Hi peops, this is a message we received from a Garyn.  He's a show promoter / activist.  This is his correspondence with Annihilation Time in blue.  The final letter is my response. 

-Fritz / Dogs of Ire


 

Just thought you'd like to see what THEY'RE saying went down at your show in Oakland..:


Garyn
Thanx
for that very well thought out letter you sent us. Its always nice to
see how quick people are to throw the label "racist jock assholes"
around so freely when its obvious you did no investigation of your own.
My first reaction after I read your letter was to blow it off. Its
really easy to tell some one over the internet all kinds of shit about
how "if y'all ever do a rollover in your tour vehicle and die bursting
into flames, I doubt anyone would miss you enough to spit on you".
I
dont know why Im going to bother explaining our side of the story to
you, because Im sure you dont care, and wont listen. Judging by your
letter, Its clear you dont do a whole lot of thinking anyway. but hear
it is...
.This band called dogs of ire played a house show in
oakland. There were allot of drunk people going nuts for all of the
bands. While DOI were playing, some member of the band got hit with and
orange juice container that our bass player threw (not at him in
particular), they got also pelted with several beer cans (keep in mind
that all the other bands playing that night before them got hit with
beer cans too, not in a malicious way, thats just how people party in
oakland ). any way, I think DOI thought they were getting singled out
and they got mad about it. One of the guys in the band charged our bass
player. When that happened a bunch of people in the crowd attacked the
dogs of ire guy thinking he was trying to beat up our bass player. It
was over in about 5 seconds and the dude in the band jumped back on
stage and finished the set. after that the other guys in the band got
pissed and started talking shit to every one while they were loading
out. Our drummer accused them of having no sense of humor and being ''
nazis'' about the whole situation and then siege heild them in a
mocking way. Our drummer is mexican and native american, and defiantly
not a nazi. any way, the dogs of ire guys took it the wrong way and one
of the dude ran up and socked noel (our drummer). The whole thing
flared up again. a bunch of the people at the show were pissed, we were
pissed, dogs of ire were pissed. I remember this kid named sam yelling
"GO HOME KOOKS!" a few times. Later I hear that they thought that he
said "gooks", but i can assure you, there's no fucking way. It was just
some bull shit drunken drama that should have been over right then and
there. Both sides we being dipshit macho idiots, BUT NO ONE WAS BEEING
RACIEST.
A couple days later i see this shit on the internet about
how we are nazis, and how we were calling the band gooks. give me a
fucking break. we have sent those dudes our number on myspace and tried
to get them to call us and talk about it rather that this internet
drama bullshit that seems to be the way people in "punk" deal with
things now, but they never called us. thats the whole truth and nothing
but. I was there and saw every thing first had, both sides were being
dip shits. So thats it. If you still think we are nazis, and you want
to talk more shit about things you dont know anything about, thats
fine. I would just hope that you come say it to our faces instead of
conveniently sitting behind a computer like a nerd.
Love..
Graham Clise
your bro,----------------- Original Message -----------------te: Jan 9, 2009 12:14 PM


I'd
sooner save my piss for a tree than put y'all out if you were on fire.
I've set up shows for many touring bands out here, and y'all would be
one of the only bands that I would tell to fuck off and not even send
you in any good direction out here. Nice gimmick, though! I mean, being
total morons and calling yourselves "punk" when you're just a bunch of
must be what gets you your shows. It certainly can't be that shitty
version of what y'all call music, but I would say is completely
terrible (even for butt rock), you also have a shitty name and I'm sure
that your lyrics are VERY creative. The funny thing is that I would've
never even known of your existence until I heard about the Dogs of Ire
show out there. All I can say is that if y'all ever do a rollover in
your tour vehicle and die bursting into flames, I doubt anyone would
miss you enough to spit on you.

