Rocking the Hammerjacks documentary for the holidays

The Maryland Crab Cake Tour presented by The Maryland Lottery, Goodwill and Window Nation celebrated Nestor’s 31st Anniversary at Costas Inn in Dundalk with old music friends and stories of bands and clubs. And some hairspray! A history of Hammerjacks with Nestor Aparicio and John Allen from Costas at Dundalk as the new documentary is released.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

stories, people, band, night, play, john, friends, hammer, picture, documentary, talking, big, baltimore, stage, film, week, hit, part, literally, years

SPEAKERS

Steve Nerangis, John Allen, Ann Marie, Nestor Aparicio

Nestor Aparicio  00:00

What about wn st Towson Baltimore and Baltimore positive we are positively celebrating 31 years amongst friends we are at Costas I’m wearing the shirt we’ve got holiday parties here imagine that during the holidays at the famous establishment here in Dundalk Acosta’s they had that going on the barrel of lottery is bringing it all together for us today I’m gonna be giving away some analysis some Raven scratch offs, but I’ve got like a whole new batch thanks to Roz of the holiday cast drops John Allen is here. We got our friends here from hammer Jax and a documentary and we’re gonna be telling all rock’n’roll story she is shocked can be a little later on. Penguins at East Point mall, I’m sure will be involved John Allen. But these folks was first off Emrys from the Drina Anne Marie, I’ve known for 30 years. I don’t want to say, you know, I don’t want to date too much of us. And of course, Steve is here as well.

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John Allen  00:53

Didn’t you just do it though?

Nestor Aparicio  00:56

35 plus 136? Oh, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And Steve, of course, you guys came to me year, year and a half ago and said we’re going to put together hold that that’s that’s an original hammer. Jack’s documentary is what you’re gonna put together. I had a an advanced screening, John has had an advanced screening. He and I have only spoken very, very briefly about the memories we saw. But my wife said she hasn’t seen me smile, in 90 minutes straight yelling at we didn’t watch it on a TV. We watched it on a computer screen on screaming Hey, you got John, are talking to somebody else? Congratulations on doing something I think John and I would both agree was a part of our childhood that you guys have captured in a way and a part of our life that brought it back to life. And you said you had 500 hours of guys like us telling stories, right? Yeah,

Steve Nerangis  01:50

well, 50 Yeah. But that’s I mean, that’s enough to get through and and edit. But John goes back on this. We’ve we started working on this thing about six years ago. So yeah, it’s been long,

John Allen  01:59

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at least three haircuts ago. I saw myself up there.

Steve Nerangis  02:04

Yeah, so it was it was a long process a lot of people to talk to a lot of people wanted to be involved. But um, you know, it’s also a lot of pressure to because like, you were saying, it’s this, this hemorrhage X meant a lot to a lot of people. And it was a big part of a lot of our lives. So to try to get that right to make people try to revisit that time a little bit. In a good way. You know, it’s a big task, and I certainly couldn’t have gone too far. A started before I met mra. But then Amory came on board and everything just opened up because

Nestor Aparicio  02:35

she didn’t know about hemorrhaging. Do you have a background story with it? Yeah.

Steve Nerangis  02:38

So I I went to University of Maryland, and I was an intern for W HFS. So we’d go out and do shows there quite a bit. And I was actually at a wedding nisi my the DJ that I worked with gotten married in the club so I have that story. But um, yeah, you know, I have stories if you if you want to hear some My My favorite one is that is the only time I ever got a girl’s phone number in a bar ever, ever, ever. Was it hammered? Jax was real? The number you know what, unfortunately, unfortunately, it was what happened? Because what happened was that I ended up calling her you know, late at night like a complete dunce. And, and she was still living with her folks until I froze and hung up. Right? You remember star 69? Right? Yeah. Call me right back. Eventually picked up and they’re like, yeah, she lives with her parents and you don’t call here and I’m like, Thanks till are called or something right? That was the end of that. But yeah, hammer Jax was so wide open and even me even I could get a phone number that place right? Oh, man.

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Nestor Aparicio  03:40

You’re giving me stories about girls now that I’m I’m recollecting stories of I met a woman me I was a kid and I was 17 years old and Amberjacks. Right. And I always thought that I was younger than you because you were tending bar there. And it turns out that I’m older. So I mean, it’s that time period of 1988 8990 91 becoming of age, I would say I was there one night and I was the music critic, right? So I was backstage and she wasn’t a woman, but she was in her 20s and I might not have been right. I was certainly old enough to drive and I was there. And I always had an extra ticket for review. So I could always kind of get a hot date if I or at least a guy to hang out somebody that wanted to use me to so this woman said Scorpion show was next week and I’m like, Yeah, I got you know, I’ll go to scorpions with you now. And you mean she was kind of so hot to trot that I couldn’t even I was I was a kid right? She said Why live down in Greenbelt come down and we’ll go my car and you can park your car here and I’m like, okay, cool. She has like this burnt orange, Porsche nine one. And I’m like the 19 year old kid from Dundalk. You know what, you know, I was intimidated, but these are the kinds of women you met at hammer jacks. You can meet anybody in Amberjacks as well. It was to the point where they, I mean, the wrestlers would come through rockstars would come through and for you You and Marie to have been a bartender there and to have been privy to in and out backstage and all that stuff. Why this doc? Like, what about this thing? made it work? Because I mean, you knew everyone, you had everybody’s phone number to be able to make it good, right?

