Interview with Red Line Rebels at the Midway Cafe
By Jim Slimedog
The Red Line Rebels are a local punk band that Andy Bang raves about as one of our best. He’s seen them a couple of times while I haven’t and he only has good things to say about them, but this is what I think.
Red Line Rebels are a band that any decent folk should shun. They advocate shooting mucus from nostrils onto unsuspecting pillars of society ( I WAS looking at a young lady tonight and thinking I would like to lick her nose, but I digress). So what we need to do, all us good God-fearing, patriotic self-righteous disemboweling soldiers of Christ, is snuff out these vermin of venom, this pestilence of purgatory grief. These Red Lines are up to no good, no how and no children under eighteen allowed! Interview commences, as such, in the bowels of the Midway, as the guitar player talks of things he knows.
Tommy (Guitar)- So we’re all outside the club and half the people are waiting for Dave (one of the owners of the Midway) to blow up his car. I’m screaming at Dave, “C’mon, fucking’ blow it up!” And there’s passerby’s and there’s a couple people in the club and they’re like, “Oh my God, What’s he gonna do? Are they trying to light that? So he’s trying to light it, buses keep coming past and they keep blowin’ out his fuckin’ lighter. And at the end of it, nothing happened. I mean I wanted to see shit blow up! It could’ve turned into a cool story- Dave blew up his car in front of the Midway.
Jay (Vocals)- And not only that but one of the BarRoom Heroes is standing like five feet away from this and I run right over grab him by the shirt and I’m like, “Kid, you don’t want to see this.” And Carrie, the manager for BarRoom Heroes is ducking for cover. And then the fireworks don’t go off so Dave takes it to this field and then it goes off but then the field is on fire. And me and Josh (Bass) are saying, “We got to go RIGHT NOW.”
Slimedog- I have many Dave stories that I won’t go into right now.
Jay- One time at the Midway I was playing bass for another band and all of a sudden Dave comes out of nowhere with nothing but a hula skirt and a coconut bra on and just starts hula dancing in the middle of the fucking floor. It happened so quickly I’m like, “Was that Dave?” Then a couple years later I thought that’d be a funny inspiration for a song- “Drinking heavily at the tiki bar/ Wearing nothing but a hula skirt and coconut bra”- and it stuck because of Dave.
Slimedog- So how did you guys get started?
Jay- About three years ago we just started as a fun band and it became a revolving door, member after member. And then we had a lot of people getting interested like, “Jay when’s your next show?” And it started to get real and we recently had a decent lineup with Paul (Bass) from the Dimwits (my old favorite punk band) and Laura from Closet Case. We broke up in May after some conflicts and I thought it was done. But I was in a bar in Dover, New Hampshire to see a show with The Snipes and Swaggerin’ Growlers and we’re hanging outside and people I don’t even know are talking amongst themselves about Red Line Rebels. And I hear my name mentioned, our songs mentioned and I turned to them and say, “Hi.” And they’re like, “Holy Shit! I didn’t realize you were here.” And I’m telling them we broke up and they’re like, “You can’t end this, you gotta keep it goin’.” After that it inspired to keep it happening.
Slimedog- I’ve just missed seeing you play twice now, what‘s with the silly string?
Jay- It has to do with our song, “Snot Rocket”; it’s our oldest song along with “Repo Man.” Snot Rocket was inspired by a little trip I took on the Red Line and some businessman pushed some kid aside. They had an argument and after when the businessman was leaving the train the kid shot a snot rocket onto the back of his suit. I was cracking up and I didn’t realize that two or three years later it would be a song, and then someone told me, “You’ve got a song called “Snot Rocket” you should express that in some weird way.” And one day I was walking in CVS and saw some green silly string and I said, “That’s it.”
Slimedog- Do you guys have any recording plans?
Jay- We’re recording a four way split next week with The Pity Whores, Sad Plant and Slit Stich. We’re gonna do four or five songs and this will be the first recordings of our originals.
Slimedog- Who writes the songs?
Jay- I started writing all the music but now when the four of us are together we’ve written much more music. The whole idea is kind of like a research paper. You write out an outline, you do the rough draft and what you do with that is give it to the band and they throw their style, their ideas into it. Then it’s a full out report, it’s ready for grading.
Tommy- Our songs are formulated in about ten minutes and you know if it sounds good or it doesn’t.
Chris (Drums)- I’ve been playing for a long time, I always liked skateboard stuff- Negative Approach, Minor Threat, Slapshot. Basic drumbeats, hard and nasty- we just compile everything together. We have a sense of what we want to sound like so when the energy is right it’s there.
(The following question was supplied by Stiven Mesa)
Slimedog- How do you think the world is going to end?
Jay- I’m not gonna tell you how the world is going to end but I will tell you what will survive. It’ll be Iggy Pop, cockroaches and twinkies basically.
Slimeodg- I agree, who drinks the most in the band?
Jay- Chris probably drinks the least, I don’t know.
Slimedog- How about a favorite dive bar?
All- The Midway.
(What follows is Tommy telling a story about being at a bar in South Boston on July 4th and how there was 120 empty bottles lined up, bartenders not even picking up their tips from the soaking bar, shitter clogged up, broken glass and pints filled to the very top. During this, Jay, the other owner of the Midway has entered).
Slimedog- Jay, they all said The Midway was their favorite dive bar.
Jay (Midway)- You just weren’t talking about the Midway?
All- No, no, no. (Laughter)
Jay (Midway)- I didn’t think so, I mean we don’t fill the beer to the very top of the glass.
Slimedog- Who’s most likely to become a serial killer in the band?
All- Tommy.
Jay- I gave him the nickname “Tommy ticking time bomb.” He’s ready to go off at any time, dude.
Tommy- I need to have the last word though if I am the serial killer. But serial killer? Fuck, yeah. “Cause me being a serial killer is when I’m happy as fuck, I’ll fuck’n’kill you.
As Slimedog leaves to check his car for explosives we leave the dungeon of the Midway Café (excellent food and coffee served by the way at this café). Someday soon I’ll catch these guys play but Andy says they’re great so check them out. You can check out their band profile here.
