The Original Resistors

What were we to

do?? We had been kicked out of all the "good" rock bands in

town. We didn't fit on, or just "wasn't good enough." There was,

however, this little band making waves in our little burg named The

Pattern and they were getting a lot of attention-even if the attention

was mostly negative.

Jim, the

bassist, was the first to make the move to punk. Oh, sure, at first it was

more "new wave" than anything else-spiked hair....paper

clips......wearing funky ties to school....that sort of thing. We listened

to The Cars....David Bowie......The Go Go's.

Eventually, Jim

talked me into joining the punk craze. What the hell, I had the right car

for it-a 1963 Corvair. (Later known as the "Corvair of Terror").

Jim and I decided we would need a band. As with any band, we would need a

guitarist.

There was only

one choice-Eric. After all, he lived in our neighborhood, had been kicked

out of the same bands we had, and, maybe most importantly, was my best

friend. I think Eric's exact words to me were, "what the hell, ain't

got nothing else to do-but I'm not cutting my hair."

This left us with only one person left-a drummer. The drummer is always the

hardest part of any band because you have to be able to practice at his or

her house. Some parents just aren't real wild about that idea-especially

if the music is Punk. We did find someone, however. His name was Lyn and

while he may not have been punk, he was certainly no conformist. We now

call Lynn "the fifth Resistor." Lyn, who did an "adequate

job" on the drums, didn't have much of a set but he did have a nice

place to practice. So, the Resistors were born.

The first gig

was a small party in the basement of one Chris Belding's house. It just so

happened that Chris' parents were out of town and we were asked to play

his "punk party." The important thing to keep in mind here, is

that we only knew six songs at this point.

Oddly enough,

the party was a big success. We just played those same songs, over and

over for about two hours. But in a town crying out for something new, I

guess it worked. We later learned some more songs.....up to about 20 or

so, opened for The Pattern at a few parties and started to make a

name for ourselves.

About six months

into the whole thing, the band took a turn. We went from a "new wave"

sound to more of a hardcore one. We started covering Black Flag and the

sort. At the same time, the bassist for The Pattern, a one Scott

Colburn, decided to branch out of his band to form his own-Killing

Children.

To do this,

Scott asked Eric and Jim to help him out. In doing this, in my opinion, he

would accomplish two things-one, form a new better band with himself on

lead vocals, and two-begin the demise of The Resistors.

What, to this

day, I don't understand is why he asked me to accompany him to audition a

drummer. Scott and I had never really gotten along, so I thought this was

strange. But, I agreed to go, if nothing else just to be nosey, and we

arrived at the home of Ken.

Ken's house had

a huge basement. In the corner, was one of the nicest drumsets I had ever

seen-a Ludwig Double Bass. "OK," I thought to myself, "the

kid's parents have some money. This doesn't mean he knows how to play

them." Then the kid sat down on "the thrown."

Not only did

this guy blow away our drummer, in my opinion, he was one of the best

local drummers I had ever heard! I was just amazed. Of course, a plan

formed in my head...........

Upon arriving

home, I quickly gathered Eric and Jim together for a meeting. "We

need this guy," I told them. Did I mention Ken had his own P.A.? A

drummer with his own P.A.-what else could you ask for. Eric and Jim said "if

you can get him, go for it" and that's just what I did. I called Ken

a few minutes later and don't ask me how, but I conned him into joining

us.

We had a party

to play in just two weeks, so Ken had to get busy learning about 25 new

songs. Wasn't a problem for Ken though. We jammed everyday for at least

three hours and the party with the new drummer was a hit. You know it's a

hit when the cops get called and they were called twice that night!

New songs were

written after that party. We dropped all of the Cars tunes and went

straight up hardcore. Jim and I had our hair cut to almost nothing.

(Remember, this was the '80's and long hair was the norm then). We opened

for The Pattern at the Commons Mall late that summer. In our

little town, playing there was the big time.

In the fall of

1982, Ken was a freshman at Purdue. In an effort to impress some chick I'm

sure, Ken got us a gig opening for a punk band named, The Screaming

Dogs. This was the show of shows-hell, the punks there trashed the

place-during the SOUND CHECK!! It was certainly the best show we ever

played and we blew the Dogs off the stage. People can up to Ken all

through college talking to him about that show.