Ann Marie  05:15

Yeah, it’s so many stories and just the people that that we all still, we’re all still kind of like a family, you know, I always talk about Facebook, and you know, all the mutual friends that you have, you know, I’ve got 300 400 mutual friends, like probably John in la la, there’s people are just, you know, they’re all from the hammer Jack’s days. And we still, you know, we see each other at shows, and it’s just, it’s just a big family. And it always just warms my heart that, you know, we we can still go back and reminisce and, and just to be able to do this, this documentary was great to be able to get people back together and, you know, share their experiences. And it was, it was it was a lot of fun.

John Allen  06:06

It was a huge undertaking. I mean, they told the story. I mean, you saw it. So, you know, the club started its life as one thing, you know, on Charles Street, South Charles Street, and then it moved to you know, the, which they found out was a, an old brewery, this old warehouse building. And that was, you know, it was called, you know, the club side initially, before they built the concert hall before there were bands playing.

Nestor Aparicio  06:30

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I remember the night Eddie money playing the MTV jobs game, but I I was just a 98 rock. I was just a kid, right? I mean, I couldn’t get in. I was too young. I mean, I remember seeing the date from the hit the flyer and all that and I’m like, I was like, 1516 years

John Allen  06:43

old. I was the opening of the concert hall. Yes. Okay,

Ann Marie  06:46

my parents were there that night and actually the the the tickets that we use in the film was my mom’s dad’s so

Nestor Aparicio  06:53

these mementos and things and brought Becker obviously was a part of this and I probably should have invited Bob over here today to be a part as he’s such a part of the historian and sharing pitch Yes, all the key fan doors pictures.

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Steve Nerangis  07:06

So all a good percentage that photography in the film comes from but

John Allen  07:10

well, and he was the voice like when you heard those hammer Jack’s ads on 98 Rock, you know, it was like, Whoa, like soon as you heard buds voice, you know, book club that rolls the street hammer Jack. You’re like, oh, yeah, you know, it’s like you made it you know, if you were in one of those ads with buds, great timber.

Nestor Aparicio  07:30

Well, it’s rich with stories, right? I mean, when you’re talking about sourcing something, I don’t know what it means outside of Baltimore outside of the Mid Atlantic area, or what it would mean to rock and roll bands that are scattered around or the legend of it being on you know, the cover of a Motley Crue album or just a that there these I it was an iconic thing, even if you just drove through Baltimore to see the giant orange sign that literally sat above the freeway you it was it was its own billboard. It was the it was the thing you saw when you drove into Baltimore when there was no football stadium. You’re right. Like it was the thing that glowed like Las Vegas. Steven arange is correct. That’s correct. All right. And Marie’s here as well as John Allen from United States stone horses. What am I good? Because i There’s a rumor, Child’s Play. I saw it on a bill and it was new when it’s empty. What’s going on with you, man? I gotta get this involved here.

John Allen  08:22

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We’re Yeah, we’re playing the mp3 Festival this year. May 6, I think. I think we’re supposed to be the first band on the mainstage I get to say early then. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I don’t know what time that is. But

Nestor Aparicio  08:35

it’s 112 degrees because I’m going to be sticking sticks is playing that night, right. Yeah,

John Allen  08:38

they are. Yeah, I hope it’s warm. Yeah. I hope it’s 100 degrees. It’d be great. That’s

Steve Nerangis  08:43

a great bill that day Lita Ford’s plan streams plan winners plans can be a lot

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Nestor Aparicio  08:48

that’s a hammer jacks for you and you I mean, all the people who love your band bands, I should say over the course of years to come together musics what brings people together it was the it was the thing that made hammer Jack’s hammer Jack’s was the music part of this. You sent me some sort of soundtrack thing today. And putting the doc together. I didn’t know what to expect, right? You guys invited me down my whole involvement in this John was Amory hit me and said we’re doing a doc will you tell stories? And I’m like, Oh, I got stories. You know. So I came down you set me up on the stage and Mary whether it’s some other folks as I saw Brian Ford when I was coming in and out and I sat down for an hour and we walked out and I kicked it to my wife. I’m like, God, I hope I just get 10 seconds. I mean, I gave some pretty good stories there. You gave me an hour of the reel then I’m going to cut up and I’m going to release all of my stories but you went to everybody’s stories right? And you know my involvement was minimal. Your thing he made you made him look all sexy against him. He was like standing there like a rock star. You’re you’re in it a lot and as far as and he’s such a history buff anyway right and living through it. But finding these stories and things that I didn’t even know like the Guns and Roses night were You were not at the Guns and Roses show. I was They’re Yeah. Oh, do tell I was not there that night.

