‘Chamberlain’ was an American emo/ post-HC/ alternative/ indie rock band, hailing from Indianapolis & Bloomington, Indiana. Previously they were known as ‘Split Lip’; changed the name after opting for a softer musical direction. They had releases on Dirk Hemsath’s label Doghouse recs (distributed in Europe by GreenHell): a 7” in ‘95 (Her Side Of Sundown) / split-7” with ‘Old Pike (’96) / Fate’s Got A Driver LP (’96; orginally for ‘Split Lip’ but remixed). They were: Curtis Mead (bass; ex ‘Endpoint’), Charles ‘Chuck’ Walker (drums, ex ‘Split Lip’), Adam Rubenstein (guitar), Clay(ton) Snyder (guitar) and David Moore (vocals).
‘Blindfold’ were one of the Vort’n Vis’ ‘house-band’s. Hans (who’s first ever performance on a stage was with my/our band ‘Yuppies’ Death!’), Jan, Wim & Sacha were fellow V.V. shitworkers. Their second guitarist Mich(ael) Decruyenaere (ex ‘Fungus’, later in ‘Hitch’) wasn’t on the LP (Astreroid 164) that came out that year but he was on the Steel Against Steel tour (with ‘Liar’ & Congress’) that summer… I consider the guys mates but my interest in the band was disappearing by then because of their distribution-deal with the commercial company GreenHell.
Brob
Tom Hussman [the guy who was in charge of selling merchandise] and Dirk Hemsath (owner of Doghouse recs; ‘Majority Of One’ and several other bands) wanted to come hang out just to have fun! The guy of GreenHell [Burkhard Jünger] recordstore booked the tour.
Clay Snyder
I know we were always treated well in Belgium… Other then that: I’m afraid I have the worst memory ever.
Curtis Mead
I lived in a town called Bierges [south of Brussels; home of the amusement-park Walibi], in Belgium, as a kid. I think I remember the Vort’n Vis but confusing it with a couple other Belgium shows…
Adam Rubenstein
I was the only non-SxEx… A bit the odd one out in our band: I drank, I smoked…but I liked playing in ‘Blindfold’: I’d been fan of them from the early beginning. Also the tours were always fun. Almost unimaginable that all that was possible then, without internet, smartphones, etc. That ‘Blindfold’, ‘Liar’ & Congress tour was something special. The scene was at its apex and it was unseen then that a small local band did a European tour in a nightliner-bus. :-) I remember that we had to flee for skinheads in Germany and there was also a show with ‘Earth Crisis’ that was very sketchy. Basically I always did my own thing, I was interested in the scene but I wasn’t really part of it. I also went to (still go) a lot of shows at The Pits in Kortrijk. It was an era of fights between straight-edgers and punks…
Mich Decruyenaere
excerpt from the V.V. guestbook:
additions wellcome!…
Vort'n Vis in the 90s 