“Chorange!!!”

Chapter 32

Nineteen years ago, I was working alone at Scotti's Records in Madison early one morning. I had a bagel and a coffee, which at that time would have been light and sweet (how far we've come to be black…) and I was on the internet. I had a system. First, I would do Facebook and scroll around for 20 minutes unless there's something (... so no). Then I would go to the internet for another 20 minutes and then finally I would do Myspace because all my friends were there. And all the bands were there too. I was scrolling around and I saw the Black Lodge. Now I know The Get Up Kids are the owners of Black Lodge, but not everyone knows this. Right now as I’m writing this, I look down and I have a Get Up Kids T-shirt (one of the thousand Get Up Kids t-shirts that I own) that I cherish. They’re doing a week-long workshop of recording sessions and they need bands. And I thought “holy shit - this could be our big break.” So I called The Black Lodge and left a message with all the info and that was that.

Then I called over to Scotti's Gillette where Ben was working. And I gave him the info and I said “ yeah I mean it'll never come to that but if we get to go, we need to go” and Ben says, in so many words, “ yeah sounds good”. Then I saw Tom for practice later that evening so I told him then. A few days went by and I thought “you know it was a long shot but we tried”.

A couple of days went by and I wasn't looking at my phone because I was working. I guess I didn’t notice my phone ringing. I got a voicemail and I was like, that’s weird. I don’t ever get a voicemail from a number I do not know. So I listened.

“Hey Dan, it's Ryan Pope - you're in. Give me a call and we can talk details but if you could be there by Monday, it would be great.”

Oh my God. Ryan Pope gave me a phone call. I texted Tom and Ben and said “Ryan Pope asked me to call him back. I'll let you know what he said.”

I called him back and he picked up on two rings and said “Hello?” and I said “Hey is Ryan there?” and he said “ Speaking”. I told him the same story I left him on his voicemail and he said “Oh yeah, how you doing man. Yeah so you're in. What do you need to know?” And that was that. When I hung up I thought I had a conversation with Ryan Pope - what is my life.

Two days later and we're at our hotel in Lawrence, Kansas. It's late and right next door there's a bowling alley/bar, so we stopped over. We're eating some food and drinking and then it was last call so me and the guys left. We left to walk back to the hotel which is staring at the bowling alley which is like 2 seconds away, but there is a fence. And you know we could hop the fence and we’d be fine because we were 20 years old or maybe we were a little bit drunk so we could walk around the fence. But all of a sudden this guy beeped over at us and said “Hey do you want a ride?” and Ben said “No we're going to the hotel right here” and the guy said “ No I'll drive you” and Ben said “Okay?” confused but happy for the car ride home. Walking it would have been a very fast trip but driving even faster and me, Tom, and Ben are in the backseat…and there's no one in the front passenger seat. And he goes “So what are you guys doing?” and I said, “Oh we're going to record something” and the guy said “Oh yeah? Like guns n' roses?” and with a smirk I said “umm yeah”. And then he was talking non-stop even after he parked the car. And we could not get out of the car because he was talking and talking and talking. And all of a sudden he goes “KU is crazy, it's IQ of two but the Perfect10 are a 10” and with that I get out of the car with Tom and Ben joining me and said “Thanks man I'll see you later. We really appreciate it” and then closed the door without saying goodbye. And he was responding but I was like close the door, boom, done.

It’s early the next morning, maybe 9:00 a.m. But we don't know what to do and Ryan is not answering. So we got coffee and we are hanging out because 9:00am seems too early to be recording anyway. We were thinking more like 2pm would be the recording start time. We put on 30 Rock on DVD. Ben got it from his sister; we’d never seen it. I think all of us laughed out loud.

So 1:30pm, we're driving and it was like Kansas and then some. Fields upon fields upon fields. Then all of a sudden we’re in Eudora Kansas that has a post office, a bar and one clothing store and that's it. The rest were either houses or abandoned stores. At the end of the street was the recording studio, Black Lodge. We rang the doorbell and some voice answers “Hello?” So for the third time, I tell the background story of why we were there and he goes “Oh there you are” and I said "I'm sorry. Were we supposed to be here earlier?” and he goes “Yeah by 10:00am but it's fine. It was mostly getting ready. No worries. Do you have a lot of stuff to bring in?” I said “I think we got it covered” and then we were loading in.