John Allen  10:03

Well, I, you know, I can only tell secondhand stuff because I wasn’t backstage. But I know what I heard about. I know what I saw on stage. And I know what the dressing room smelled like after they played. But yeah, it was it was crazy. I mean, I was upstairs watching them on slashes side. And I decided to move to the front where the where the sound man was mixed position. So I got there moved around. I’m watching them like, man, it sounds amazing. I mean, they were they were on they were killing it. They’ve just on fire the beginning of the tour, you know, just great. And then I realized there was only one guitar in the PA that was slashing. And so I focused in on Izzy straddling, and he was just falling all over the stage. And I noticed he was really weird. You know, he had a big amp stack and makes a bogey stack. There was this huge Samoan looking guy standing behind the amplifier. And so I like I noticed how is he was kind of stumbling. And I noticed the big guy, he reaches out and he turns the knob down on the amp head, turning his volume down. I’m like, oh, man, like row crew guy turning, turning his guitar now like, they must be really bad. It’s not in the PA like, wow, what’s going on? Well just then is each stretch on turns around from the front of stage, runs back and just rolls all the knobs to 10. He knew what was going on. He knew they were turned out. Then he runs in front of stage again, the big guys standing there. And then he does this backwards run and slams into the amp stack. The whole thing buckles, it will all would have gone down except this dude was like the size of like a football player, like a lineman. holds on to the amps keeps them from falling and keeps and is he’s leaning against the amps. Like you know, he’s just holding both of them up. He runs to the front of stage again, at the end of said he takes off this like $3,000 Gibson hollow body and he throws it into the audience. I’m like, wow. Like, that’s rock and roll. That’s totally rockin, dude, I don’t know what he’s on. But he’s wasted. Man,

Nestor Aparicio  12:22

ah, hammer day, you

Steve Nerangis  12:23

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know, that’s one of my favorite parts of the film. Because one of the reasons you make a documentary like this right is to try to hold on to everybody’s memory, right, these events. And that part of the film. It’s hilarious. Yeah, it’s great, because everybody gets it. Especially especially the part about the you know, urinating in the back because somebody’s like, you know, it was it was easy on in one of their books, they said Is he took a leak on the manager’s desk. Right? And Steve kitchens is like not with slash venue. Right? Right. And some and oh, it was on my grill heart is like Nah, it was easy on the co2 tanks. So like everybody had a slight it’s all close, right? But everybody has a slightly different memory of what went down.

John Allen  13:03

And I heard it was the dressing room that we’re at, right. And I swear it, it smelled like it. Yeah. It smelled like for the next three weeks. It was like a year or two. Yeah, it was it like never went away. And that was he pissed excellence is what you’re telling my guts, right? But those dressing rooms too. They were like they were pristine prior to that like like we had played so many dies, you know, coming up, and Amberjacks was nice. Oh, it was so nice. It was like we had two rooms there was a bathroom shower with a shower. The shower.

Steve Nerangis  13:36

I’m sure nothing went down in there now. Never.

John Allen  13:40

I never should have I

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Nestor Aparicio  13:41

should ask Louis for the footage of that.

John Allen  13:45

I bet he’s got it. I was afraid of my feet sticking to the bottom. But there was no graffiti on the dressing walls. I mean, it was just it was like perfect. And then after that after that Guns and Roses show was like

Nestor Aparicio  13:57

it just became another kick. John, what’s your word Costas. We’re celebrating 31 years so I’m brought to you by the Maryland lottery as well as our friends at Goodwill and when the nation 866 90 nation giving you a better deal than they gave me honestly it’s 0% financing you buy two you get two free you definitely need it on these cold days. It is a cold holiday. I love that the trees here Gina shocks coming by later Michael Kelly is already here from milkshake and beyond words we’re gonna be telling old rocket was like this marble bar right like literally that’s like even a generation before we’re gonna talk punk rock you and I were kids in the 70s with Gina shock was doing her thing and making her way Western. An MRI I’m gonna ask you about the not just the Guns and Roses night but these stories because you were one of the people firing questions at me on the stage and Merriweather to try to jog my memory about what was the best show what’s the memory What do you remember about that? Being in the out everybody had a memory of hitting the backstage red button and looking up and waving up at the video and it took me until today to number get in the bed. I was one of the guys in there. I’d look on the little black and white and I was hitting the button in the office letting people you might want to let them in. You know what I mean?

Steve Nerangis  15:05

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Like, you know what’s great about that? I was I was like, everybody’s like, Oh, this exclusive thing where you go to the back door. I’m like, well, everybody got that exclusive man, everybody we talked to is getting back,

Nestor Aparicio  15:14

everybody the story that was the way you want to work. There was the bouncers. It was just it was a it was a garage door.

John Allen  15:22

Well, I remember I remember early on there may have been a secretary or someone at the desk who would, you know, judge whether you were worthy to come in, they’d hit the buzzer,

Nestor Aparicio  15:31

but usually an MRI or chilwell

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Ann Marie  15:34

making somebody they’re like, oh, you know, manning it full, you know, full time. But yeah, there was a lot of times when we just look up and go, yeah,

Nestor Aparicio  15:44

totally Wayne’s World. I was like, hold my bass.

