Bon here.  We just noticed that this Friday, March 9th, is the 23rd anniversary of the first show Girl Trouble ever played.  It was a community college Battle of the Bands (not the scammy corporate pre-sale ticket BOTB but the kind where people pay one small fee at the door, get to mark a ballot and nobody goes to a "next round").  The competing bands couldn't figure us out.  Our guitar amp speakers were made out of plywood, the Ouija guitar was made in a high school shop class and my little drumset was purchased for $70 at the Sears Surplus Store.  One band called 4-Play (still love that name) had more money invested in their bizarre leather chest harness vests than we did in all of our equipment.  They brought their equipment in on custom made plexiglas handcarts. I was scared to death.  We started off with "Out of Limits" and Dale went completely out of tune.  KP came up with the idea that we should throw cans of root beer (!).  This was a bold move that I was against, but he thought that nobody would heckle us (aka beat us up) if they were enjoying a delicious beverage that we gave them.  It worked (although we never did throw cans of anything again).  The half hour we were required to play went so fast I couldn't believe it was over.  All our friends showed up and we came in second.  I was secretly relieved because the winner got to do another "victory" set and we barely had the half hour of material as it was.  We played Cramps covers, "Tell Us the Truth" by Sham 69, and "White Girl" by X. 

Seems like only yesterday...