Kieran: How can you tour and still hold down a steady full-time job?
Ean: Well, the secret to that is that Sicko doesn't tour very hard (laughter). We go on tours every once in a while and often you end up having to quit, which has been okay up to now because I've kind of been in the process of switching careers. I started out doing customer service at Microsoft, then got into a tech support job for a company that contracted to Adobe, then I actually went to work at Adobe as a contractor doing testing, and then I came here. So in-between those jobs were good times to go on tour, you kind of cut the end of one job off and come back to the next time. The thing is I don't really want to leave this one, and I'm sure Josh (who works at the same place) doesn't either, so I don't know if Sicko's going to be doing a whole lot of big tours. I'm trying to convince those guys to do one -- one last big one would be really cool, but I don't know how realistic that is.
Who was the most famous person you've met on tour?
The most famous person I've met on tour...um (thinking)... You know, I don't think we've met anyone all that famous, to tell you the truth. Um, probably like Dr. Frank or something (laughter).
That's not too bad I guess.
I like Dr. Frank, he's cool.
"There was a two foot pool of blood in the place, we're dragging our amps through the blood."
Where was the first Sicko gig and how did it go?
The first Sicko gig ever was about a block from our first house that we lived at and practiced at. It was a little college party; I don't think Josh was even 21 yet. We just showed up and it was probably 1991, it was just a college house party, which we'd been doing for years before at college anyway -- Denny and I have been in bands before, but before that not with Josh and not as Sicko. It wasn't very eventful, we did a lot of jumping up and down; we were pretty bad.
Have you ever opened a show that you thought you should be headlining, or vice-versa?
Oh, um...
Like "What the hell are we doing opening for THESE guys?"
Yeah...probably, but honestly I try not to let that bother me. I try not to think about that too much; that's always such a big issue with a lot of people that I try to make it a non-issue, and just whatever is going on we just show up and do what we're supposed to do and do the best that we can. It's one of those things that I've seen so many people take it so seriously and be so petty about it that I just honestly go out of my way to not pay attention to that; I go out of my way to say "When are we playing? Then? Okay, super."
Have you ever traveled several hours to a gig that was canceled, and how did you react?
Well, the closest thing I can remember...oh God, there was one. (laughs) At my college, Washington State University, they had this stupid, stupid, stupid thing called "Greenstock" which was basically a huge number -- thousands -- of WU students go to some remote place and bring tents and shit, and a ton of alcohol and drugs, and they'd have a stage set up there and bands playing. This kinda started out in a basement of a party house a long time ago. They tried to keep it going year after year, and it was just awful: people were having gas stoves blow up on them, people on acid all night long, fights -- the sort of thing that I can't imagine I enjoyed. But anyway we did these things and after I graduated there was one more, and it was in this farmer's field way out in Idaho. So drove all the way from Seattle to Idaho, which is probably a 6 or 7 hour drive, and I got there first, and I thought the show was actually going to go on.
But as it turned out it rained so much that cars were sinking into the mud, and the stage was sinking, and you couldn't get any of the equipment in, and things were just fucked. There was no way that anything was going to happen. At this point the corps of engineers have been called in to build a road to get the cars out, the cops were going to arrest the guys who ran the thing for making such a fiasco, they were paying farmers to drag people's cars out of the mud with tractors and shit -- just a total nightmare. So Josh and his roommate drove the entire way out and made it to the head of the road into the farmland, and they made them turn around and go all the way back; they drove straight back that night. (laughs)
Who fixes the van when it breaks down?
None of us know anything about cars (laughter), so it's the guy at the Jiffy Lube or whatever.
What's your shittiest tour experience?
Shittiest tour experience...we played in Lexington, Kentucky and the club had closed. Across the street this woman had a big apartment, and she said "You can play in our apartment," so we said sure. And this is basically the last time we ever, ever played unsecured party situations. We played this show and all these kind of crusty street types and frat boys and punkers and whatever, even some of your average homeless people showed up. People were just slam dancing like crazy, they're fucking stuff up, hitting us, hurting people. It was getting really ugly, and it was one of these things where the woman who owned the place was crying in her room somewhere (laughter). There were a good 150 people in this apartment trashing it, probably stealing all her stuff, too. It was one of those things where we were like "God dammit, if you fucking come up here and slam that kid one more time I'm gonna kick your ass." And some crusty punker is like "Hey fuck you, I'm gonna slam."
So finally we just said "Okay, we're done -- bye." What kinda ended up being a negative situation quickly got worse. Some frat boy hit some punker guy over the head with a beer bottle, and he bled like a fucking fountain -- it was amazing. It was all over the place. So this thing was so poorly organized that Denny and I carried this guy down to his car and stuffed him into the car so his girlfriend could drive him to the hospital. There was a two foot pool of blood in the place, we're dragging our amps through the blood. The cops came, and the guy who put on the show wouldn't take responsibility. It was such an absolute fucking nightmare that we realized at that point that we would never again do those kind of shows. It's unfortunate 'cause I've always had the attitude like "We'll play a party, we're not above that, that'll be fun." But if it's not secure, it's not worth it to me.