John Allen  15:49

I remember one day I went. I had I had band rehearsal that night, but I knew there was a big show in town playing there was Oasis, and it was on their first tour. Wow. And I went down. I hit the buzzer. Somebody let me in. I walked in. It was Liam Gallagher know, sitting behind the desk

Nestor Aparicio  16:07

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with a Heineken. Here’s long enough.

John Allen  16:10

And he kept hitting the buzzer. He’s like, he was messing with me. And I was like, all right. There was Liam and he was he was drinking a Heineken at like four in the afternoon. That’s great. So

Nestor Aparicio  16:21

this jog and memories here that are amazing. Two days ago is the five year anniversary, the death of Pathan Knizia from Smithereens Patenaude we’re closed the band and I still close to this day Jimmy bad Jack, those guys. There’s a picture of me with Mike Dennis, Jimmy and pat on the top of the stairs. I’m wearing the last they were banned the last I’m wearing the last shirt for some reason. I think Maria Malta from Atlantic Records gave me that and I was trying to pimp her band it was cool shirt with black said the last on it is somewhere in that. And that picture showed up my timeline Tuesday and I knew I was gonna get it for you guys. And I just randomly was so much about the movie watching it once that I didn’t like take notes or whatever. But this this came back to me. So I’m watching and I’m waiting for myself. And I’m not seeing John and wait for myself. I’m hearing stories and I’m pulling in and there’s kitchens and I’m still known stories, Tom Perry. And at the end of the end of the of your film, you had video footage of walking down the backstage steps, the steps that I was on. And he like, I got like, it hit me and I’m like, polish. Yeah, like, I haven’t been there. 30 years. That’s still a place. Yeah, now it is a space above where tailgates had been blowing, you know, barbecue in that parking lot, because it’s literally, that airspace is the tailgate lot where the ravens are right. Parking Lot D or whatever it would be at this point. But I’m thinking to myself that that’s like, rock and roll cosmic space that’s gone. Yeah, that that stairwell every Oasis every Guns and Roses, kids, I mean, just go through Debbie here. I mean, anybody that was ever there, and you can name them all that that step. Everybody went upstairs because the dressing room was nice. You didn’t have to hang out the boss you could come upstairs and it was cold beer and you can breathe a little bit and it was really cordoned off. There’s only one way up was one stairwell. So you kind of had to have some privilege to get there. It was quiet. Yeah,

John Allen  18:21

to go through the office. And then then there was an open area and then that rickety. It looked rickety. It was and but it was like it was yeah, they’re old wooden steps that went up and then went to the right and went up to the

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Nestor Aparicio  18:33

giant safe that was back there backstage too. But that those steps, man after watching an hour the stories and learn and stuff I didn’t know. I mean, literally, I didn’t know as much about nobles. And you know that space. I knew what was there but I didn’t have pictures or picture and you had bartender, you had stories. But that piece got me and John and I were going back and forth the poor I think he and I laughed the most about was Louis was still the star of your of your documentary. Like any as he should be. Right? Yeah. Totally. I mean, we’re talking Characters of All characters. He’s it.

Steve Nerangis  19:07

I mean, you talk about hard to edit out stories. So much good stuff, you know, you want to leave every second of what he was saying and Jesus documentary story about that footage of the staircase to because what happened with that, you know, when we started working on this, we were sort of doing it on our own, and it was pretty quiet. But as things as we got closer to the end, people were finding out about it. It’d be we’re coming out of the woodwork like, Hey, I’d love to do something. Let me let me give you some music. Let me give you some pictures. So there’s a filmmaker named Rudy Childs, who’s local, but he’s done a lot of photography for like priest and stuff like that, like big stuff. And he got in touch with like, Hey, I looked up all his credits. I’m like, oh, man, this guy’s done some stuff. And he’s

John Allen  19:44

like He part of the heavy metal parking lot. And so some of that, I don’t know. So

Steve Nerangis  19:48

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now he’s friends with those guys. He worked on a heavy metal picnic. A lot of that was his furniture. Okay, so Rudy got in touch. And he’s like, Hey, I got all this backstage footage from hammer jacks. Would you would you like to have a look at him like, Dude Yeah, but I don’t know if I can afford he’s like, no, no, no, it’s free. Just take it nice. And we already had the story about the co2 tanks. And I’m looking at that and the guys are walking down from the band Hawaii, they’re walking down the steps on like their seats. There they are, you know, and there’s the vending machine and there’s every ice like so.

Nestor Aparicio  20:16

It is a fan it was there. It was it oh my god moment. Well, you gotta save that to you have

Steve Nerangis  20:21

to know as somebody that’s like editing the film, when you’re a year into the edit. And you’ve heard the story over and over, and then there’s video of that exact thing. It’s like, oh my god, this is the greatest. So I’m glad you picked that part out because that’s, you know, that’s really special that footage, just like the chances that somebody took video of walking down the steps.

