Behind The Music
Formed on 7/2/94, AMERICAN WASTE, going by another name at the time, both had their first practice AND show, at the same time. PUNK ROCK, eh? That infamous show/practice got them their second gig two days later at some girl Lisa's party on July 4th! That show was a fun time with the band playing all the mostly original songs they knew and didn't know, the crowd going crazy, and mayhem erupting. The show went on for a while when they saw Steve from The Pulls (Known as the Irish Pulls then) walking the street and they had him play a few songs. After that the singer at the time, Sean, was telling the neighbor who was looking at the mayhem with disgust to "PISS OFF" Suffice it to say that the cops soon came and shut down the show. So the future was looking bright for the band, two shows in three days of forming. The fortune didn't last though, months went without a show, Sean left, the drummer was replaced who was replaced who was replaced, etc. There are so many stories to tell that I'm thinking about writing a book about them.
Fast forward to the year 2001, With many lineup changes they are now looking to form a solid lineup now with the ORIGINAL GUITARIST, Tom, being the only original member still in the band, however, he doesn't only play the guitar, he also sings now/again. They have two plus full length CDs worth of material written and are currently under way to completing the third. Actually sXe John is back in the fold.

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Well, I'm just going to radomnly throw stories of AmWaste here in no particular order. Sayonara!
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Let's see, I remember we had a chance to play a two-day festival event on Thursday, March 4 and Friday, March 5, 1999, in Portland, Maine. It was in the winter and we were able to play both nights. Great! 2 shows in 2 nights, doesn't get much better then that. So, we decided to take 2 cars up there since Andy Kaos, our tour manager at the time, decided to come along. So on the car ride up there it was Tom, John and the equipment in the van and Bob and Rich were off in Andy's car, a green piece of crap. It was pretty uneventful on the ride up except that I am told Rich slept the entire way up there. Also Andy reminded me of the guy who was standing in the middle of the highway in Hartford, Connecticut, and the lightning storm somewhere in Massachusetts that looked like the world was ending. So, we arrive in town and it was cold, windy, but clean. Being from the Philly area we're not used to cities being clean, plus there were no really tall buildings. There was a lake or rivers surrounding it as well. It was pretty cool looking. We had to find some girl's work (I think her name was Kim and she worked for a newspaper) and we drove around and like usual, Andy got us lost. We eventually found the place and called her up and we met up with her. She took a lunch break or something and she guided us to where we were going to play. We found out that it was an old porno house! How appropriate! American Waste plays an old porno house! So, anyway, we get there and there's some guy who runs the place and some local "kids" hanging out. The guy tells us to bring in our equipment and we could store it in some room. So we unload and this one kid there named Guido was helping us out, (He helped out at the place to get into shows for free) and he was cool to us but we later found out from the other people in town that he's the kid that nobody liked but hung around anyway. (Mmmmm, like our "bassist"?) But as I said, Guido was cool to us so we all hung out and eventually we got some beer and later that girl Kim got us free food as well. So a day of hanging around a town where the only people we knew were the squatter kids we just met, a guy, and that girl Kim. Sounds like a crappy sitcom idea to me! For doing nothing it was fun, I just wish that there was a lot more to do there. So eventually after eating and drinking some other people and bands started to show up so we met some more people, including a band named Fury 440 (Who were only playing the second night but were backstage) and they were cool and there was talk of doing a split 7" or something that never panned out. We were one of the last bands to play so we got to meet a lot of different bands and people trying to get cool with the bands. (I just looked in my room and found an old newspaper and out the listed name of this old porno place was now called the Fine Arts and I believe it was actually called The Fine Arts Center of Portland. We were listed for both nights and were the first band listed as well!!! Big time! ha!) One of the bands we met were Big Meat Hammer. They played a cool, old, 77-style Punk. Really cool. The lead singer claimed to be in the scene back in 1977 and I believe him, he was old and burned out, but one of the coolest people you'd ever meet. He reminded me of Bucky Haight from the movie Hard Core Logo for some reason. Never saw it? Then shoot yourself. Or better yet, go buy it, watch it and then shoot yourself. It's a real cool movie. To tell you the truth, I don't remember a lot about the other bands but I'll list the band names here for the nights they are listed in the paper. Night one it was us, Urban Alliance, Big Meat Hammer, Rhetorics, C.D.S., and don't hit your sister and the show started at 7 and cover was . Night two it was us, Apolitical, Razorwire, The Commonwealth, Dissident Force, The Studs, and Fury 440, show started at 6:30 PM, cover. I know that not all of these bands played due to cancellations and whatnot, but they're the ones listed. Other bands played instead of the ones that canceled, I just can't remember their names. Well, eventually we were due to go on and we rocked the place. IT was great, and the crowd loved us. Something started that night as well that would follow our band every time we'd play a show. Tom and Bob had been watching a lot of wrestling at the time (in fact, the intro they played was the same as the New Age Outlaws used as their intro in wrestling. "Oh you didn't know...)and they decided to add a little stage show at the end of the set. Before the last song Tom and Bob started an argument and as the last song played was ending, Tom attacked Bob with a guitar from behind. The crowd didn't know what was up and thought it was real at first. Then Bob came at Tom and they started to wrestle, when out of nowhere the kid Guido jumped in and started to hit both of them with a trash can lid (planned) and then he went all around the stage and venue wrestling Bob. It was cool. They were doing actual pro-wrestling moves and the crowd loved it. Eventually Bob pinned Guido and that was the end of it, or so everyone thought when Guido jumped him again and they wrestled for another 10 minutes or so. Pure entertainment, then it was over. Fun! Fun! Fun! Fun! Fun! The Studs were a cool band that let us crash at their place for free, the only thing that was unnerving was their open use of needles at their place. But other then that we all got drunk and listened to music. Their place was so dark because they had all of the windows boarded up. The next night we played again, but Tom was so loaded he was introducing each song as an old 80's hair metal band song. The crowd loved it, Bob and Rich hated it, John played, and it was the best show the Waste ever played, ever! Great shit!!!! Oh, I forgot to mention that during the day the band went downtown and checked out a bunch of different things around town and they ran into the sing of Big Meat Hammer. That's when they got a lot of information about him, he was a cool guy, hope their band is still around. After another night of partying The Waste packed up and left from the show and two underage girls were trying to come with them, they dropped them off at a place where everyone was playing and because of their trouble they got stopped by the cops and were accused of stealing a keyboard! a Keyboard!!!! So after the vehicles were searched and warrants were ran, the band somehow got out of any trouble since they never took the keyboard. It turns out that a friend of the club owner borrowed it without telling him and it was returned the next day. The girl Kim called me up and told me that personally. Guess I made an impression with her when we ran for beer...but that's another story. Well, John was sober so he was driving the vehicle so no drinking and driving charges were issued. After stopping at a rest area many miles later, Tom sobered up and John switched vehicles with Rich and all Rich did was sleep the entire way home. Tom was bored as hell but at least he didn't have to talk to him. Also, a little note, on the way out of main we noticed the skies were dark but we were never hit by anything. We found out after we got home that the area was hit with the worst snow storm in years! We just got out of that! Sayonara!

Other Information
Hey, Tom doesn't only play guitar, sing, and write the music for the Legendary Punk Band AMERICAN WASTE, he also acts, writes movie scripts, writes written word, and other forms of writing such as a messed up novel currently in the works. Hey, looking for an actor? Contact Tom at : TommyOBNOXIOUS@hotmail.com

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