Upon graduating from high school I moved out of my parents house, stopped going to church, and joined a local punk band called The Copulated (“it means the fucked, dude”). They had been on the market for a second guitar player and I was excited to be in a group that was booking shows. The high point for me was when we got to open for one of my favorite bands, Hickey, at a sketchy punk house called The Crack House.
Ultimately, The Copulated was an odd fit for me, and I ended up departing in frustration after the the band kinda disintegrated onstage one night opening up for The 39 Steps at the LaFortune House at TU. Long story very short, our individual friendships far outlasted the the band itself. In the ensuing 4-5 years I continued to play music in a band called Mall Punx with the original bass player, Chris Schluneger, Sunset Beach with the guitarist, JP, and Badur Asur with the drummer, Eric Marlow. Sadly, addiction claimed the lives of Chris and Eric at 21 and 23, respectively.
After my departure from the band they kept it together with some different members for another 6 months or so, which is when this show at Shelter 6 happened.
C.O.P. was a band from nearby Stillwater, OK. They had their act together enough to put out some music on Canadian label Arson Records, but I believe this was their only appearance at a park show. They split paths before long, with guitarist Jason Cronk going on to play drums in Kakistocracy.
Here’s a video that could be called “How I learned to love a band playing a genre that is not and never will be my cup of tea”. After sets from The Copulated and C.O.P., Bastard People, all the way from Norman, set about playing an especially drunk set at what was turning out to be an especially drunk show. As is plainly visible, it is a god forsaken train wreck. For fun, I would re-watch this tape in awe of how astoundingly off the rails it was and how much I couldn’t stand anything about it.
Over two decades later though, Bastard People have gotten the last laugh. Eventually, from watching the tape so many times, I ended up knowing all these anthems they slopped their way through that day… and I can’t help but smile if one of them pops into my head. This audio from this VHS could be pressed to wax under the title “Greatest Hits… Live!” and I would not only buy it, but consider it the definitive recorded version of each of these tracks, including the Blitz cover.
Playing out the rest of the summertime daylight were local mosh pit inducers, Brother Inferior. Whether or not you liked them (I most certainly did), if you were involved in the Tulsa diy punk community of the mid to late 90s you definitely saw them- they booked shows as aggressively as they played them, toured every year and their tee shirts and “CLASS WAR NOW!” patches were everywhere you turned. This particular show would mark a new chapter of the band with the departure of founding bassist Alex Simmons and enlistment of ex-Patient Zero guitarist and all around Metal dude, Grant Lohrey. In the following year their music would get meaner and faster, drummer Mikey Spradlin would step down and fliers for shows would proclaim “Brother Inferior (featuring Jason Garvey)”, a veteran of Fort Smith’s grindcore menace, Rash of Beatings. Before calling it quits in 2000, Brother Inferior managed to release even more music with the new lineup, and do a massive US tour followed immediately by an equally ambitious European jaunt.
Following their respective tenures in BI, Alex joined a recently reformed NOTA then played in the Engine Hearts with members of The Refreshments, Hillbilly Blitzkrieg, and Implied Consent, Mikey played in the Mall Punx and The Scumbags, Ryan moved to Portland, Chad turned his creative energy to Assembly of God (a hardcore band, not the church of the same name) Rapparee, and Larkin, Grant played in Hollowed Out and Septic Tumor, and Garvey formed BG with Burned Up Bled Dry’s Evan Garner.
Fairly Loud Noises 
Seen Brother Inferior a few times when I live out there , I lived in Mannford and would drive to find out and see shows in fact my first show was in some 2 story building upstairs on the east side of Tulsa , I forgot who all played but I remember THE KIDS WHO NEVER LEARNED TO COLOR INSIDE THE LINES because of their long name . i moved to Sand Springs for a couple years and seen Brother Inferior a few times . Seem them play with N.O.T.A. one time and then with Subsanity openining for SPAZZ . never got to go to any of the Mohawk Park shows because I moved back to California , then a few years(about 11 years) later I moved back but to Norman this time . Met some good people seen some great bands , had a kid and then my wife wanted to move back to Bakersfield , California where I unfortunately still reside . Met some great people and seen some great bands both times I lived there .
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