Ep. 018: The Fan Perspective w/ Mike Pelak

Welcome everyone to This Was The Scene, the podcast that takes a look back at the late 90s / early 2000 Nj Jersey Punk scene, I am your host, Mike Doyle. Mike Pelak didn't run a label, play in a band, record bands, own a record store, print merch, run a zine or promote, ok wait he did help promote shows with Bomshelter run by Ricky the artful dodger Saporta. I'd always see Mike at a lot of shows my band played at and he just had such a positive and happy demeanor about him. He'd always be in the crowd singing the songs back to bands and then hop in a car with some friends and get to the next show that same night. Sometimes making it to 3 or 4 in one weekend. I wanted to see what it was like from a "fan perspective" so I reached out to Miguel, set up a time to talk and this is what we chat about.   Flipside records 6:16 Highstrung changing his life 8:33 His old venue tour around NJ 15:20 How it never took too long to get to different towns to watch shows The Juliana Theory show where they unplugged Random Task's amps The ecosystem we built by accident Why the size of Jersey made it such a good scene His thoughts on what caused the shift in the scene from good to different The Bombshelter team How he and Dave Flores tried to revive promoting shows When ska went away His stint at Side One Dummy What it would be like to go back to venues now and just have a beer I have 2 more episodes to promote the Lanemeyer, humble beginnings, jettison show July 21 at Debonair Musichall in Teaneck, NJ. However, this time I have an important announcement… it's sold out….    Totally fucking with you. But imagine if you were planning on going and found out that it was? The actual announcement is that we are ending presale at 5pm Friday July 20, the day before the show. Make sure that this doesn't happen in real life and head over to this was the scene.com, click the purple button that says CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE TICKETS and get your tickets. Presale is $15 and it's $20 at the door. As always, thank you to the people who've donated to the podcast. If you'd like to do so just go to thiswasthescene.com and send whatever you'd like. It helps me with the $20/month to keep this thing live. I'm still in the process of designing shirts to sell to help keep this thing alive so keep checking the this was the scene facebook page for updates.   I've officially added merchandise to the website. If you'd like to check the shirts out just go to thiswasthescene.com.   Pre-order for Lanemeyer's re-release of their first album "Stories for the Big Screen" is available here I Surrender Records. This is a limited re-mastered pressing of 250 copies that's on green vinyl, has an etching on one side that says GOD I MISS YOU GOD I MISS THIS PLACE, and be the only place to find our cover of with or without you since that won't be released digitally. The release date for the record is July 20 which is the day before our show at debonair in Teaneck. Yes, we will have copies at the show to sell. Also, if you're around Clifton, new jersey this evening, July 13, you should check out the show at the Clash Bar. That's all I will say. Feel free to subscribe, leave a review and share this with anyone who would love some nostalgia. With that said, lets get started.