What were we to do?? We had been kicked out of all the "good" rock bands in town. We didn't fit on, or just "wasn't good enough." There was, however, this little band making waves in our little burg named The Pattern and they were getting a lot of attention-even if the attention was mostly negative. Jim, the bassist, was the first to make the move to punk. Oh, sure, at first it was more "new wave" than anything else-spiked hair....paper clips......wearing funky ties to school....that sort of thing. We listened to The Cars....David Bowie......The Go Go's. Eventually, Jim talked me into joining the punk craze. What the hell, I had the right car for it-a 1963 Corvair. (Later known as the "Corvair of Terror"). Jim and I decided we would need a band. As with any band, we would need a guitarist. There was only one choice-Eric. After all, he lived in our neighborhood, had been kicked out of the same bands we had, and, maybe most importantly, was my best friend. I think Eric's exact words to me were, "what the hell, ain't got nothing else to do-but I'm not cutting my hair." This left us with only one person left-a drummer. The drummer is always the hardest part of any band because you have to be able to practice at his or her house. Some parents just aren't real wild about that idea-especially if the music is Punk. We did find someone, however. His name was Lyn and while he may not have been punk, he was certainly no conformist. We now call Lynn "the fifth Resistor." Lyn, who did an "adequate job" on the drums, didn't have much of a set but he did have a nice place to practice. So, the Resistors were born. The first gig was a small party in the basement of one Chris Belding's house. It just so happened that Chris' parents were out of town and we were asked to play his "punk party." The important thing to keep in mind here, is that we only knew six songs at this point. Oddly enough, the party was a big success. We just played those same songs, over and over for about two hours. But in a town crying out for something new, I guess it worked. We later learned some more songs.....up to about 20 or so, opened for The Pattern at a few parties and started to make a name for ourselves. About six months into the whole thing, the band took a turn. We went from a "new wave" sound to more of a hardcore one. We started covering Black Flag and the sort. At the same time, the bassist for The Pattern, a one Scott Colburn, decided to branch out of his band to form his own-Killing Children. To do this, Scott asked Eric and Jim to help him out. In doing this, in my opinion, he would accomplish two things-one, form a new better band with himself on lead vocals, and two-begin the demise of The Resistors. What, to this day, I don't understand is why he asked me to accompany him to audition a drummer. Scott and I had never really gotten along, so I thought this was strange. But, I agreed to go, if nothing else just to be nosey, and we arrived at the home of Ken. Ken's house had a huge basement. In the corner, was one of the nicest drumsets I had ever seen-a Ludwig Double Bass. "OK," I thought to myself, "the kid's parents have some money. This doesn't mean he knows how to play them." Then the kid sat down on "the thrown." Not only did this guy blow away our drummer, in my opinion, he was one of the best local drummers I had ever heard! I was just amazed. Of course, a plan formed in my head........... Upon arriving home, I quickly gathered Eric and Jim together for a meeting. "We need this guy," I told them. Did I mention Ken had his own P.A.? A drummer with his own P.A.-what else could you ask for. Eric and Jim said "if you can get him, go for it" and that's just what I did. I called Ken a few minutes later and don't ask me how, but I conned him into joining us. We had a party to play in just two weeks, so Ken had to get busy learning about 25 new songs. Wasn't a problem for Ken though. We jammed everyday for at least three hours and the party with the new drummer was a hit. You know it's a hit when the cops get called and they were called twice that night! New songs were written after that party. We dropped all of the Cars tunes and went straight up hardcore. Jim and I had our hair cut to almost nothing. (Remember, this was the '80's and long hair was the norm then). We opened for The Pattern at the Commons Mall late that summer. In our little town, playing there was the big time. In the fall of 1982, Ken was a freshman at Purdue. In an effort to impress some chick I'm sure, Ken got us a gig opening for a punk band named, The Screaming Dogs. This was the show of shows-hell, the punks there trashed the place-during the SOUND CHECK!! It was certainly the best show we ever played and we blew the Dogs off the stage. People can up to Ken all through college talking to him about that show. Another big show was in Indianapolis