Another big show

was in Indianapolis opening for The Pattern, The Repellents,

and the Zero Boys. We certainly thought we had hit the big time

Sometime later,

I guess we all got hit in the head with something because we changed the

name of the band to Andropov's Assassins. It was a strange time

and we don't like to talk about it much if we don't have to.

In January of

1983 Scott once again came to the band with an idea. He wanted to record

all the bands in Columbus for the Columbus Compilation Tape. This was

Scott's first recording effort. Today, Scott is a big-time producer out in

Seattle and you can check out his stuff

here. It's worth a look-lots

of good punk!

Also about this

time, The Pattern was featured on an L.P. called, The Master Tape.

It featured a lot of Indiana punk bands, including the infamous Zero

Boys. In the spring of 1983 we were asked to record on Master Tape II

but unfortunately, Eric and Jim had signed up for the Air Force and Eric

was leaving in June. This spelled the end of the Resistors.

Through the

1980's we would get together in one form or another-either a different

bassist or a substitute guitarist. We played one show in Columbus with a

substitute guitarist, while Jim was on leave in August of 1986. This was a

decent show but we incorporated a few rock hits and the crowd reaction was

mixed.

When Eric and

Jim were discharged in '87, they, along with Ken

formed a rock band. Sadly, due to some personcal conflicts, Jim and the band parted company. This band later became Big Bang and stayed together until 1992.

In the summer of

1996, it came to my attention that everyone was living in our little town

once again. I also heard through the grapevine ( I hadn't talked to Ken or

Jim for a years at this point) that Ken and Jim wouldn't mind putting The

Resistors back together. It took some doing, but I arranged a meeting

in July of that year and we all agreed it would be fun to play some of the

old songs again. The first practice, however, didn't take place until

September.

The practice

went much better than we expected and, in fact, some songs sounded better

than they did some 14 years ago. Eric and I wrote Punk's Not Dead after

reading the back of a T-shirt at Spencers in Greenwood. (Eric and I hit

every Spencers in Indy looking for these shirts for everyone in the

band-we did find them by the way).

After a great

deal of calling and almost begging, I finally landed us a show at Rhino's

in Bloomington In. The show was May 16th, 1997 and while it was a blast

getting ready for it, the show itself didn't go so well. Musically, I

think we did a great job but the club's owner put us on first at 7:00

P.M.. There was only about 20 people there for our part of the show-which

is more than we could say for The Hate Choir. the band that

followed us. These guys are a great band but the only people who heard

their part of the show were the ones in the parking lot.

After the Bloomington show, the band hit a slow down in the late 1990's. Over the last 6 years the band has had a tough time just getting together to have lunch. Youth is truly wasted on the young. The band did perform at the Cottage Ave. Blcok Party in 2004.

In the early days of 2006 the band made the decision to get together once a month. The goals in mind at the time were to write new material, perhaps something more modern and less "punk." In late March the band was given the chance to play at The Crump Theater. Practices were then dedicated to the show.

Much to the bands surprise, the May 13th show was a big success. This inspired Jim and Joe to sit down and write new material-aimed at the roots of what the band has always been about. In July however, Eric decided to retire from the genre of Punk. Eric's departure left the band with a serious decision to make:

Hang it up, or move on with someone new.

48 hours later Ken called Dano, his longtime friend. In the late 1980's, Eric, Ken and Dano had been part of the band "Big Bang,". Dano has always been known to be an excellent bass player. This then begged the question-what about guitar?

Dano answered the call, in more ways then one. Meeting with Jim and Joe for the first time, they knew Dano was the perfect fit for the role. Dano when out "to the woodshed" and in two weeks learned nearly all the bands songs.

Enter The Doctor!

Chris "Doc" Shew was tapped to play lead guitar in August. The bands thinking was, "if one guitar is good, two are fantastic" and this thinking has proven to be completely accurate! Doc, Eric and Joe had attempted to form a band in the late 70's and Jim has stated Doc was his inspiration to learn the bass guitar. Doc and Dano were both part of the metal band Iron Cross as well. In the mid-80's Doc had filled in for Eric a few times and even co-wrote several songs such as "Nympho" and "My Life." In a sense, Doc has been part of the band all along and even as Eric departed he stated Doc was

we are from Columbus, IN - but we've played in Indianapolis, Chicago, IL and many other places

Black Flag, Zero Boys, Circle Jerks, Sex Pistols, Clash, New York Dolls,

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