Re: Requiescat FM Steve
Posted: Sat May 11, 2024 6:53 am
I think Steve said that door thing was BS in another interview. That said: Molina's almost improvisational approach is captured in the Josephine documentary, and Steve and the studio was clearly equipped for the job.
I'll go ahead and tell the Lido Shuffle story for those not around at that time. In 2009 for the first PRFBBQ, I put together a live karaoke band accidentally named The Hype!, with little clue of how it would come together or be received. It ended up being a hit, talked about for weeks after. The next summer BBQ came around and of course we were gonna do it again, and Steve at one point on here posted "I'm doing Lido Shuffle!" He had expressed his liking of that song around that time due to the gambling lyrics. Haha, fun idea I thought, but it didn't seem serious. A few weeks before the BBQ he posted again: "you better make room for Lido Shuffle!" Hmmm, ok, so we learned the song just in case. Most people doing karaoke covers would email me, we would verify we were both learning the same version of the song and go over other details, so this request was loose to say the least.
That week comes along. There's a WSOP event in Vegas that Steve ends up doing pretty well at, extending his stay thru the week. "Things are going great but I might not make it back for Lido". Well, damn. We played our set Friday night: 2 hours of sweaty madness and it was great, but no Lido. We all show up throughout the next day, pretty exhausted, but still having a blast hanging out. There are rumblings throughout the day that Steve won a decent amount of money and is heading back that night. Cool he gets to make some of the BBQ, I thought, but the Lido window had passed in my mind. A few of my bandmates were like "we can still do it!" but I didn't take it too seriously. I watched some great sets by Bottomless Pit and Police Teeth, then kinda petered out into one of the backrooms to chill for a bit. Soon over the PA I hear my name, along with a dozen others calling for me to get to the stage NOW. "Steve is looking for you!" He had just gotten out of the cab from the airport and literally the first thing he was asking about was Lido Shuffle. So we talk about it briefly, I see Police Teeth is still breaking down their gear so I quickly ask them if we can borrow it instead. And then it actually fuckin' happened..
This is the only clip that still exists, unfortunately. That's ok: he wasn't particularly well-rehearsed, and the band was exhausted and playing on other peoples' gear. But it was amazing and the room went OFF. The best line gets cut off during that clip: when the keyboard/guitar harmony happens, Steve points to Liz and says "it's like there's two of her!" I think we stuck around and played another song or two with other audience members singing, "Surrender" I think, and if you've ever seen the picture of a pile of sweaty dudes being held up by FM kerble making the gun-in-mouth gesture, that's where it came from.
But anyway.. Steve only did this because he loved the DIY, industrious spirit of this place. Making shit happen outside even the more established Chicago underground channels and whatnot, simply because it was a cool thing to make happen. Beyond being in great bands and recording great records, I think that will ultimately be his legacy: getting involved, learning how to do things to a high standard, supporting the things around you, passing your knowledge on to someone still learning... just DOING THE THANGS for their own sake. Very few people, if anyone, embodied and manifested that attitude more, or better.
Oh. And there was a pretty good message exchange between him, Marsupialized, and me about the horniness of that BBQ: who was fuckin' who in what corner, but I'm keeping that one to myself.
EDIT: eliya reminded me that Steve dedicated this cover to Silkworm drummer Michael Dahlquist, who was known to have a carefree, live-for-the-moment spirit before he was tragically killed by a reckless driver in 2005. The last line in Lido Shuffle is "one more for the road", Steve ended the song with:
One more drink, one more fuck, one more hearty laugh.
I'll go ahead and tell the Lido Shuffle story for those not around at that time. In 2009 for the first PRFBBQ, I put together a live karaoke band accidentally named The Hype!, with little clue of how it would come together or be received. It ended up being a hit, talked about for weeks after. The next summer BBQ came around and of course we were gonna do it again, and Steve at one point on here posted "I'm doing Lido Shuffle!" He had expressed his liking of that song around that time due to the gambling lyrics. Haha, fun idea I thought, but it didn't seem serious. A few weeks before the BBQ he posted again: "you better make room for Lido Shuffle!" Hmmm, ok, so we learned the song just in case. Most people doing karaoke covers would email me, we would verify we were both learning the same version of the song and go over other details, so this request was loose to say the least.
That week comes along. There's a WSOP event in Vegas that Steve ends up doing pretty well at, extending his stay thru the week. "Things are going great but I might not make it back for Lido". Well, damn. We played our set Friday night: 2 hours of sweaty madness and it was great, but no Lido. We all show up throughout the next day, pretty exhausted, but still having a blast hanging out. There are rumblings throughout the day that Steve won a decent amount of money and is heading back that night. Cool he gets to make some of the BBQ, I thought, but the Lido window had passed in my mind. A few of my bandmates were like "we can still do it!" but I didn't take it too seriously. I watched some great sets by Bottomless Pit and Police Teeth, then kinda petered out into one of the backrooms to chill for a bit. Soon over the PA I hear my name, along with a dozen others calling for me to get to the stage NOW. "Steve is looking for you!" He had just gotten out of the cab from the airport and literally the first thing he was asking about was Lido Shuffle. So we talk about it briefly, I see Police Teeth is still breaking down their gear so I quickly ask them if we can borrow it instead. And then it actually fuckin' happened..
This is the only clip that still exists, unfortunately. That's ok: he wasn't particularly well-rehearsed, and the band was exhausted and playing on other peoples' gear. But it was amazing and the room went OFF. The best line gets cut off during that clip: when the keyboard/guitar harmony happens, Steve points to Liz and says "it's like there's two of her!" I think we stuck around and played another song or two with other audience members singing, "Surrender" I think, and if you've ever seen the picture of a pile of sweaty dudes being held up by FM kerble making the gun-in-mouth gesture, that's where it came from.
But anyway.. Steve only did this because he loved the DIY, industrious spirit of this place. Making shit happen outside even the more established Chicago underground channels and whatnot, simply because it was a cool thing to make happen. Beyond being in great bands and recording great records, I think that will ultimately be his legacy: getting involved, learning how to do things to a high standard, supporting the things around you, passing your knowledge on to someone still learning... just DOING THE THANGS for their own sake. Very few people, if anyone, embodied and manifested that attitude more, or better.
Oh. And there was a pretty good message exchange between him, Marsupialized, and me about the horniness of that BBQ: who was fuckin' who in what corner, but I'm keeping that one to myself.
EDIT: eliya reminded me that Steve dedicated this cover to Silkworm drummer Michael Dahlquist, who was known to have a carefree, live-for-the-moment spirit before he was tragically killed by a reckless driver in 2005. The last line in Lido Shuffle is "one more for the road", Steve ended the song with:
One more drink, one more fuck, one more hearty laugh.