opening for The Pattern, The Repellents, and the Zero Boys. We certainly thought we had hit the big time Sometime later, I guess we all got hit in the head with something because we changed the name of the band to Andropov's Assassins. It was a strange time and we don't like to talk about it much if we don't have to. In January of 1983 Scott once again came to the band with an idea. He wanted to record all the bands in Columbus for the Columbus Compilation Tape. This was Scott's first recording effort. Today, Scott is a big-time producer out in Seattle and you can check out his stuff here. It's worth a look-lots of good punk! Also about this time, The Pattern was featured on an L.P. called, The Master Tape. It featured a lot of Indiana punk bands, including the infamous Zero Boys. In the spring of 1983 we were asked to record on Master Tape II but unfortunately, Eric and Jim had signed up for the Air Force and Eric was leaving in June. This spelled the end of the Resistors. Through the 1980's we would get together in one form or another-either a different bassist or a substitute guitarist. We played one show in Columbus with a substitute guitarist, while Jim was on leave in August of 1986. This was a decent show but we incorporated a few rock hits and the crowd reaction was mixed. When Eric and Jim were discharged in '87, they, along with Ken formed a rock band. Sadly, due to some personcal conflicts, Jim and the band parted company. This band later became Big Bang and stayed together until 1992. In the summer of 1996, it came to my attention that everyone was living in our little town once again. I also heard through the grapevine ( I hadn't talked to Ken or Jim for a years at this point) that Ken and Jim wouldn't mind putting The Resistors back together. It took some doing, but I arranged a meeting in July of that year and we all agreed it would be fun to play some of the old songs again. The first practice, however, didn't take place until September. The practice went much better than we expected and, in fact, some songs sounded better than they did some 14 years ago. Eric and I wrote Punk's Not Dead after reading the back of a T-shirt at Spencers in Greenwood. (Eric and I hit every Spencers in Indy looking for these shirts for everyone in the band-we did find them by the way). After a great deal of calling and almost begging, I finally landed us a show at Rhino's in Bloomington In. The show was May 16th, 1997 and while it was a blast getting ready for it, the show itself didn't go so well. Musically, I think we did a great job but the club's owner put us on first at 7:00 P.M.. There was only about 20 people there for our part of the show-which is more than we could say for The Hate Choir. the band that followed us. These guys are a great band but the only people who heard their part of the show were the ones in the parking lot. After the Bloomington show, the band hit a slow down in the late 1990's. Over the last 6 years the band has had a tough time just getting together to have lunch. Youth is truly wasted on the young. The band did perform at the Cottage Ave. Blcok Party in 2004. In the early days of 2006 the band made the decision to get together once a month. The goals in mind at the time were to write new material, perhaps something more modern and less "punk." In late March the band was given the chance to play at The Crump Theater. Practices were then dedicated to the show. Much to the bands surprise, the May 13th show was a big success. This inspired Jim and Joe to sit down and write new material-aimed at the roots of what the band has always been about. In July however, Eric decided to retire from the genre of Punk. Eric's departure left the band with a serious decision to make: Hang it up, or move on with someone new. 48 hours later Ken called Dano, his longtime friend. In the late 1980's, Eric, Ken and Dano had been part of the band "Big Bang,". Dano has always been known to be an excellent bass player. This then begged the question-what about guitar? Dano answered the call, in more ways then one. Meeting with Jim and Joe for the first time, they knew Dano was the perfect fit for the role. Dano when out "to the woodshed" and in two weeks learned nearly all the bands songs. Enter The Doctor! Chris "Doc" Shew was tapped to play lead guitar in August. The bands thinking was, "if one guitar is good, two are fantastic" and this thinking has proven to be completely accurate! Doc, Eric and Joe had attempted to form a band in the late 70's and Jim has stated Doc was his inspiration to learn the bass guitar. Doc and Dano were both part of the metal band Iron Cross as well. In the mid-80's Doc had filled in for Eric a few times and even co-wrote several songs such as "Nympho" and "My Life." In a sense, Doc has been part of the band all along and even as Eric departed he stated Doc was