Nestor Aparicio  20:39

You know, hearts, DJ booth, sat off the office that literally you had to kind of walk through kind of was like the walls. It was in the walls between the two clubs, you know, and he hid that he I mean, he has the great stories of hiding people there because it was a great place to hide I hid there anytime catches her Perry like dude, you gotta go stay don’t want a music critic back here. Just go hang out. Just Hi, bro hearts of the band goes on stage. And literally, I have those memories of all of that. But video footage of all of it was so available for bands, you’re banging the skins on stage with shots like I mean, kick stuff, like it was a special place to play. And if you had a cam quarter, a high 819 89 And you were chips enough from enough? This is probably a place where you pulled the video out a little bit. If you were, as Gina shock was for the Go Go’s a documentary and a documentarian for your band. Right, right, right.

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Steve Nerangis  21:37

Yeah.

Nestor Aparicio  21:39

How much stuff? Did you get that you could just get use of that sort of magnitude?

Steve Nerangis  21:42

Oh, ton, tons of stuff. I mean, I mean, just interview stuff, as like I said before, probably 50 hours worth of stuff that we haven’t released that, you know, what are the things that some people have great interviews, where it’s just like, you can’t use it all. And some people talk for an hour. And you really they only got 45 seconds for the good stuff. But you got a lot of footage, right. But, you know, there’s also a lot of video that exists that we don’t have access to this old VHS stuff. And that kind of thing of like, basically every band that played for a four or five year stretch in the late 80s. Early 90s exists.

John Allen  22:13

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So there was ProShot Yeah, well, there was a camera. Yeah, at the soundboard and whether you knew it or not as the band. Somebody was videoing? Right. Right. Right. You were bait because I have a

Nestor Aparicio  22:24

Kix board. I have a cracked sky. Yeah. I mean, and I have him on VHS is that I bought at a flea market in 1993. You know, literally it was somebody dropped it off and gave it to me. And I I don’t know that I’ve been I have it says kicks on it. The Hammer jacks, December 1988, or whatever. And I know it’s that I mean, it wasn’t held wasn’t a cell phone. Yeah, you know, I mean, and I so I know there’s some quality to it, other than the cellular phone apart or whatever. I’m figuring people were offering that sort of stuff to you,

Steve Nerangis  22:56

when there’s a lot of stuff that exists to with with musicians that we don’t have any contact with and weren’t interviewed. And it didn’t make as much sense to put it in the film. A lot of the footage that we use from live bands was you know, included people that we interviewed that wanted to be part of a show, there’s stuff that exists that is just like you know, a space really on stage and stuff like that, which we don’t have any real connection with Steve kitchens is Colin hasty. But Tim last week, but also man, you know, tons of photography, we didn’t get to fit in I mean, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of pictures that are great and it just didn’t have a spot for it or, or you know, you have one picture in the film you find find one that works a little bit better. So you drop out the original picture and it’s just like, so much stuff. That was

Ann Marie  23:36

the biggest the biggest challenge for me doing all the photos and there’s so many photos and we wanted to try to get in as many bartenders and it was hard it was really hard to do that. Yeah, I

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Steve Nerangis  23:47

think for him Maria in particular because she knew everybody for me it’s all just people it’s like that’s a good picture. That’s a cool looking picture for her it’s like oh that person passed away and this year this person do that. Yeah, I got a great story about this person, that kind of thing. So so there’s

Nestor Aparicio  24:02

a lot of people are alive right and then that everybody it’s a special time in people’s lives that’s special to me it’s special to you in a different way and it’s different in every way you made money there you were trying to you know, play stadiums there. You were just there to have a good time for College Park I was working like every you know and and so much I think came out of it into the documentary that was meaningful to me you know, like I added you feel because you and I haven’t even talked about I was I was going to ask you before they got here if you got here early as you say, Hey man, tell me how you really felt. I know you love Louie Louie was the star of the graffiti right Louie was Louie graffiti cannons

John Allen  24:44

Yeah. So yeah, ya know, Louie Louie is a character. I mean, he told me stories back then that you probably left out right? Because he you know, he he went through a really excessive phase. Like, you know, he, he was on top of the world man like, you know, remember the scene in Scarface with a mountain of he told me that there is the there was a period where, you know, that was his life, you know, and I mean, things were really wrong. The club was open seven days a week, they never closed. Even. And I went up there one time on a Monday night and a snowstorm. Oh, yeah. And it was still 325 people in there. There weren’t that many people were there. But, but they were open. Yeah, they were open for business. And the thing about the club that was they didn’t do music, you know, until later, and they didn’t do with the frequency until later. It was all predicated on. I mean, the place was packed at midnight, on a Saturday night, you know, like, people it’d be empty until like, 1130. And then by midnight, it was jammed. And it was like you talked about meeting the girl. It was a pickup place. I mean, it was massive, massive meet Mark, the

Nestor Aparicio  25:59

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thing that you really caught for someone like my son, who’s now 37, who went to the other. The second building he wrote down on on Guilford, Guilford. I was gonna say center, but that’s what I think by the sun by the GAC. My son had been in that building and I’m like, Dude, this is pretty much almost peace for peace. What Amberjacks looked like it was an incredible thing. But the the ingress and egress with people from room to room because it was a house of rooms. Yeah, right. And you would go in and out of these rooms that you did the circuit. It was love you were to walk around and see because she was in pot unit tax you could defined if I knew you were there for bat that night, and I was there and I’m like, meet me there. Rare. How would you find anyone in there? Right. So you would walk around? And that’s the meat market? Yeah, like I totally it came back to everybody was looking at every single Boardwalk. Yeah, literally all night long. No one ever sat still. And hambridge

John Allen  26:54

was such a massive club and with a different courtyards essay, as they said, you know, and I just remember I was just a memory talking about on the walkie talkies and you know mode a courtyard three modes and courtyard three.

