One of us.

“Just pretending to be in the Ramones I felt cooler than I ever have in Black Flag, Descendents, or All.”

-Bill Stevenson (Descendents/ALL) on playing a Halloween show as the Ramones

I’m sitting behind my drumset on Halloween night on a stage that also doubles as a skate ramp. I can hear the crowd cheering, but I can’t really see them. There are spotlights glaring in my face, and I’m pretty sure the same is true for the rest of my band. We’re going to start our set any second now and I can hear Andrew, who’s on guitar, affirm that everything’s OK on his end. We’re greenlit and ready to go and all I can think of are Bill Stevenson’s words.

“This is going to be fun,” I keep repeating to myself like some Orwellian doctrinal entity. I’m hoping it’ll work. I’m hoping I’ll be convinced.

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