Welcome to another installment of our still-unnamed, in-their-own-words series on musical goings-on in Houston that perhaps could have turned out better for some of the parties involved - coming soon: Riot at Mott the Hoople! - but probably couldn't have turned out quite as memorably. They usually involve someone getting punched or hit by some kind of projectile, perhaps a shoe (and then more shoes).
This week it's the former. Return with us to the summer of 1993, when some enterprising U of H students put on an outdoor festival that included Rev. Horton Heat in his pre-Motorhead-opening days and a certain Canadian who once promised to "licky boom-boom down" and, strangely enough, pretty much hasn't been heard from since...
"This was the 1993 Park Party at UH," begins longtime KTRU Local Show DJ Justin Crane (pictured with Snow pre-altercation), who says he's "not really doing anything notable nowadays."
"The whole lineup was L7, Snow, Rev. Horton Heat, Bad Livers, preceded by local bands Wazobia, Manhole, Planet Shock!, the Rounders, and Quoting Red. I was one of the concert chairs and was one of the people who worked crew for this show. The guy who actually put it together was Frank San Miguel, who now goes by Ernesto Aguilar and is currently KPFT's program director.
"Snow was an idiot. He showed up earlier that day just to make an appearance and then he disappeared. Nobody had any idea where he went. When his time slot came up and he was nowhere to be found, we thought we were just going to have to tell the next band to start.
"Then his limo pulled up, he stumbled out, and ran straight to the stage. Once he was onstage, he yelled out 'Yo, soundman, kick the music.' We had arranged a DAT player for the purpose of said kicking of the music, but we had no music to kick. I was sitting right next to the soundman and he looked at me, shrugged, and said 'I don't have the tape.'
"Then Snow's handler appeared from the crowd and handed the tape off. DATs take a few seconds to start up, so during this painfully long process, Snow was onstage, still yelling for the music to start (or be kicked, whatever). The music did finally start. For us.
"Apparently, though, Snow could hear nothing in his monitors, so he was having trouble. Of course, being an idiot, he didn't know how to ask for more music in his monitors Instead, he yelled for the music to be turned up. I realized what was happening, so I headed towards the stage to explain things to him and the guy running the monitor board.
"But by the time I got there, Snow had reached his threshold of embarrassment and bolted from the stage into the crowd like a jilted teenager. Some people from the crowd chased him.
"I don't know what happened to him after that. I heard stories that the crowd chased him across campus and that the police had to break up a fight, but I don't know if any of that is true. There were obviously lots of rumors.
"The rest of the show was pretty awesome."
Also on hand at Cougar High that day was Joel Hoyle, singer and guitarist of
Houston "hard-indie" rockers Fired for Walking, who play Rudz next
Friday with Raleigh, N.C.'s Birds of Avalon and local Road to Damnation bad boys Hell
City Kings. We'll pick it up with Hoyle backstage after Snow had such
trouble with the mix of "Informer"...
"Backstage/side-stage, where he was standing, people started heckling him again. For some reason ego? - Snow thought they were fans wanting more. So, he came out from backstage and people started running towards him.
"He took off running, past the crowd, and ended up jumping on top of some cement stairs (maybe a short pillar?). Again, he thought these were fans chasing, not people wanting to kick his ass.
"On this cement block, he says that he's going to bust a freestyle and started rapping. This kid, who knew someone I knew, walked up and punched Snow in the face.
"At this point, Snow realized he was not surrounded by fans... He hauled ass back towards the stage area, jumped in his limo and got chased through the parking lot on his way out.
"Lucky for him, his limo driver was there."
Or not so lucky. Snow still has to look at himself in the mirror and remember the day in Houston when he had a No. 1 record, but started to bust a freestyle and instead got busted in the chops.