There were two bands for two recordings, Studios A and B. We were in Studio A. B was King of the Plains (or KTP for short). Dan Maxwell band and KTP became best friends. They were a punk punk punk band from Lawrence, Kansas and they couldn't believe we came from New Jersey. (little did they know it was because The Get Up Kids and the history of the recording studio was otherworldly).

Ryan Pope came in around 5:30pm with a coffee and said “Are you Dan? We were looking for you - everything okay?” and I said “Yeah I'm sorry we missed you guys. We will be way earlier tomorrow” and laughed and Ryan said “Yeah, no worries” and then left.

It's Wednesday now and Ben is leaving. He’s done his job and recorded all his drum tracks. Really we all wanted him to stay and hang, but he had to leave, but 3 days was pushing it with school and work waiting for him back home. And I totally get that. So we rolled into town at Eudora, hung out with Ryan Pope at the recording studio before he left with Ben to take him to the airport. Again, what is our life.

Ryan stopped at his house to get something before driving Ben to the airport. Ben is hanging out at the house and all of a sudden Ryan’s roommate rolled in. Ben is like “Hey, sup.” and the roommate says “Hey man I'm Rob. Just eating some cereal.” It took Ben a minute. He’s just the roommate, but holy shit. That’s Robert Suchan from the band Koufax. Think of Joe Jackson and the Cars and a little bit of Braid. That's what Koufax sounds like. Again, what is our life.

Friday. Now we're doing simple things like tambourine, harmonies, etc. That's what you do when you’re wrapping up a recording and we had the time to do it. At the end, I said to Ryan Pope “Hey man, really nice to see you, it's been great. We would really love to see you again at some point” and Ryan said “Oh totally - it was super great to see you and just let me know if you're coming through” and we shook his hand and left.

Saturday we're driving home. We figured we'll get a two-day drive out of it but on Sunday Tom and his dad Bruce were going to hang out watching the Giants game at Bruce’s house so we're hustling. Tom was not talking at all. It was silent for 20 hours including stops. But we had to get home.

It was late, maybe like 8:30 p.m. and we stopped at Denny's in Ohio. Denny's is a chain but we lived in New Jersey where you’d never go to a Denny’s, you’d go to a diner. So when I get the chance, I love Denny's. Tom too. We sat down and the waitress came to us and she goes “Hey y'all! How y’all doing? Can I get a drink started for you?” She was manic and her eyes were bulging out and honestly, she seemed methy. But I just needed her to bring me my burger and then I needed to go to sleep. I said “Yeah can I get a root beer?” and she said “Yep! what about you, young man?” And Tom said “Yeah can I get a Sprite?” and she goes “All right, coming up!”

A few minutes went by and she came back with the drinks and then all of a sudden she said, “I thought you were going to say chorange!” And me and Tom just stopped for a minute and were like “chorange”? So I said “I'm sorry, what did you say?” and the waitress says “Chorange! Cherry and orange! Chorange!!!” with a smile that would kill Snow White. She was grinning from ear to ear and her eyes were fucking crazy. I laughed and said “Oh I've never heard about that. Next time I guess…” and she laughed as well, kind of like a hyena laughing. It was way bizarre and maybe it was a dream, maybe not, you'll never know. But man, chorange. Who’d a thunk.

Sunday we're driving home and we only had a little bit further, like 6 hours, sowe got up early at 7 to leave. It was the best time of my life without Ali. My best friends and the recording studio and it was beyond the best thing that I've done. And to this day I will always love The Get Up Kids.

About 2009, I was in NYC seeing The Get Up Kids for the first time since they broke up and got back together. It was in the Blender Theater and I was waiting for Ali and all of a sudden there's Ryan Pope. It's been 3 years. But it was early, it was kind of sparingly full and it was calm before the storm. So I smiled and waved and that was it. And suprisingly Ryan goes “Hey Dan how are you?” and I froze. He remembered my name. Why in the world would he remember my name? So I said “Hey I was in Lawrence do you remember?” And Ryan said “Yeah that's why I said hi Dan” and then he laughed. And then I laughed and Ali was there now too and she was shocked. Ryan says “It's good to see you. I got to go - enjoy the show”. I'll never forget that. Forever.

Jim Suptic, Rob Pope, Ryan Pope, Matt Pryor and Dustin Kinsey of The Get Up Kids