Garyn




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Garyn,

Fritz here from Dogs of Ire.   First, thanks for your support, and we're sorry about the delayed response.  I read your letter for the first time yesterday.   Second, we feel bad that you had to endure such a boneheaded letter from a pile of human turds known as Constipation Time.  Okay, Annihilation time.  The Oakland episode occurred Dec 26, 2008 and much has been circulating about this from various people since then.  I’m only writing this for the many people that have contacted us in show of their support.  So this is our side of the story straight from the tap for the first time.  And the last.

WHAT WENT DOWN IN OAKTOWN…
or
FASCISTS CLAMING TO BE VICTIMS = YAWN
or
"NO ONE WAS BEEING RACIEST" – Annihilation Time

   It was a cold and lonely night.  The remedy: a warehouse on San Pablo.  Our friends from Acts of Sedition, who set up the show, were hinting at the possibility of them not playing.  This was the first sign of bad news because these guys are truly amazing.  The bands before us were raw and entertaining.  We were hella enthused to plug in and play already.  The first show of tour kinda excitement, ya know?

   As we're setting up, our drummer, Angel, informs me that a full beer had been thrown at his drumset. I knew it was gonna be a typical rowdy night.  No sweat, we live for this shit.  Four clicks later the thrash has begun.  We're into it.  Feeling it.  A beer hits me on my shoulder but it's too late.  The thrash has begun and there's no stopping us.  We hammer through three numbers and pause briefly to explain the next song "Siempre Para Sa Iyo" because it's sung in Tagalog.  To my surprise I get a "fuck you" from someone hiding in the corner.  No problem, just another white guy that isn't down for non-english material.  But in Oakland?  We precede to pummel through our set…did I mention we're in a zone?  Next thing I see is Tim (our noise stitching doctor) run straight into the crowd.   At that moment I thought he was just having fun with the crown, dancing n' shit.   We play on.  As Tim emerged back from the crowd he told us that he went to confront the guy who threw some liquid at his gear.  Our bassist, Brent, tells me that things are getting violent and gives me a look of concern.  I get on the mic and tell whoever was throwing shit to "stop being spoiled American brats and learn to drink your beer instead of waste it".   Tim jumps back into our set like the champ he is and we continue to rock the hinges off all the doors.  Someone pelts me in my back with a full can.  Brent gets hit hard with a heavy can straight to his temple.  Hard.  For those of you who don't know Brent, he's also my younger brother and let me just say that he has the thickest of motherfucking skulls known to the Philippines.  But I knew it had to sting a good one.  More beer is being thrown than ever and I'm not talking cute little rainbow throws either.  I'm talking beers thrown with force behind them.  We continue our noise assault and beautifully execute our beer-drenched performance to completion.  Bravo!

   As I'm putting my chords away several people come up to me and offer to back us up if any shit goes down.  I was a bit shocked by this. I didn't think things were that serious, but the image of Brent getting pelted in the head didn't sit well with me either.  At this point, I knew the rowdiness was on the negative side and not just fun and games.  As I noticed the tone and faces of kids concern, I began to be as well.  As we're gathering our equipment to load up, Tim tells me that in the process of running into the crowd to try and confront whoever threw liquid at him, he was attacked and kicked on the ground by a group of people he could not identify.  Damn!  I couldn't believe this went down during our set.  I couldn't believe how ignorant I was for not seeing this for what it was.  I mean, shit, I've been in plenty of drunken shows where things get crazy but I felt really bad for Tim.  We load up.  Now time to do some investigating.

   I walk back into the place and walk through the crowd several times to feel the place out.  I stand right in the middle of a crowd of people drinking.  I want to let these people know that we're done playing our set and that if they wanna start anything I'm now available.  I stand there waiting and ready.   At this point, The Separation began their power driven set.  I hate playing any kind of authority figure, it's just fucking silly you know?  I walk to the back of the room and sit there in the dark and watch the crowd begin to loosen up.  To the left I see a group of people getting rowdy and they were sieg heiling among themselves and laughing.  In Oakland?   I'm quite alarmed by this.  I don't think it's funny at all.  Then I see them throwing beers at the band.  Booyah!  My focus is now on these shitheads.  I walk closer.  I see a guy conversing with another using punches to tell a story.  He's into it.  Could this guy be part of the group that attacked Tim?  He looks to his right and see's me looking straight at him.  We make eye contact.  He quickly looks away like a thief interupted.  His conversation comes to a halt.  Now at this point I don't know who these people are or if they are the people behind all of this, but damn, if it smells like shit, looks like shit then…

