In October 1995, we played Hardback's Battle of the Bands to get the opening spot for Humblefest that year. We didn't win (it went to a group called Mr. Frosty, if I remember correctly), but the show was so much fun that it didn't matter. We played six songs and were pretty much on top of it that night. Since it was an all-ages show, folks from our high school could actually come and see us play. People got down to the stone cold grooves of songs like "Funky Thang" and "Kinky Disposition." The highlight, however, came when we played our final song, "Heat." Sometime before this show, Kevin bass player) had convinced Will (drummer) and I that we should construct a life-size dummy and throw it into the audience at some of our shows. Perhaps not the first idea I would've thought of by myself, but people enjoyed it at the first show we did. Nothing would compare, however, to this Hardback show. We played through the final number, which was sort of a fast punk thing, and our "roadie" Ezra tossed the dummy out right at the start of my guitar solo. The cramped floor immediately turned into pandemonium, with people ripping the dummy to shreds and tossing the pieces at each other in a whirlwind of a mosh pit. At somepoint, the frenzy knocked the mic stand over, and I sang most of the last chorus of the song kneeling to the floor of the stage (until a guitarist named Da Vendor picked it up). The combination of fun, good playing, and hysteria we had that night is what rock n'roll is to me, as well as a treasured memory.