ENTRY#: 06042K11:16p
MECHANIC ID#: 03141969
DESTINATION: MISSION TO WE FEST. Wilmington North Carolina 05.24-05.31.00

REPORT: THE HYPE, THE DRAMA, WE2K EXPERIENCE
all photos by Gus Menezes, Rookie of the Year

If you haven't been to WE Fest, you should know that the event takes place over 7 days in a cute little southern beach town called Wilmington, known for it's location along Cape Fear and withstanding more than its share of hurricanes. The festival's shows go from Thursday through Wednesday, with memorial day weekend in between. This year was unusual--a definite departure from WE pasts. If you've read this log, you know Prosolar Mechanics originally docked at WE Fest '98, met a slew of great bands and friends you've heard us rave about ever since (The Scott Farkus Affair and Land Speed Record of Baltimore have played a few shows with us at home). The general rule is that you get to play one showcase in a lifetime, and can come back to play late nights by special invitation.

As I said, this year was different. To be accurate, this year's festival was just about in the toilet due to circumstances beyond control, and was saved at the last minute by southern rock diehards (aka "the WE Organizers") who decided to put their lives on hold and dedicate insane amounts of time and effort to recussitate the event for 2000. In order to pull it off, they had bend some of the rules. WE2K was like an "all star" or reunion year with many old favorites coming back to play showcases and late nights, as well as quite a few new comers (including our local faves ExModels).

Alex and I got into town early, as this was our vacation for the year. Mike and Dave were to meet up with us in Wilmington over the weekend. Never, ever again will we plan to travel separately to a show out of town. I repeat, never, ever again. Alex and I had a wonderful time before the weekend came, renting a beach house and out with good friends Gus Menezes (man with the camera), Jim Testa of Jersey Beat fame (for a day by day run down on the shows, please read his WE 2K diary here) as well as Kristin Forbes and the Scott Farkus Affair. But from now on, Prosolar Mechanics all board the ship together.

Our set was scheduled for Sunday night at 9pm. It was Saturday afternoon, and I was sitting on the porch of our beach house with Scott Farkus Affair and Jim Testa. We'd been having an incredible time. SFA had played the evening before and blew us away, as usual. The late night featured two of our hometown celebrities, Aviso Hara and ExModels. We'd stayed up until 7:30 am, drunk and ridiculous on the beach, throwing spare change at beach combers with those high-tech metal detectors. Saturday morning had been spent resting up for Saturday night, which had been the schedule we'd been keeping since Wednesday. The party was in deep positive swing, and I eagerly awaited Mike Kabok to reach town with Tishana to catch the Saturday line up. Dave was due Sunday afternoon, and then we'd finally have our turn.

It must have been 5pm, Saturday. Alex walked slowly out of the front door with a bad, bad look on his face. He approached me and put his hands on my shoulders. The beach house posse looked tentatively on.

"Dave's not coming. He had a car accident. He's okay, but the wheel fell off of his truck and he's not coming."

Someone on the porch just said, "Oh shit."

"Well, this is the worst technical problem we've ever had." I replied. I stood up and walked into the house to have my mini break down. I sat down on the bed, started crying, cursing. For whatever reason I'd had this feeling all along that this set wasn't going to happen. Something was up with Prosolar Mechanics and I hadn't been able to figure out exactly what it was. I was happy Dave wasn't hurt, but angry that he wasn't there. For so long I'd just had this feeling that WE Fest 2000 wouldn't happen for us, but had no reason to believe it. Now here it was happening, and I still couldn't believe it.

I needed this show. I'd been in such a funk for months. My job had been killing me, sucking me dry. I had been trying to finish a recording that's been agonizingly slow. We'd not playing very many shows. I was burnt out in my entire life. I needed WE Fest this year to regroup. To feel normal again. To be re-energized. I had this awful feeling I'd put too much at stake here, thinking one set in a distant town was going to deliver all that, and now I was really kicking myself. All I could think was, "Fuck."

Collected myself. Walked back out onto the porch where the group looked solemnly back. "Are you okay?" someone hesitantly asked. "Yeah...." like always. I mindlessly thought to make a joke in order to ease some of the tension and turned to Jay of Scott Farkus Affair and said,

"Jay, you don't feel like learning our whole set tonight, do you?"
"Yeah, I'll do it..."
"You're kidding, right?"
He wasn't kidding.

The thought was crazy. There were 28 hours left before our set at Firebelly's. Trying to get Jay to learn 7 songs in 28 hours seemed a bit much. We also had to find a place to practice, and talk to Mike who was en route and unreachable. But the idea had been planted.