Nestor Aparicio  27:09

We need more but draw we need more but draw my

John Allen  27:11

god but yeah, I mean, it was it was a it was a great place. I mean, just just an insane place. And then yeah, when we when you’re back to your original question, when we finally had the opportunity to play the plays, because only nationals played it up to this point. And so what did they do? What did they do? They put the locals in on a Monday night.

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Steve Nerangis  27:36

In a snowstorm like

John Allen  27:39

you know, you could you could fathom right well put the club or the like the locals in and we did like 800 people on a Monday night. It was awesome. You know, we were we thought that was really impressive. And you pick

Nestor Aparicio  27:48

the place she goes.

John Allen  27:50

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She goes close. He shall close our business. Showboat? No, no. The

Nestor Aparicio  27:58

you know who was happy about that the people lived on Middleboro row.

John Allen  28:03

And Nanticoke one night when we played down there, this is this is off topic but just poisoned own for you. No, no, this is we opened for Jim dandy bladder garden. And I saw a girl that I went to high school with and we went somewhere else. And we as we were coming back the bar was letting out. And she’s like, Oh, no. Oh, I’m like, what? There were houses that were that had little chain link fences, their yards went right up to Nanticoke road and the parking lot just, you know, appeared at the end where Seagull was. And she’s like, that’s my sister’s car. It was in the front yard of somebody. Yeah, that was bad. So that kind of stuff. You know, that kind of stuff sort of happened. You know, at hammer Jack’s there was a huge security staff. And at the end of the night, I just remember them trying to get people to go home was like such a huge task because everybody who talked about tailgating it was like people didn’t want the night to end You know, so they’re out in the parking lot and they had this big crew of these huge you know, guys in the like satin jackets, the family and I was looking to go and it was like a cartoon to me they would all kind of be in formation. It was like they would play with a big cloud of dust behind

Nestor Aparicio  29:28

you I was never there. I don’t know what happened.

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Ann Marie  29:32

It was its own separate little party afterwards.

Nestor Aparicio  29:35

Let’s talk about the documentary Steven ranch here and Murray John Allen. We’re Costas celebrating 31 years are brought to you by the Maryland lottery. You’re gonna get it but I feel like Oprah and holidays one for you. One for you. cash crops I’m giving them away down here cost this hour. We’re having some fun. It’s all brought to you by our friends at Goodwill as well as when donation. We’re doing a best of sort of celebration the next couple of weeks celebrating 31 years to wn st these are the holiday cash crops. went to Goodwill and weather nation as well. All right. So, documentary, I had some video secret and shake password passcode thing. I didn’t even know you had seen it. So he and I were like BS and about coming together today. When can people see this? Because I tried in West Virginia Washington damn thing.

Steve Nerangis  30:18

It’ll be it’ll be ready before Christmas. So that should be streaming. Depending on when this airs streaming next week, it’s ready to go streaming is all set.

Nestor Aparicio  30:26

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Christmas gift is can I put your tree? We got

Steve Nerangis  30:30

it. We got a time perfectly. So it’ll show up on like the 26th. But I’m waiting on the DVD test copy to show up, which should be here Tuesday. So we’re right there. Are you selling DVDs are you doing? You know what? I was going to just get a new stream and I said nobody cares about DVDs anymore. We put something up on Facebook, people are like, Yes, please. I want to. I want to physically do the same thing with soundtrack where we talked about doing a soundtrack and people like you. Yes. Right. Where do you want to play? VHS tape? Yeah. That’s right. And you know, we’re not stupid. So we just did it on a print on demand thing. It’s just like, whatever brilliance?

Nestor Aparicio  31:10

Is there a night, I guess is what I’m asking you. Is there a night where you’re going to put it up on us? Yeah. So

Steve Nerangis  31:17

yeah, we’re working on a screening in Baltimore in February. And actually, John is planning on bringing seven horses to play, which is super exciting. I mean, for me, it’s like I don’t

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Nestor Aparicio  31:27

know what I need to get the right nights at least let me hold the date in my calendar. Yeah, so not all seeing Springsteen song. Well, listen

Steve Nerangis  31:33

that, you know, we don’t want we don’t have a firm date yet. But it’s gonna be February. But for me, it’s like, I don’t care if we do the movie. Again. It’s like looked at what the band play right? Let’s let’s have some beers and watch some music. Right? But it’s like, it’s you know, it’ll be cool for a lot of people that have been waiting to see it to see it. And for us, we’re really encouraged because you sit there for all this time. It’s the same thing with music studio, right? Where you’re working on stuff, working on stuff working on stuff, you sort of lose perspective, is this thing good or not? Right? And then when we released it, I mean, for the one for the first thing, Louis loved it, right? And he got to me after the after the screen, he’s like, Oh, well, I could have told you about embezzlement and all this stuff. So he was so he was on board which was which is good because a lot of it’s his story and what it you know, it’s you’re gonna want to make sure that it’s told in the way that he’s happy with

Nestor Aparicio  32:19

I’m glad he’s still here to help tell that man part of it. And it was really cool.

