This is were I got my first indoctrination to the underground music scene. I was 17 and was in awe of everything I saw and it was so cool and different to me, an Alice in wonderland rabbit hole of fantasy and stark reality. John Kessler introduced me to this Max’s scene as he was doing the production management there at the time and he needed someone to fill in some nights to set up the bands and shows. First I started just setting up the mic’s and rolling up the mic cords when the bands finished. Before you know it I was at the mixing board mixing bands during the weekdays when John was doing something else. I really took to mixing and working with the bands as I was starting my first band myself and it gave me some great exsposure to many different types and genres of music I really was not exsposed to before. As time progressed I started to fill in on the weekends mixing more headline name bands of that time frame. Didn’t really realize at that time when I mixed the Ramones that they would become an influence in the punk rock scene. I really thought they sucked, when I was trying to mix them at sound check and Johnny & Dee went over to their amps and ran their hands over all the volumes and tone knobs to 10. I was like, “what the fuck”, how are you suppose to mix this. I turned to John and he said to me, ” just put the vocals and drums up as loud as you can without feedback and sit back and that’s the mix”. I got to work with a bunch of name bands at that time that were all on the cusp of making some headway in the music business. As said, the Ramones, Blondie, The Dead Boys, Mink DeVille, David Johansen, John Collins Band among other bands that were great but didn’t make it, or should I say just did not get recognized at that time. What a blast for a 17 year old living the rock and roll life style to the fullest.