7pm Saturday, drove into Wilmington. Tense and frustrated, excited about possibilities again, trying not to get my hopes up, and not knowing how this whole story was going to turn out. Not sure why it all mattered so damned much, either. It was just a show, after all. There'd be other shows. But it mattered. It mattered almost more than anything I could think of at the time. I was in a terrible state, and while others were enjoying the show at Bessie's, I wandered the street feeling terribly sorry for myself and kicking myself for being such a dolt all at the same time.

Mentioned the dilemma to WE Fest organizers James Cooper (god bless that man), Krysti and Billy, Caroline, Christy. Immediately they were all over it. We could have the Exchange Center all day Sunday to rehearse. The PA was all set up. Caroline would sacrifice a morning of sleeping in to open early. Billy would come in and hook up the sound gear. Word went out throughout the WE Fest community. "Prosolar Mechanics' drummer isn't coming! What will they do?"

Marc Berrong (then Land Speed Record drummer) and Jake Fiedler (drummer boy from ExModels) arrived in town that evening. They heard the news and stepped up, "Who's going to fill in for them?" The idea started to become a plan. With Marc and Jake in on this scheme, each drummer would only need to learn two or three songs. That was possible. At WE Fest, I believe anything is possible.

We decided to meet up at the Exchange at 2pm the next day and teach the drummers the songs. Of course, no word from Mike Kabok yet but we needed a plan. He was supposed to be in town around 8pm. 9, 10, 11 and 12pm had come and gone and there had been no word, nothing at all. I began to wonder if we were truly doomed. Maybe Mike wasn't coming either. Maybe we were just meant to be fucked. And when he did finally get into town who knew how he'd feel about the entire situation. Maybe he would just say to hell with WE Fest, he's going back to Jersey. I left messages at the hotel he was supposed to stay in at 11pm, 1am and finally at 3:30am in desperation. THEY HAD NOT CHECKED IN YET. I stayed up extremely late again, at this point just hoping Mike and Tishana were okay.

Alex and I woke up in a state of panic at around 10am on Sunday morning. No call from Mike. Alex called the hotel, and the desk indicated that yes, they finally had arrived. She put the call through and Alex heard Mike's almost dead and groggy voice. I could hear Alex saying:

"Oh no...oh god...holy shit...you're kidding....no way....Well, wait a minute...I've got to tell you something...it gets worse..." and then he fills him in on the Dave situation, the plan. Alex hangs up with Mike after agreeing to let Mike sleep a bit.

As it turned out, Mike and Tishana had reached Wilmington at 6:30am Sunday morning. They had massive car problems all the way down. They ended up bringing the car to the shop the afternoon they left because it was over heating, and I suppose whatever the shop did to the car wasn't enough to keep it running smoothly for the 10 hour drive south. They had had about 3 1/2 hours of sleep by the time we called, and Alex sure as hell couldn't guage Mike's feelings. He, of course, agreed that we should try to pull something off. After what they went through to make it down for the set, there had to be some kind of set. We'd go to the Exchange and teach the drummers the songs. Mike would get there as soon as he had a chance to get some rest. And we'd just see.

Alex and I nabbed Jay Farkus and drove out to the storage space where we'd kept our gear, loaded up the van and went over to the Exchange. We got there at about 2:30, and Jake and Marc were already there setting up. We split the set up, deciding who would get to play which songs. This may have been one of the coolest opportunities ever. Imagine that you are in a fix such as ours. Not only do you have one of your favorite drummers from one of your favorite bands willing to sit in and spend an entire day learning your set--you have three of your favorite drummers from three of your favorite bands willing to give up their free time to drill song after song with you and play a set with you in less than 7 hours time. Three drummers, all with different styles and strengths. Then you can pick and choose which drummer you'd like for which song depending on how their particular style and strengths will work with the song.

We decided to make Jay Farkus the tom man. He played water and the body spills. He has the most finesse of the three, and made these two tom rolling songs slide through the air with both power and grace. Next was Marc of LSR, whose amphetamine-like energy propelled the three of us through X Marks the Spot and Heaven Grand with the power of a lightning bolt. I had not felt that zipadee do da since my first cup of joe! And Jake, well, he was for one night our own special powerhouse. Not only did he get the hardest hitting stuff, but he also got the songs that aren't recorded. He learned them by me teaching him, "It goes 'bum bum, dadada, bum bum'" and it didn't hurt at all to have Mike Masiello and Shahin remembering enough of red down the middle and sender to help coach.

