Chapter 45 (cont.)

 

Bryen O’Boyle and Timmie Loveland of

Mr. Greengenes

 

Bryan: We started out in Westchester in late 1993, first show was January 1st, 1994. There’s Joe Tutlo (guitar), Johnny Phatt (bass), Timmie (drums), Joe Marion (keyboards) and me (vocals). Our former keyboardist, Harry, played his last show with Mr. Greengenes in September 2005, after 11 years with the band.

 

We were big fans of Strange As Angels and The Armadillos, and wanted to play the rooms and scene they were kings of. None of us attended UD…our first gig at the Stone Balloon was September 7th, 1995 (we think). Our manager Rick Green booked it for us.

 

Notable Balloon memories: in 1997 I stage dove, and got thrown out during the show! Saturday nights were huge for us at the Balloon -- one night in 1998, the crowd was so loud at one point that our eardrums vibrated…seriously! We were genuinely bummed when the Balloon closed, because it was a “Rock ‘n’ Roll Bar” in the midst of all the “Clubs.”

 

The Balloon made us feel like rock stars, truly, and boosted our Dewey Beach draw in the summer. Big songs for us at the Balloon: “Lump,” “Raspberry Beret,” “If You Could Only See,” “Where The Streets Have No Name,” “Santeria,” “Lithium,” “This Love.”

 

We play the Deer Park now on Thursdays, but not nearly as much as we played the Balloon. Kind of a bummer. UD definitely changed after the Balloon went down, for sure.

 

Timmie: I currently play drums for Mr. Greengenes, but I played my first gig at the Balloon in 1984. I was in an original band at the time, and we opened for a band called Honour Society, and Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers.

 

I was 15 at the time, and scared to death. In between our soundcheck I had to wait outside, because I thought I was going to puke from nerves. I remembered the stage was covered front to back with duct tape. We played, then sat back and watched Conwell run across the railing surrounding the dance floor, ripping guitar solos.

 

I played the Balloon for the next 20 plus years, and the stage stayed the same, as did the smell and sticky concrete floor. Those are memories I’ll never forget.

 

Chris Myers of

Strange As Angels

 

Strange As Angels began in 1991, and we were fortunate to be one of the first Philadelphia area bands in the early '90s to play Modern Rock / Alternative / Grunge cover songs. It is a genre we all were very fond of, and it proved to be the same for tons of people at UD. Although none of us attended UD, the more we played in Newark, the more we developed friends and fans that came out to our shows.

 

I don’t think we played any events on campus, but we started out in the area a couple blocks away at a place called the Down Under (Digger’s Note: Read about it later on this site!) That was where we realized how crazy UD people were! A huge party every time -- so much fun -- that often carried over to after-parties.

 

It was not long before the crowds for our shows at the Down Under got too large in number, so we moved over to the Stone Balloon. I think it was early '93. It had been one of our goals to play that legendary venue, and our first show surpassed our expectations, because of the intensity of the crowd, their insane spirit, and the sincere support for the band from them, and staff as well.

 

Strange As Angels became known for mosh pits and band crowd surfing. The UD Balloon crowds encouraged it, though it was usually way too crowded to really mosh, and the bouncers weren’t too fond of it. But the crazy Mug Night people tried to anyway. One time, when I was fronting a song, I crowd surfed and they carried me across from the stage to the railing, posted me up on it where I sang another verse, then carried me back to the stage, and fed me a beer along the way. It was awesome!

 

During the month prior to the Balloon closing, I played a show with Flip Like Wilson. When the band was done, I climbed up one of the PA stacks, and took down a big sign that had been posted way up high, back during the Strange As Angels days. It says “NO MOSHING.” I have it hung in my office, and it reminds me of how fun the Stone Balloon was.

 

Without a doubt, the songs we played that got the most reaction from the Balloon crowd were, “Killing In The Name Of” (Rage Against The Machine), “Evenflow” (Pearl Jam), and numerous Nirvana songs.

 

Yes, there were numerous regular hotties at the Balloon -- two or three in the front row, who always dressed…shall we say, sparingly, due to how hot is always was. I forgot many a lyric watching them.

 

My wife remembers seeing Metallica at the Stone Balloon, in the Summer of 1989. She heard about the show through some radio station friends, or through a Baltimore band she knew called Wrathchild, who opened. It was a last minute add, with no advance tickets, so when hearing about it at 4:00 PM the same day for a 7:00 PM show, she and a friend hightailed it to the Stone Balloon. She had never been to the Balloon, but remembers liking Main Street and its crazy UD people as she waited in line, and the club being “nuts” and “hot as balls” -- a characteristic that was consistent for the Balloon to the end!

 

Her most vivid memory is being in the front row watching Metallica, and as the crowd continued to surge toward the stage, a bouncer picked her up by her arms up onto the stage to avoid the crush. She eventually ended up in the rear end of the room, standing on picnic tables to watch the rest of the show. Indoor picnic tables and Metallica -- only at the Balloon. My wife always mentioned that, every time we were in the Balloon. And every time I did a Strange As Angels show there, standing on the stage, I’d look at my feet, and be so jazzed as to who had stood on that same spot. I participated in the last Mug Night performance. It was a great ending to the great tradition at the Balloon.

 

We still see UD grads when Strange As Angels do reunion shows. Those shows have been in the Philadelphia area, Dewey, or at the Jersey shore -- again showing how dedicated and spread out UD grads are.

 

Like so many others, it is sad to see such a legendary venue closed completely, and torn down to the ground. It would have been cool if they had saved at least the front tavern part of the Balloon (the part that used to be the liquor store)…put a few photos on the walls, a la the Hard Rock Café, without the guitars. They could then have built the condos around it. (Digger’s Note: For the most part, this has finally happened!) It was such a cool room for bands, and had so much history. I still look for a venue that has the Balloon spirit. I haven’t found it quite yet.