91-04-28 Nausea – Chronic Disease

extra poster with great artwork by Sling (‘Chronic Disease’)

a series of pictures (by Klaas Hardeman): 91-04-28 Nausea – Chronic Disease (photos)

This bunch of New Yorkers, ‘Nausea’ was brought to us by Lorelei & Syd… If I remember well Syd was thinking of moving to NYC because he was invited by a band from over there to join them. Some people in Europe started to have doubts about their sincerity concerning booking tours… Looking back: I’m sure there was a reasonable explanation for their choices but at that time we were left with question-marks. ‘Nausea’ was related to Profane Existence (the Twin Cities’ answer to Maximum Rock’n’Roll) and we knew Dan (Siskind, one of their shitworkers) was gonna travel with them (‘Nausea’s lp Extinction was out on P.E.); this together with their furious sound (dual vocals) and great recordings was more than enough reason to get them to play here… ‘Nausea’ were vocalists Al Long & Amy Keim (at that time married to ‘Agnostic Front’s singer Roger Miret), bassist John ‘John Jesse’ Guzman, guitarist Vic(tor) ‘Venom’ Dominicis (ex-‘Reagan Youth’) and drummer Roy Mayorga. Marketeer Bruno announced them as “New York Mega Crust” (smile) but what was more interesting was that they were anarcho-punk squatters and political (activists) from the Tompkins Square scene…

Al Long / Amy Keim & Vic(tor) ‘Venom’ Dominicis (by U.J.)

‘Chronic Disease’ (Bruno promotes them on the flyer as “legendary Belgian thrash”) were indeed in their heydays but remained the same dedicated, down-to-earth guys I’d gotten to know 3-4 years before… Great lyrics, decent attitude. The music Leffe (vocals), Sling (drums), Meyer (guitar) and Vrokker (bass) produced was (to me) more grindy than thrashy but the important thing was they moved/affected people…

On the back of the flyers Bruno wrote “Also ‘Holy Guns’, wild Italian HC”… I can ‘t remember them playing but they did… (‘Holy Guns Inc.’ were guitarist Massimo Sartor & bassist/vocalist Pierpaolo Capovilla.) A 2^nd passage of ‘Turtle Terror’ (‘E.N.T.’ style grindcore?) didn’t leave any marks in my brain either… I do remember that after the concert, and long-awaited talks and chats with friends (in bands and others), I crammed several boxes of records and zines (Bruno’s and my distro-stuff) into my tiny R4’s little trunk, and took 3-4 extra people (Bruno, Kathy,…) to Gent at a snail’s pace…

Brob

I have some scans of this ‘Nausea’ gig from the Czech zine (done by the ‘Holy Guns Inc’ tour-manager) Black Hand [Petr Bergmann] but it’s in Czech. It’s part of a tour-report and there’s some photos of the V.V. ‘Holy Guns Inc’ was an Italian 3-piece in the vein of ‘Big Black’, with a drum-machine.

Filip Fuchs

Syd & Lorelei ripped off and lied to ‘Nausea’ at every turn. In the beginning I didn’t notice anything going on but by mid-way through the tour I figured out what was going on. Lorelei made the mistake of thinking I was working for some big record-label that doesn’t give a fuck about the band and actually told me a lot of her ways “to rip-off bands” and so on. Disgusting.

Dan (Profane Existence), personal communication ’91

‘Nausea’s roadie Jim Martin published his tour-diary in Profane Existence #49… I actually did make it to the Vort’n Vis on three different occasions. The first was with ‘Nausea’ in 1991, the second time was with ‘Pissed’ in 1993 and the third was with ‘Extinction of Mankind’ and ‘Misery’ in 1996.

Dan Siskind

We toured Europe three times, focusing on shows in squatted houses and put on by collectives like Smurfpunx. By our third tour, we were playing to pretty large audiences of around 800 to 1200 people and it was still very important to us to play the squats and collectives. Luckily, our road-managers Lorelei Rahnefeld and Syd Migx (from the great Italian hardcore band ‘C.C.M.’) were also very committed to the squats and supported our decision. [Brob: they ran their booking ‘Big White Flash at Six’ from the famous Van Hall squat, where they lived – see Smurfpunx @ Van Hall, Amsterdam]

Debra Adele, ‘False Prophets’ guitarist

The people of ‘Nausea’ were glad they could play with us because they kinda liked our music. I remember not so many people showed up. [Brob: In my mind the V.V. was packed and sweaty; an intense evening…] The ‘Hiatus’ crew did….

Leffe, ‘Chronic Disease’ vocalist

It’s one of the rare concerts where I was straight-edgers & crust-punks have a good time together! I think because of ‘Nausea’s song on the NYHC compilation… The SxE where jumping about when they played!

Karl Penando, ‘6 Feet Over’ guitarist

This was an example of a day where the ‘scene’ worked at its best. The Vort’n Vis had a nice atmosphere and there was a real camaraderie between everybody. ‘Nausea’ were humble and friendly and seemed genuinely grateful to get a decent veggie meal (and decent Belgian beers!). Musically they were very inspiring at the time… Isn’t their drummer in some big band now? Anyway, thanks and respect go out to the Vort’n Vis is crew and ye old punks…

Steve ‘Sling’ Slingeneyer, drummer ‘Chronic Disease’

We really loved ‘Nausea’… Only half of ‘Hiatus’ were there but the Americans insisted that we’ld play a few songs. We were drunk as fuck but tried…with the help of Vrokker & Leffe, I think. I remember hangin’ out upstairs with all of them after the gig. I was laughin’ like hell with Amy, and at some point trying a bit too hard to get ‘involved’ with her. When we later met her in the street in NYC (first ‘Hiatus’ US tour, Aug/Sep’91), I started to blush and wanted to bury my head in the ground like an ostrich.

Willy ‘Hiatus’

The V.V. was a wonderful place for us to play and I wish there were more like it everywhere. We had so much fun at the show. The place was great, the people were wonderful.

The banner for ‘Nausea’s European tour [see pictures] was painted by Seth David Tobocman [Brob: Who did the book You Don’t Have to Fuck People Over to Survive]… It meant a lot to me. I saw it as a crossover of everything that was happening politically in NYC and in particular the Lower East Side at that point in history. Two years down from the riots and everything was still smoldering. Seth did a fantastic job. And I think at some of the larger squat venues we played, the people felt a real kindred spirit with Seth. It was a centerpiece.

Al(an) Long, ‘Nausea’ vocalist

I remember we forgot the ‘Nausea’ banner in Copenhagen (The paint was so thick and rubber-like. It was pretty dense and heavy when it was folded up.) and it came back to us on the tour later down the road. I was impressed by the networking and communication all the squats in Europe had. I kept some tour-diaries. I wrote an article about those times for Profane Existence (issue #50/51) several years ago.

Jim Martin, ‘Nausea’ roadie

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

“Horrible beer prices! Cheers mate” (Sti, Olli, Kurt, ‘Turtle Terror’)

“Thanks a lot – Bye” (Pierpaolo ‘Holy Guns Inc’)

mutual admiration… ;-)

additions wellcome!…