The set was incredible, but actually the rehearsal cramming session was pretty intense too. First of all, Alex and I spent the bulk of the day teaching the songs to the drummers. The Exchange was still open to all who came in to get the free zines, cds, etc. So we had an audience for the entire day. Third of all, a violent thunderstorm at around 3pm made it look like we weren't going to be able to risk plugging any of the gear in for a while, and before we got rolling I truly thought we were insane for even attempting to pull this thing off. But the storm cleared out, the WE Festers wandered in, the drummers took their places and we began drilling.

Our drummers' respective bands spent some time in rehearsal checking things out and giving moral support. Mike Kabok finally made it over at around 5:30 pm, and it was time for a formal run through the set. Mike looked skeptical, as we all were to some extent. He looked around the room and said, "What are all these people doing here?" He sounded quite nervous.

The crowd in the Exchange had thickened significantly as the day went on. The story of the Prosolar dilemma had spread throughout WE Fest. Strangers wandering the town had stopped in and were informed of what was happening--why this crazy band was rehearsing in a storefront in downtown Wilmington in the middle of the Exchange Center. By the time we were ready to drill the entire set the first time, the room was packed.

Jay was up first, and ripped through Water like he'd been playing it for years. At the end of the song, the entire room broke out in frenzied cheer, like the rookie batter had just hit a home run. Mike's face lit up. And I had begun to feel much, much better. I was jumping up and down at the end of that song singing Jay's praises, so impressed and excited I couldn't stand it. The rest of the set was equally impressive--to the point where Mike's dejected look when he came in the door turned into full-blown enthusiasm by the end. He insisted we try to get Jake to play Cosmopolitan at the end of the set, despite my insistence it was just too much to do in too little time. Jake thought he might be able to get through it, and Mike was so pumped that we tried it. He nailed it on the first try. (ExModels Mike M. and Shahin were beeming with pride.) We finished practicing just in time to pack the van, drive a block and unload into the back of Bessie's.

I'd say that the fact that Alex backed into the owner's truck with the van after we loaded the gear into the bar looked like a bad omen, but it wasn't. It was a bad, bad way to start the evening for sure, but with James Cooper on the scene smoothing things over and hand holding in all the right places, our nerves remained intact enough to set up and prepare to play. As soon as I was done tuning my guitar I looked out from the stage and the entire bar had filled up, were on top of us in fact. It seemed as though the word had spread and that everyone in Wilmington was there to see how it was going to turn out. No pressure!

I introduced us as "The WE Fest All-star Drum Corps featuring some Prosolar Mechanics" and Jay took the kit. He did extremely well. The very endearing thing about this entire experience was really taking in all of the support and encouragement that was going on throughout WE Fest. For example, all of the band members of Land Speed Record, The Scott Farkus Affair, and ExModels were all right in the front of the crowd while we played, and every time their particular drummer got a complicated part of a song right, you'd hear the people in that band cheering and jumping up and down. Jay, Marc and Jake all sat behind the stage together next to the drummer on at the time, cheering each other on through each song. All of our friends from WE Fest and home were all screaming their heads off for us, and the crowd was singing along with every song off of the record.I was so overwhelmed with the whole thing I started to cry during the middle of the set. They were the most wonderful tears. For the moment they washed every self doubt I have ever had in my life clean away.

It was not our tightest, best rehearsed set. It was not our most well-played or best sounding set. But it was our most intense and memorable set, I'd say for us and those who know us and have seen us many times over. Jay, Marc and Jake actually probably played better than we did because they were at least focused--the rest of us were out of our minds. And it was the most incredible show I have ever performed in my career. The emote knob was on 11. The energy was intense, pervasive. The whole crowd was infected, and the vibe carried me through the entire summer.

It changed everything. It changed the way I felt about myself, my music, my band, even Prosolar Mechanics. It's like the ship had broken down on a distant planet, and all of these other travelers and friendly natives had pulled together to patch the ship and cheer us on. And we took off.

(e p i l o g u e)

i wanted to do justice to the entire we fest event, but it has taken me so long just to document the pmx experience that if i tried, i'd never ever finish. there is much more to this story than i have been able to tell here. there were many, many excellent bands--old and new. i'd love to give all of the wonderful people in wilmington and from all over who journey to we fest every year their proper acknowledgement in making the we festival community one of the most supportive and talented groups of people i have ever known. if you are reading this and have never been to we fest, whether you are a band or a music lover, you should make the effort to go. if you are asked to play, great. if you are not, it's still worth your time and effort. the annual we fest is about creative growth through the connectivity and the interdependence of community. and the friendships that are born from it are more than just the icing on the cake.

thank you, we fest. it is an honor to be a part of you.

amy s. jacob
prosolar mechanics