More stories from Joe Outburst

Joe with Outburst at CBGB, NYC, Photo courtesy of: Miles To Joe

Outburst drummer Joe Songco has been a big DCXX fan and is always floating us some great Outburst memories. We're gonna start running these more often as I think most people will dig them. The cool thing about Outburst is that from all of Joe's stories, it's very apparent that these guys were major NYHC fans first and foremost that just loved listening to hardcore, going to shows, hanging out, and being a band, too. Just a great vibe. Here's something to kick off our new run with him. NYHC in your face. -Gordo DCXX

When it came to GB, they were just the coolest guys collectively and individually. When Mike joined the band, we realized he had gone to St. Ann's with Luke, so that was his GB angle. Walter had filled in on bass on our first CBGB gig. Arthur used to come over to my house to listen to U2 records. When Arthur joined Underdog, Luke and I were Arthur's roadies for his first NY show at Irving Plaza. I remember Luke and I lugging his stack up on to the stage and helping him set up his wires & stuff. By the time he was almost ready to go, someone closed the side door to get off stage, so the only way off was to jump into the crowd. Arthur was like "just stay and watch the show from here", so we did. That was cool.

I also remember when AJ gave some of us on 14th street the rough mix tapes for Born To Expire. He told us we could play them for people but keep it to ourselves and not share them with anyone, so of course Luke's in my car trying to scam me into lending the tape to him so he could dub it.

Years later, like in 1997, Mike and I were in a band called Xtra Dry and even though I loved playing with Mike, I just wasn't feeling the whole band thing at that time. After a gig at Coney Island High, I told him I was just going to bow out and wished him and the band luck. Mike called Luke to fill in. Imagine that…Luke and I sharing a band!

The most memorable Outburst/Biscuits story to me however, took place backstage at CBGB after we had played this awesome show with them. During our set, George broke a string on his SG. George asked Walter if he could borrow his guitar for a song or two while our roadie re-strang George's SG. Walter was actually in the process of tuning up his guitar…whether or not it was ready to be played right then and there, I don't know. So we waited the few minutes to re-string George's guitar and resumed playing the set.



After we got our stuff off the stage, we decided to step outside and hit up St. Mark's Pizza for a slice before coming back to catch the opening of GB's set. Turns out that by the time we came back, GB was already into their second song, and trying to get to the stage area was almost impossible because the place was so packed. But as we make our way to the front, we can all see that Walter is playing George's SG.

Brian, who stayed behind to watch the stuff, tells us that Walter broke a string on the first song and just went into the back and borrowed George's SG. Brian says he told Walter "hey man, that's not really my call to make, maybe you should just wait or borrow someone else's guitar". So needless to say, George was steaming mad throughout the rest of GB's set.

At the end of the show, the first thing Walter tried to do was apologize to George for borrowing his guitar, but George wasn't having any of it, especially when Walter said that his guitar was unavailable just the set before when George broke his string. There's George and Walter going back and forth arguing while the rest of us are just so uncomfortable, staring at each other. This went on for about a good five minutes before they both calmed down. We had plans to get something to eat after the show, but that wasn't going to happen.

To Walter's credit, he did try to apologize immediately because he knew he had done something he shouldn't have done, but to be fair to George, nobody, not even Walter himself, blamed George for being so mad, especially since Walter had said no about his guitar. Eventually, George accepted Walter's apology and in the long run it was all forgotten. No sense in letting it go past the initial incident, but he was pretty mad the rest of the night.

A few years ago, I visited Civ's tattoo parlor out in Sayville to get some work done and we were reminiscing about that day. He remembered it like I did...being very uncomfortable!


Outburst piece, Photo courtesy of: Miles To Joe