When we last left our hero (that would be me), he had just handed a homemade demo tape to Adam. The next time I ran into him, he took me by surprise. That night, he listened to the tape on the way home from the gig. Even though it had to be 2 or 3 in the morning, he set about recording a demo of "The Nice Channel." It turned out he was quite impressed with the quality of the songs. (To this day, Adam is my number one songwriting supporter.) The first time I went to his house (a somewhat rundown old house on River Street in Waltham, right next to an abandoned gas station), he played me the demo. I was happy because this was the first positive feedback I'd ever had. Despite the fact that he was already in another band (Miranda Warning), he was willing to build a band around my songs. This was getting exciting!
In the late summer of '87, I moved in with Adam. His old roommate (and manager) Chris Porter, was moving out. The Pulse 8 guys and I were not getting along for some reason. I think it was just a total personality mismatch. (They got evicted from the house about a month after I left.) Now that we were living together in Waltham, we started to put together the band. We were going to rehearse in Adam's basement, which was already set up for Miranda Warning. Adam was going to play the drums (a first for him). He recruited Tricia Matthews to play bass. At the time, Tricia was the girlfriend of Bob Weston (bass player for the Volcano Suns). Eric Nadler was on rhythm guitar. We found Andrea Plastas (lead guitar) by placing an ad in the Boston Phoenix. I was going to be the singer. Everyone except Andrea was new to their instrument. I believe that Adam was the only one with previous band experience, but I could be wrong.
Rehearsals commenced that fall. We started with the songs on the demo tape and added a few more as we went. I don't remember much about that period. We also came up with the band name "Welcome Mat." Kind of nondescript. What's in a name? A lot, actually. A band can be made or broken by a name. Just ask Miles Dethmuffen - friends of ours who ran into a lot of resistance because of their name. They were just a great pop band, but maybe the name gave people (and bookers) the wrong impression.
From that time period, I remember that the rehearsals were pretty loud and we were kind of sloppy and raw. But it was fun. For a while.
Coming up - Part 3: Asshole in front - Welcome Mat plays live.