   I go outside and tell a couple people that run the place about the sieg heiling phenomenon. Nothing was done. All of a sudden, I feel an overwhelming amount of negativity.  Punk shows in the early 90's in Southern California were riddled with violence.  But nazi violence was something else.  I get flashbacks of various experiences all at once.  The most memorable was an MDC show in Riverside, 1990.  Twenty- something nazis come out of nowhere seig heiling and start beating the living shit out of people standing in line to enter the club.  What I remember most was this poor kid who was minding his own business as several nazis grab his head and slam it to the ground multiple times.  This kid was probably as old as I was.  I was 14 at the time.   I could feel his head collide on the concrete like a bowling ball shaking the earth.  He was taken out on a stretcher.  It gives me goose bumps thinking about this shit, it's fucking disturbing.  They were in and out just like that.  That initial feeling of helplessness and powerlessness stayed with me for a long time.  I never want to feel like that again and I told myself that I was never gonna feel like that again.  I've had many nazi encounters since that time but never again was I a hapless spectator.  Fuck that!  Nazis, nazi sympathisers, or any fascists are not welcome within my community.  So, when I see people having a good old time sieg heiling, you know where I'm coming from.

   Im now in defense mode.  Jacob, a friend of ours in Oakland tells us that all those guys sieg heiling and throwing beers are in Annihilation Time.  He says we should just leave and go to his house and chill out and party instead. Hell no.  I've never heard of the band and I'm kinda confused about this all going down in this city.  In Oakland?   I enter the room once again and walk to the front of the room to congratulate The Separation on their superb set.  Dogs of Ire and crew join me.  As we walk through the crowd to leave I turn around one last time.  I see Tim and my brother walking behind me as someone crouches down in a horse stance position and throws up a fat sieg heil inches behind their backs.  It's the same turdbag who I spotted earlier who I made eye contact with while he was flaunting his fighting motions.  My brother and Tim had no idea this had happened.

   I walk right up to the prick and asked him "you wanna sieg heil to my face?" I look deep into his eyes and press my forehead up against his.   He responds with a shit-stained grin.  Still, no balls to do it in my face, only behind our backs…how typical.  I push the overweight sloth outta my face.  He falls and rolls over like a mangled tumbleweed.  Someone sucker-punches me twice from my left side.  My face is left clean as Manny Pacquiao.  I look to see who hit me.  I see a group of hessians all identical right down to their Brett Michaels split ends and sleeveless denim jackets.  Reminds me of a bad Dokken video.  Mr. tumbleweed (who I later found out is the drummer for Annihilation Time) gets back up and I land a clean right since he's the closest one to me.  After that, all hell breaks loose.  Fists are flying and people are getting trampled.  Our backs are to the front door as people are trying to separate us.  Someone chucks a loogie at me and yells, " go home LA faggots!"   "Is that all you got you fucking nazis?", I yell back.  Next thing I know, I'm getting called a PC nazi.  Seriously?  Fine.  I'll wear a PC nazi badge, and you can wear your nazi badge and let's do this.  I motion to the hessians to come outside.  We step out.  They never do.  We leave.

    My girlfriend ended up with a lump on her forehead and a bruised shoulder.  Everyone else was okay.  Two days later we were at our show in Seattle and we got hit up about the episode in Oakland.  The Separation posted a bulletin about the fiasco and people were curious as to what had happened.  To this day, I have not read the bulletin.  I hadn't even written about our experience yet so I was happy they took it upon themselves to do so.

Now it's Jan 23, 2009 and people are still wondering what the fuck happened.  After I see the letter from Constipation Time as the official story of the Oakland episode, I decide we're not gonna let them get away with that crooked story too.