Steve Nerangis  32:23

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And then you know, the other thing that’s been a big compliment for us is that clearly for people like us that were there brings back a lot of memories. But for like your son, for people that we’ve talked to that are younger, that couldn’t go there or just weren’t in the area or whatever. They’re like, Man, I missed out this scene really, really cool. So so your concern was you’re making it just for people that were there. It’s like well, is that all the only people that are gonna watch it and really get it right but people that weren’t there like oh my god, that looks like the best place to be and it was, you know, so it’s a big compliment for us.

Nestor Aparicio  32:55

I appreciate you guys taking it on I appreciate you think it’d be to tell a story or two and make people laugh and you’re gonna love it a little bit. I even got it took a cheap shot at Mickey in the film perfect. John Allen’s here either you’ve been hanging out, right? All right, and give everybody like how to find the film and what’s going on and be in touch in on this night in February. It’s

Steve Nerangis  33:17

called Hammer Jackson rockumentary. You can find it on Facebook by just putting that in our and all the information you can find there. But our film company is called varla. Dog woods. So you can go to varla dog with.com. And that’s where you can buy hard copies if you’re interested in that. So it’s all available there. And the soundtrack you were just soundtrack man is going to be really cool. It’s double vinyl Child’s Play unreleased DC star DC stars on it. Yeah.

Nestor Aparicio  33:43

We’re seeing is it you when I like saw them? I saw it. I said they were like really? Do

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Steve Nerangis  33:50

you talk about something that brings you back the opening chords of that like oh my god, it feels like I’m going to shyly acres you know, it’s like 1982 So Joe so you get chill I know man that’s that’s all us it is and that’s another thing has been great about making this is that people that I grew up listening to I’ve gotten to meet men so I’m still like nerd out about I’m like I get to go hang out with DC Star Man this is awesome you know David Simmons from DC star is like the coolest dude in sales to have

John Allen  34:15

the picture disc of that record

Steve Nerangis  34:16

that’s incredible. That’s cool. That’s awesome

Nestor Aparicio  34:19

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finals heavy John CD do

Steve Nerangis  34:24

with that streaming that’s coming out on Keith Ross label main man Keith Roth is with Sirius XM right here nation so it’s on his label so double vinyl there’s going to be CD resell it as a package with a movie poster so all that’s going to be you know who can go to Facebook and see all the all the updates but also that’ll be out for order that should be pre ordering next week.

Nestor Aparicio  34:43

All right, well, we got rockstars I’m like an airport here. I got planes landing behind us all the members love riot beyond words over there. Given love milkshake. They’ve done the whole gamut. So I’m really looking forward to having them on. Jon’s gonna stick around and and hang with us. Do you think you were saying the M three thing In the child’s play thing, because I don’t know that we’re gonna get into one shock happens. But you and I, were you at the child’s play and Brian Jack. Yes, yeah. And I saw Mickey that night I was with Bernhard and Kirk. And there’s a picture of all of us. You would just work it. You didn’t even see me. I didn’t see any. I didn’t see Aaron. I don’t see anybody.

Steve Nerangis  35:18

Good. I was there. I couldn’t. I knew I was talking to her. I was texting. I couldn’t get to it. Because it was

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Nestor Aparicio  35:25

like, crabcakes, where I drove back from Ocean City to come and be a part of it that Yeah, that’s awesome. I mean, I loved it and your front of the band. What a great Nick look like a rock star. So like, for you with this child’s play? Give me what’s this gonna be? I’m three. Have you figured this out yet? Or no?

John Allen  35:41

Well, I think I have

Nestor Aparicio  35:45

I thought we were friends. Or friends, maybe

John Allen  35:47

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we’re not? Well, you know, I’ve been hoping to get Child’s Play on the M three for a long time. And finally got the call. The guy hit me up, and I wasn’t sure it was really going to happen or not. So I didn’t want to didn’t want to put it out there. And then you know, there’s a there’s a feeling in the music business. I think like, you know, when you say, oh, man bands gonna get signed, and then that all goes away? You jinx it, right? Yeah. So I try not to be that superstitious, but it creeps in every once in a while. But yeah, I think

