Grape Bluedeni
The name of our band was from a popular kool-aid flavor of the era, and was a reference to Jonestown (the event in South America, not the band from Minnesota. This should be obvious.) We were a two piece:
Bryan Gerding - Guitar Lee Jensen - Misc.
Bryan could not play guitar at the time, and played through a very small amp that sounded fuzzy and cut out frequently. I believe I was to sing as I wrote a few lyrics to songs. We were worse then the sound of idling traffic, except we'd have brief interludes of silence.
Anyway, we were scheduled to play one show with the Minot band Jesus, and a Fergus Falls band, Anatrek Monkey at a place which is now a Tae Kwan Doe Academy. It was apparent that we liked the idea of telling people were in a band, though did not like the responsibilty associated with being in a band, so we did not play. Instead, we lied:
We informed those who asked why the opening band did not play that two of our members were detained at the border crossing into the states. I think one of the members of Jesus continued this joke and told the young'ns that the fictious bandmates were quite ugly, evil and surprised that they had not been arrested sooner. Point: Bryan's first wife was employed in the service industry, and three of kids who were at the show said in her response for a report, "Oh, it was great, though it would have been better if that kick ass grape bluedeni played, though a few of their members were fucking arrested in canada." She laughed and said, "No, they were just too scared." to which: "To cross the border?"
Irregardless: We decided to become a band one night when were likely consuming too much gin, and thought it would be funny to write songs about a girl neither of us liked who had blue hair. This was the same time when jawbreaker was writing a song about a girl with blue hair (now it's green!), also, neither of us had seen Say Anything, and thus, had no idea this was similar to the character who writes songs about her ex-boyfriend. Also, we did not date said girl with blue hair. The point? I have no idea, though I always had a stupid theory that if one created a clever marketing package, convincing a relatively small collection of people that they were on the cutting edge of new idea, sound, voice, or book, you could make a fortune. This was proven several years later with McSweeneys, which sure publishes some pretty books.
