Eric and I went to Grand Blanc High School together.  He graduated a year before me in 1984.  With the exception of running into him at a few hall shows in the mid 80s, I really haven't seen him in over 20 years.  I reconnected with him a few years ago through social networking, and learned that he is in Ann Arbor.  We sat in a park south of Ann Arbor, and taked about the good old days.  Eric is a chef, has been for over 25 years.  It is something that he loves to do.  We didn't sit around and talk cooking though, we were in the park to talk punk rock, specifically Flint punk rock.  Eric was involved in the Hall Show scene in a few bands like The Thrash, Shocking Grasp, Dark Reality, and Jesus Christ and the Superstars.  The first three bands were really progressions of the same band with different names and a few different characters.  Eric would call the style hardcore punk, I would agree.  Standard power chord punk with angry screaming and lots of energy.  JC&theSS was more noise/jam metal/who knows what.  The JCSS days for Eric were mostly a blur, and memory is foggy at best for him.  I know I remember seeing JCSS many times, Eric doesn't remember seeing me at these events, or in the scene much at all.  We were both there, really.  Our conversation rambled on, touching on how the Flint scene really was a cool scene.  How it differed from the bigger scenes like Detroit.  There really was a community that was built around the hall shows, and many friends were made as a result of this common thread in our lives.  Whereas larger scenes like Detroit really just pulled in larger acts, so the crowd was there to see them, and not really find much common ground in the appreciation of the scene as a whole.  Our close friend Chuck Taylor was discussed, mainly about his death in 1999.  Eric told me that he learned of Chuck's death nearly a year after it happened.  I, for some strange reason, found out the same week - yet I hadn't spoken with Chuck for nearly 9 years.  A mutual friend found me and let me know.  Chuck was in JCSS with Eric and was one of my oldest friends, having known him since elemtary school.  I am still sad that he is gone, he is the main reason I got interested in making films in the first place.  Thanks Chuck!  Back to Eric.  It was really great reconnecting with an old friend, and I am glad that I had the chance to record his version of Flint history, and to just catch up a bit.  Thanks Eric!

The Thrash, 1983 Practice

Shocking Grasp, 1984 WFBE Session

Shocking Grasp, Live at Ukranian Hall 1984

Dark Reality, Live at Ukranian Hall 1985

Dark Reality, 1985 Demo

All songs courtesy of the Flint Underground Music Archive