By AMES FLAMES
LOS ANGELES – Little did I know that this band would be more than a band to me. Most bands have gear and merch. This band had stage decor, costumes, and walk on performers/dancers. Having been a huge fan of the original Alice Cooper band, it is no wonder I latched on to this. It evolved into a rock band and a horror movie all in one. As usual you never know what is going to happen next.
I saw an ad for a new band featuring Dinah Cancer of 45 Grave and Dukey Flyswatter of Haunted Garage. I was a big fan of 45 Grave, and I had worked a few times with Haunted Garage. I went to see them and took some pics. It was cool to see them on stage again. I went and saw them again three months later and gave them the pics. I asked if they wanted a roadie. Dukey said I was a good roadie, so I was in. Dukey ended up leaving the band but did make guest appearances here and there. The remaining members would be the band.
Dinah Cancer on vocals, Elvorian Von Spivey on guitar, Lucifer Fulci on bass, and Hal Satan on drums, and me as the roadie. With every show the songs got tighter. the sound was spooky along with Dinah’s haunting voice. It was a whole new Dinah with a completely new band, Penis Flytrap, a play on Venus Flytrap. Dinah, Elvorian, and I would dress up for the shows, but the boys did not. I begged them to do it. After about a year and realizing that it has become a horror show, they started wearing make up.
We also had the Cemetery Girls, our zombie go go dancers. Now the band had the songs, the look, and the show. To me the Cemetery Girls were an important part of the total experience. Unfortunately we couldn’t take them on tour with us so people never got to see the whole thing. Our trademark Cemetery Girls were Malice (RIP) and Viva Kitty Las Vegas. They did freeform dancing and knew the songs. Down the line they left and other girls were Cemetery Girls.
I was thrilled to work with Dinah Cancer, especially something new. Of course they did a few 45 Grave covers, but they never recorded those songs. It was all about PFT. It evolved into a live horror show. Stage blood, fake murders, sometimes I was the murderer. On tour they would pick a girl in the crowd to be our victim of the night. I would pretend to slit her throat with a cross but I had a syringe with stage blood that would lay a line down her throat. Then she would would have to lay dead until the end of the song, Then I would drag her off the stage.
We also made little gift bags the dancers would throw out to the crowd. They had toy spiders, bats, candy, and whatever else we could find. We even sold weird items like coffin shaped ash trays, they did sell. We had shirts, patches, stickers and buttons. I made lighters and our backstage pass laminates.
PFT was top of the heap in the punk/goth circles. We did punk shows and we did goth shows. Of course the show ender was 45 Grave’s Partytime. We had balloons, silly string, glitter, and confetti. Sometimes I would sing some back ups. They also covered Evil and Riboflavin….
So my job was a lot more than just simply assisting a band. It was also a show with props and costumes. Not only that, every show was different. It was never a set in stone situation. That is what made it fun and challenging. We would have meeting to plot out the next show and what we were going to do visually. Sometimes we picked a movie like The Exorcist. Sometimes we would have guest performers or dancers. I would coordinate the props for the dancers. In other words, it was more than just a band, especially in LA with our dancers.
At one point I was booking shows. They had a partial tour booked so I booked shows to fill in the blanks. One time we were in Eugene Oregon and our show got cancelled. The band went to dinner but I stayed behind to use the free local phone. I called a record store and asked if anyone there knew where we could play tonight. They hooked me up with a place. I called them and they said we could play and sell merch but they can’t pay us, but they would feed us and give us drinks. I agreed. When the band got back I said, “Get dressed, we have show.” We partied there until 4 AM. Instead of a nothing night, we got to do this.
Another time we were heading to Phoenix, late, and it is really hot inside the van. They were all worried about putting make up on in the van due to the heat, it would just melt off. After having begged the boys to do make up, now it was an issue. I finally said, this is a horror band right? We want to scare the crap out of people right? I can think of nothing more frightening than putting x’s on our foreheads and be the Manson Family. That is what we did and crowd loved it. We did it a few other times too.
One day I was in the van and not driving and I was given a raw mix of the songs for their upcoming cd Dismemberment. There were 13 songs and 13 letters in dismemberment. I figured out an order for the songs where I could take one letter from each title and spell Dismemberment. I put it on paper and made the letters red that spelled Dismemberment so follow the bloody trail. They used it on the cd so I set the order of the songs on the cd because of it.
Dinah Cancer was perfect to lead this group with her witchy looks and haunting voice. Elvorian with her pointed ears and mohawk laid out her brand of cool spooky guitar. Lucifer was like a big Gene Simmons like ghoul playing hard driving bass lines, and Hal’s demonic thunderous drumming completed the picture. This was a real rock band. Most goth bands had keyboards, we did not. It was part Rock, part Punk, part Metal, and part Death Rock. And part horror movie, witchcraft, and the occult.
The first song the released was on a comp cd, Dracula-King of Vampires cd, Dracula’s Daughter, 1997. Then their 6 song cd Tales of Terror in 1998. In 1999 they contributed I Wait to the Astro Thrill comp cd, and a cover of Queen Bitch to a Bowie Tribute comp Goth Oddity. We also did the video for Tears Of Blood. Dave Parker, who makes horror movies, loved the band and wanted to do it. We filmed it in the old Charlie Chaplin mansion in Los Angeles, and it is the best example of the band. I had 4 parts in it, plus a big pic of me on the back cover of the VHS. In the showroom scene I am wearing a PFT shirt.
In another scene I pop out of the ground like Night Of The Living Dead. In 2000 they contributed three songs to the soundtrack of “Dead Hate The Living,” a Dave Parker movie, “Dead Hate The Living,” “Cemetery Girl,” and “Now.” There were also a couple Haunted Garage songs on the soundtrack as well. In 2001 the self made Music For Monsters cd we sold at shows. In 2002 Dismemberment came out. Like I said the name is contract kill. Yet they won an award from Rock City News for Best Band Name. The cd cover had Elvorian wearing a swastika armband so that created shelf kill, it wouldn’t be prominently displayed. PFT was not political, it was all about horror. The band ended in late 2003, but my work with Dinah did not end there, but that is another story. Hal was also in Deep Eynde, I assisted him with that a handful of times. Elvorian went on to have her own band The Veins.
PFT was an event. It was more than a band, it was a show. As a roadie I was very involved. I think I spent more money than I made but it was never about that for me. It was something I just had to do. We were a big happy family. At times I quit, at times I got fired, but I somehow always ended up back in the fold. I did 96 shows over seven years. I missed 24 shows being on a run with someone else or I was out of the circle. I have so many pics of the band along with all the other t shirts, posters, etc. The Dismemberment CD is on YouTube as well as the Tears Of Blood video. You will never know what it was like to be in the crowd at a PFT show. I am spoiled, I saw it so many times. I lived it. The best thing is we did what we wanted. As usual these are my opinions and do not reflect what the band members may think. RIP Malice.
Ames Flames, known as “Roadie to the Stars,” documents his adventures as the main man to the bands and covers music for U.S. Rocker. Read more here.