E. Ron Harding (RIP) - Vocals
Sean Smith - Bass
Bobby Wane - Guitar
Doug Wilkerson - Drums
I never saw Superchrist play but I got a copy of this demo from Doug 26 years ago. I lost my copy and think I got the tracks from Gayle Truax but I can't remember, even that was a long time ago. Big thanks to guitarist Bobby Wane for supplying some details:
I was just learning guitar and Ron didn't have enough lyrics for the sketches were were working with so he kept pulling things out of a diary that I kept in high school of acid trips. A few months later the band actually started practicing, evolved into a a really different version of itself, and went into the studio to record a nice set of songs by a "professional" who wore a perm and kept insisting we sound like BOSTON.
SuperChrist didn't play out in Eugene much. Co-Art, Max's, and a few parties here and there. It was really just a "practice band" for the next iteration, which was Flower (Ron as singer) & Beads of Mercury (Sean as singer).
A typical show would be me handing out set lists to the band 2 minutes beforehand that nobody could read because my hand-writing was too small; this would typically result in Doug playing one song while the band played a completely different song. At the end I'd ask him why he fucked up so bad on XYZ song and he would say "Oh shit, I thought you were playing a different song!" And it would go that way for almost all of the songs. My sun-glasses would keep getting stuck and dangling from my hair until I pulled a clump of hair out of my head to remove them. Ron flailed around the stage bumping into Doug's drum set and stomping all over my guitar pedals while Doug stabbed him in the back with his drum sticks trying to get him away from us. Ron's signature "move" was the "swoop-a-loop", which was a kind of crazy Iggy Pop meets Michael Jackson move with his shirt off. Mid-way through a song we'd notice that Ron go missing, as he would usually wind up writhing around on the ground in front of the stage.
Filling in some blanks for the Blog:
E. Ron Harding (RIP) - Vocals (Modern Laundry, SuperChrist, Flower)
Sean Smith - Bass (The Crows, Dionysian 5, SuperChrist, Flower, Beads of Mercury, Chelsea Speed Party, Lee Rude)
Bobby Wane - Guitar (SuperChrist, Flower, Beads of Mercury, The Dotted Line, The Vicious Cycle, Invisible, The Charm & The Conspiracy, Arthur & Yu, This Blinding Light)
Doug Wilkerson - Drums (Mind Garage, SuperChrist, Flower, Beads of Mercury, Chelsea Speed Party)
Superchrist Demo
1. White House Turns Black
2. Super Christ
3. Liar
4. Sing For Your Soul
