I'm in the process of changing my personal website www.looppool.info
over from a patrons server that has been having lots of trouble.
When I do and when I"m done with my latest goth/industrial track that I'm submitting to the Kobe Underground Compilation I am thinking seriously about creating a TAO CHEMICAL page with mp3s of our album and maybe even some live footage. I'm also thinking about creatiing a
page for my 90's project Worlds Collide.

Yeah, Sapphire, Rob was the lead singer in TAo Chemical. Funny to mention World Entertainment War. Two of the main members of that band, the incomparable and talented George Earth (guitar) and Anthony Guest (drums) were actually students of ours and roadies for Tao Chemical. It was sooooo cool to see them go on to become the really fantastic musicians that they are.

Rob , by the way, is putting out a spoken word CD right now and several tracks on the CD will be my abstract electronica sound design. Also, Michael Haumesser, the wonderful guitarist/multi-intstrumentalist from Tao Chemical and I put out a project called TH (3) Mix a couple of years ago and he also put out a beautiful abstract electronica pop project with my wife , Christine Wedertz called TONGUE TONGUE............they are both available for free mp3 downloading at www.notnoise.com.

Check out MIchael's other great music. He had a band called Mehitable in the 90's that is still one of my favorite bands.

Wow Rich, I had completely forgotten about that gig. Thanks for writing about it.

It's a funny thing about memory.......................you don't remember something for 20 years and then
when it's referenced you can remember what the crowd sounded like (which I do really accurately
from that evening).

We put a ton of energy into making every Catalyst show have a different themes. We wore completely different
clothing for every show and lots of it was made for us by Magda Proletariat (Marina Shoope, Rob's girlfriend and
our lighting director at the time). B. Moderne also helped us with our makeup.

We wore a lot of white in those days, just to piss off all the punk/newwavers and their de rigeur black and red.
I remember one time at the Stone in San Francisco, we were on a circular stage with the curtains drawn so
that noone could see us set up. When the lights went up , we each had a single 150 watt red light focused on each of
us from beneath. It was dim and we were wearing solid white, head to foot.

The curtains opened up and we just stood there for 30 agonizing seconds, completely still...........................doing nothing.
The audience got nervous and then, without a count, we ripped into an incredibly fast version of one of our punkier
songs (I think it was 'Just for the fun of it").
We had perhaps our most perfect show that night...................completely razor sharp and tight as hell.................lots of theatre and lots of
seques and never a dull moment...................all under that dim underlit red light (no other stage lights).

When we finished, the crowd (who were seated at long cafeteria styled tables) just sat there dumbfounded with their mouths open........
....literally.................I"m not kidding.
After a second we got solid applause but we were used to people foaming at the mouth back in the Cruz and I remember leaving the stage
muttering, "I fucking hate San Francisco"

After the show, several people came up to us and said, "that was amazing". that's when I realized that the crowd was dumbfounded
for good reasons. We had all assumed that they didn't like us because there was no reaction............no dancing.............nothing.

alright, alright.............that's enough for me.

and, by the way, I was never in the group DARWIN.......................that was my brother's wife's band, Nancy LeVan. They put out a very good rCD (before Bill was in Nancy's life and before he was involved). come to think of it, I might have sat in for one concert with them but was never in that band. Michael Haumesser was even in one later incarnation of that band.

I am, by the way, going to play music with Michael for the first time in probably 10 or 15 years in the next month or so. That'll be fun.