Welcome to My First Show, where we
give bands a chance to talk about the first shows they ever attended --
no matter how uncool and embarrassing those tales may be.
As impressive as their 2008 self-titled debut was, expect plenty of good things to come from True Widow in the new year. The Dallas-based trio will release their second album, called As High As the Highest Heavens and From the Center to the Circumference of the Earth, at the end of March. This is their first for Kemado Records, home of other notable bands such as with The Sword and Dungen.
Guitarist and vocalist Dan Phillips recently took time out to remember the first show he saw, along with first True Widow show.
Also, given his time touring with the Reverend Horton Heat and his last band, Slowride, well, we just had to ask him about his first punk show, didn't we? Of course we did. Check out his answers after the jump.
What was the first show you saw?
Alice Cooper in the mid-'80s. I think it was the Bronco Bowl. It's an
early memory. I was very young. I went to the show because my
godmother's husband was the lighting guy for Alice Cooper. So, they came
to town, and we got to sit at the light stand. It was crazy; he cut off his
head with a huge guillotine. The guitar player looked like Rambo and he
had a machine gun guitar and it would shoot fire and all this stuff. After the show, since we were "special," we got to go up on the stage. I
got to hold Alice Cooper's head by the hair with all the guts hanging
out of his neck. I had to be 10 years old, maybe. I'm not sure.
What was the first punk show you saw?
I saw The Circle Jerks at the Arcadia. I was also really young for that.
I was probably 14. My mother was friends with Angus Wynne, who either
owned it or ran it, and was able to get some tickets. They dropped me off
there. I was by myself. I still have the T-shirt. I also saw Danzig at the Arcadia, and the opening band was Soundgarden. It was for the first Danzig record and that was awesome.
Do you remember the first True Widow show?
Our first show was at the Pastime Tavern, about three years ago. It was a
show that we put together. When we started True Widow, we weren't
trying to really be a band. We just wanted to play. So we had several
songs, but we didn't want to do it at a club.