 

Our beef:

1.    We couldn’t care less about the beer getting thrown.  We can deal with that.  Whether or not the full beer thrown at my brother’s head was a “malicious” act is for him to decide. Not the person throwing it.  Can I crack your head open with a hammer?  I promise it won’t be malicious.

2.    Tim has every reason to be angry at any liquid thrown at his gear.  Have you seen the shit he has?  It’s all electronic bullshit that he saved his hard-earned money to buy.  We’re not rich and even all the beer cans thrown at us could not pay to replace his gear.  I guess Annihilation Time has money to burn?  After all, they certainly have plenty of beer to waste.  Personally, I’d rather drink it.


3.    I saw plenty of sieg heiling that evening, enough to give Skrewdriver a hard-on. This happened long before we were being accused of “having no sense of humor” and being labled “PC Nazis”.    Could this be coming from the same Annihilation Time that loves to back up their roadies who wear Skrewdriver t-shirts?  Carlos from Sin Orden can tell people his own Constipation Time experience.  There's a reason why A-Time got their tires slashed and windows busted out the last two times they played in Chicago.   They've never returned. 

4  .  We have no desire to distinguish “gooks” from “kooks” or if they were really sieg heiling  or discovering  new methods of letting blood circulate through their arms before throwing  beer at people playing instruments. 

5.  “thats just how people party in Oakland “.  Why do these fucks think they represent Oakland?  We have plenty of friends and family in the east and west bay and if they caught wind of this we would have to wait in line to give Annihilation Time a proper ass-whipping.

6.  “we have sent those dudes our number on myspace and tried to get them to call us and talk about it rather that this internet drama bullshit that seems to be the way people in "punk" deal with things now, but they never called us”. This is what the  A-time turd holes did write us: “Yo this is Noel (Mr. Tumbleweed) I play drums in AT.I would try to contact you directly but I don't have a myspace and seeing as this whole thing has somehow turned into a band thing this seems easier.  I now you guys are on tour still but I'd like to talk about what happened as I   was trying to before I got sucker punched in the ear. As it is this is wasting a lot of time and resource.Give me a call 510=414=6838. Later.” 
 
Wow.   How SHOULD "people in punk” deal with a group of seig heilers at a show?  I have no intention of contacting Constipation Time.  I don’t have any desire to work it out with them.  I did my part.   My job is done.  If he didn’t get the message from the first punch, I’ll gladly let him know again.  By the way, I’m the one who got sucker-punched.  When Mr. Tumbleweed got hit, he knew why and who it was from.  It’s amazing how these dimwits are now claiming to be the victims.   The only reason why this fecal waste contacted us in the first place is because of the bulletin The Separation had written about them.  They’re more concerned with getting their shows canceled than anything.  There’s nothing sincere about them contacting us at all.   

7. “Our drummer is mexican and native american, and defiantly not a nazi”.  Jeeeez, where do I begin?  And these guys are from Oakland, CA ????  Okay shit for brains,  just because your're not from the Third Reich doesn't mean you're above an ass whipping dipshit.  Guess what Einstein? Our drummer is Mexican too; he'd love to do a mean drumroll on your skull just to get you back to your roots.  Let that punch Mr. Tumbleweed took be from all Mexicans and Native Americans who weren’t there to do it themselves…..that reminds me of the story Carlos from Sin Orden told me about how in Chicago he confronted Constipation Time’s roadie for wearing a Skrewdriver t-shirt.  You know what this genius told Carlos?  “Im  not racist because I have a latino friend." Yikes!

8.  Lastly, our beef isn’t just about Annihilation Time.  It’s about people who continue to let this shit go on.  Don’t people know that to do nothing is to encourage more ignorant behavior?   This particular night, nobody did SHIT to stand up to these fucks.  These guys claim Oakland, but I KNOW Oakland does NOT claim them.  My people, stand up for your shit.  They’re not welcome in Chicago.  They’re not welcome in Riverside.  Now, are they welcome in YOUR town?

Peace,
Fritz / Dogs of Ire