Nestor Aparicio  36:20

it was a big success that night. No, it really was,

John Allen  36:23

you know, like, you were saying all the old friends that were there so many people that that we knew, you know, we know, from over the years, and my biggest focus on that show was to was to honor Brian to do something special with you know, put together a slideshow of all these pictures of the beginning of the band, when the band started out. And then really heavily focused on photos of him, you know, him on a skateboard, you know, like the different things that he did, and then up through the band getting signed, doing the rat race tour and everything and, and I really wanted to make his family happy. And his his, his child, Adrian, I wanted her to be happy about everything and have them involved. And then I think the M three thing came about because of that show, think they saw the reaction on Facebook, and they saw the videos of the crowd singing my bottle, and

Nestor Aparicio  37:18

you guys were great that night, like I didn’t know what to expect, because of rehearsal. I didn’t even listen. Age gets to all of us, you know how important it is to you how much you can actually do it in the way that you want to do it. Because you’re not 19 anymore, like none of us are right? And then to see what were shipped. Brian was the bit he was the front of the bed like what do you know, you’re missing him? Right? So like, how, how good could it be without him? You know, you’re sort of thinking, right, right. And it was just, it mattered so much to you. And I know you privately said this to me that Nick took it on as like, I mean, he was so good. Yeah. And it felt like oh my god, he’s better than he was in 1990. And I remember I was there every night. It’s not like you guys were sloppy band or whatever. But you were kids. But when all of a sudden, you know, when you put two three months into saying we’re going to do an hour and a half is Toby Keith, as good as me, you know better than we’ve ever done it. Dude, I stand and applaud. And I thought if that’s the end, drop, drop the hat. But yeah. And then I see this thing happened this week, and you’re on it. And and you only talked about it. And I thought, well, that’s going to that’s maybe this is your beautiful reward the next 510 years, this is something you do you know,

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John Allen  38:30

who knows? I mean, I don’t know where it takes us. But we like you said, we started rehearsals for that very early. I wanted to do the show in April, but we just couldn’t get it together. So we we you know, booked it for August, which is notoriously a terrible month for Baltimore, you know, for everybody wants to get their last gaff and go on down to the beach, you know, but we did that show, we’re going to try to do the same thing. We’re going to try to rehearse months in advance and really, really be together for the show. You know, it’s a different kind of thing, though. You know, there’s festivals, they just kind of throw you up there. And so yeah, throwing go, so

Nestor Aparicio  39:05

it’s 103 degrees, and it’s 230 Now,

John Allen  39:07

it is what it is, you know, so but yeah, but I, you know, we’re gonna be laser focused and try to, you know, give the best show that we can for, there’s gonna be a lot of people there that never saw the band before. So I think that that’s a that’s a big thing. And, and we’re, you know, playing my wife, yeah. is actually in the band, who she did. She

Nestor Aparicio  39:25

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made. She has a dog. It was a long story that we so

John Allen  39:27

so but yeah, but you know, we’re going to have the rich, I’m going to sing and then we’re going to bring Larry up for a couple of songs introduce him say, Hey, this is the guy that started the band with with Brian way back when and try to honor everybody you know, you know? Yeah.

Steve Nerangis  39:43

Let’s say something about that, man is that, you know, they announced a lineup. Very few. It’s hard for him three to come up with a band that hasn’t played yet. Right. And it’s also hard for them to come up with bands with so many original members. Right? Right. And so for people in the area, man, it’s like when that came out, everybody I didn’t hear people Talking about other stuff there was a better way every child’s plays on em three like there was like text back and forth everybody talking about him and friends and Jersey like, oh my god, I’m gonna go now because Healthways on the bill so it’s so it’s a big it’s a big deal, man. It’s gonna tear up man. It’s gonna be it’s gonna be

Nestor Aparicio  40:16

great. Well, I’m gonna start drinking early that day. Start Friday, Steve shows when

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Steve Nerangis  40:21

he recognized Come sail away whatever Emery Steve

Nestor Aparicio  40:25

John Allen were Costas we had a huge holiday party. I want to thank Pete everybody for having us over your leg. So brought to you by our friends at Goodwill, the Maryland lottery and giveaway holiday I tell you what the whole all these bands are going to get these holiday cash crops. Thanks to Ross over at the Maryland lottery. You guys are all holding the tickets up if you win 100 bucks you know buy me some oyster stew was one the last time you get $100 winner here last year. We had a $50 winner two weeks ago Pappas so when people really when I’ve got a handful of a raven scratch offs left as well our friends a window nation 866 90 nation you buy to you get to free 0% finance you just mentioned me. You don’t have to mention me they’ll give you the deal without all that. We’re gonna come back continue on here for my 31st anniversary. We’re Costas I’ve already had a little bit of food. We’re gonna have a crab cake and some crab beer before it’s all over. And we’re talking rock and roll the bottom of rock and roll genius shock our Rock and Roll Hall of Fame a queen from Dundalk will be here. John and I are looking forward to chatting more with her about that. Oh, I remember she ran it through I’m coming back for you guys. Eight weeks later here we are. We’ll be together with Jean Jacques beyond words is up next and love riot milkshake old friends. I’m going to make Joyce come up and I think Joyce and George and and at some point Lisa is going to get up here but it’s going to continue on. Merry Christmas. Happy holidays were cost to stay with us.