I could have seen Dillinger Four here."  Connected to the venue was an independent clothing store or a book store, I can't really remember.  There was a bar with a few tables that lead into a room with a stage.  I thought the place was really cool and the bathroom had pretty clever artwork on the walls.
Wedge and I saw a friend of ours from high school while waiting in line.  Our friend Owen was there with some girl I think was his girlfriend but I can't really remember, we'll just call her Beru.  I think Beru was into the band playing that night.  I liked the venue and everything but I had no idea who was playing this show I just paid to see.  I asked Wedge and he told me the band was called "Kind of like Spitting."  I thought that was kind of an odd name, and I had pictured either a band that was all about uppin' the punx that had mohawks and studded jackets with a huge back patch or a UNT student band that played slow music and dressed like grandpas.
This first band started to play, I can't remember what they were called but they looked like they could have been UNT students, and I think the guitar player had a big pedal board.  I always try to keep an open mind when seeing a new band, especially then because my show going experiences had been somewhat limited.  There's a reason I don't remember much about the first band that night, they weren't very good.  I just remember it being pretty slow and boring, many of the songs seemed really repetitive.  After they were done playing Wedge was talking with someone else at the show and they thought the band was pretty good.  But I really didn't see what was so good about them,
I bring this up because it started to make me think that I didn't know what good music was.  Obviously now I see music more as an art and you either like it or you don't, and that's it.  What's good and bad really just depends on who you ask.  But at that time I didn't want to seem dumb and I spent way too much time trying to figure out what I was missing in bands like this.  It made me think of this time Norm MacDonald was talking about the great comics of his time.  Norm mentioned that everyone had told him to listen to Bill Hicks, he was one of the most funny and important comics who ever lived.  Norm said he then watched 3 hours of Bill Hicks material and didn't laugh once, and failed to see what was so great about him.  This was my Bill Hicks, and it would happen almost continuously with bands that went in and out of the punk and hardcore scenes, but that's another story for another time.
Another band similar to the first one played, once again I thought it was boring and repetitive but everyone else heard something that was pretty good.  I was once again scratching my head, Wedge would talk to people about other bands that I was oblivious too, he was way more into it than I was.  While I was spending my free time skateboarding and learning to play the bass, he was checking out new bands, at a place like this he was in his element.  I just kinda stood next to him and hoped he'd talk about something I'd heard of before.  I wasn't old enough to get a beer so I just kinda looked to the stage for the last band to come on and they did.
Except it wasn't a band at all, it was a pudgy bald guy with an acoustic guitar who was telling the sound guy he didn't need his help, because he wasn't going to use the PA.  He didn't want to play on the stage either.  He wanted to play on the floor while everyone sat down, which they did.  I then watched high school to college aged people sit on the floor while this dude walked around the room strumming his guitar and singing like he was Raffi.  The whole thing seemed so stupid to me, I tried keeping an open mind but I just couldn't take it anymore, and besides that Wedge and I kinda stood out being one of the few people that didn't want to sit down and listen to Bloomers (true King of the Hill fans know what I'm talking about).  I sat down at a table near the bar area and just waited for it all to end.
I tried not to be disappointed, I had spent a lot of time and some money to see bands I didn't like, but I did get to see a venue I'd heard about.  After the show I had to take Wedge back home, he had work or something the next day.  I drove home thinking Denton was pretty lame, and that I'd never want to go to school up there. So much for first impressions right?  Well, that's all I know.