The Jays Of Our Lives
By Various
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“The ones I have long forgotten”
I remember one bartender who would do a Jägermeister shot with any person who had a throat. This was during the era of full-service bartending at Jay’s, meaning she had a tray and took drink orders from the floor. I also remember her punching my friend Nate in the face on his 21st birthday because she had been serving him alcohol for, like, a year.
I remember “The Earth Is My Grave,” the god-awful mural that ended up behind the stage during the “Corral days.”* It was basically two huge eyes peering out from behind the band with a banner reading “The Earth Is My Grave.” Any picture on any night of any band during that time period looks like any other picture of any other band on any other night during that time period, just because of that fucking picture.
I remember [Jay’s handyman and all-around mad genius] Mike Doerner eating a full-course meal of roast duck with all the trimmings in formal attire at a full table set while we played a show to almost no one else.
I remember [Oblio Joes guitarist] Stu [Simonson] falling flat on his back in a chair mid-song and then being thrust back upright by audience members without missing a single note.
I remember [someone] shooting bottle rockets at us while we played.
I remember the Corral going up.
I remember the Corral coming down.
I remember stopping downstairs at 9 a.m. the day after a show to pick up our money and finding some totally wasted guy on the floor with a bloody nose and another guy sitting at the bar saying, “You shouldn’t say that about my sister!” and the skanky bartender threatening to call the cops. No shit.
I could go on, but...my most treasured memories of Jay’s Upstairs are certainly the ones I have long forgotten.
—John Brownell, guitarist/vocalist
*“The Corral,” Yale Kaul explains, “was this bizarre and highly ill-advised wooden fence built around the perimeter of the stage at Jay’s, and much like the laundry facility downstairs, it was a source of great amusement to touring bands. Almost every band that came through had at least one member who climbed up on the Corral in some sort of Nugent-channeling exercise.” As per John Brownell’s recollection, an enthusiastic crowd tore the Corral down with its bare hands at the urging of headlining act The Hanson Brothers in February, 1998.
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