April 16, 1994: This Date In Rock and Roll History

Although most of my posts deal with or revolve around a situation that I am experiencing here in Ukraine, this one is intended to be a little different. Usually they are just life updates directed towards Eleonora for all to read, but this is not like the others.

As some people know, my passion for live music has been a very important part of my life and one thing that I really appreciate is the personal connections it has allowed me to make over the years since 1986 when I got my first “bootleg” tapes from my friend Bill O’Donovan in the 10^th grade. My network of penpals of music lovers who are as consumed with attending, taping and the trading of live music tapes started small and grew into an international web that continues to this day. It really is amazing when traders from years ago find me on Facebook now or I talk to someone about people I knew years ago, only to find they are still in contact with the same person these days. It’s a very personally gratifying feeling that few can appreciate on the same level. Even El, who has met some of these people in my life, probably has not felt the same sense of connection that first time you discover that you and the person you are speaking with know the same person on another continent. It’s a “small world” feeling that never ceases to amaze me. At the height of my tape trading the easiest way to make new contacts was to ask for recommendations. This was years before the internet played any role in communication. You had a friend that knew your taste in music and could put you together with someone who liked similar stuff. I would mail off a list and hope the person on the other end would see something of interest and get back to me to set up a trade.

In 1993 I was living in New Jersey and was friends/trading with a guy named Mark who lived in the same town. Eventually he gave me a recommendation of these three guys in Boston that were taping and collecting the same bands we were and thought they might be interested in trading with me. I sent my list off to Lee, introducing myself to him, his brother, and their friend. In an effort to attract more serious traders, these three guys from Newton, MA put all of their tapes on one list. Little did I know that Lee was losing interest in the trading thing and his brother had different musical tastes than I, so they passed my list on to their friend who saw potential for future trades. It worked out great. We even started talking on the phone. I would tell them about the shows I had seen and would see in New York, while they would do the same for Boston. In late 1993, I moved to Dallas for a year. My connection with these guys remained constant even though I was 1500 miles further away. However, in a move understood by only a few people, in April of 1994 a historical event happened in San Antonio, TX. I got a call from the Boston crew that the band UFO had reformed with their classic lineup who hadn’t played together since 1979 and they were playing one show in the USA. Yep, a handful in Germany and one in the US. That one being in San Antonio, Texas. San Antonio is about a five hour drive from Dallas and I admittedly knew little about the band. But, one of these guys had laid out his plan to take a Greyhound Bus from Boston, MA to Dayton, OH where he would meet up with a friend and then drive from Dayton down to San Antonio to see their favorite band in the world- UFO. After hearing that plan, how could I turn down the five hour drive from Dallas? I remember the excitement as I was to meet a guy I had so much in common with and had known for a year or more as I went to meet him in person for the first time. I knocked on the door and as it opened I introduced myself to Matt. We hit it off immediately. We were shot out of a cannon. We were talking about concerts and music and everything to fill in the blanks that long distance phone calls created. Realizing which mutual friends we had and talking about things that seemed way more important in that moment.

The next day the rest of the group went to see the Alamo (believe it or not, Matt hadn’t come from the farthest point for this one concert and there were about ten of us in the hotel- everyone else in Matt’s circle, but I didn’t know them). Matt and I decided to go to see if we could bootleg a soundcheck. We drove to the site of the concert and I don’t remember what we asked the guard at the gate, but he did let us drive into the parking lot close to the stage area, which was outdoors. After a while, we started to hear a lot of tuning of instruments and a lot of “check-one-two’s” as they readied for the concert that night. I will never in my life forget that day, sitting in my 1990 red Honda Accord with the engine off (because if you turned the engine on for the air conditioning, you couldn't hear the tuning) in the incredible San Antonio heat. It was so hot…and boring. As we sat in that car baking under the windshield there was only so much time we could spend silent while listening to silence, before one of us would start talking, only to be interrupted by a single snare drum being soundchecked over and over and over and over again. All told, we sat in that parking lot for 3 hours that morning eventually hearing the entire band soundcheck three songs. Of course we had our recorders with us and both taped the first reunited UFO performance on American soil in almost 15 years! I was happy. Matt was ecstatic. This is a guy who, when we got back to the hotel put on the clock radio in the room and when they played an interview with one of the band members, got his tape recorder and captured the sound over the air, keeping everyone else in the room silent- I knew I had finally met someone with my level of dedication to their interest in live music!

After the show, Matt went back to Boston and when I moved back to the northeast we would get together regularly. The last time I saw him was when he and some of his friends came to my hometown for a Dokken concert. He always kept that torch burning for 80’s hair metal. I was more of a pre-1985 hair metal fan, while Matt was more of a post-1985 fan. Dokken was one of the bands that actually straddled both eras. I went to the show with him. A couple of months later I was in Boston for a show and tried to meet up with Matt, alas, our paths did not cross. I stayed in contact with him consistently. On February 20, 2003 I sent him an email. He responded just before heading out the door to see one of his 80’s hair metal favorites: Great White at The Station in West Warwick, RI. His response was probably the last email he ever wrote.

The next morning my mother had asked me if I had heard the news of a nightclub fire in Rhode Island. At this point there were few details available. It was a very surreal moment for me, at first thinking “I don’t know anyone in Rhode Island who likes Great White” then “I know Matt likes Great White, but he wouldn’t go to Providence for a show that was probably playing Boston too” to finally, “who am I kidding? I would make that trip for a band I liked, I wonder if he was at that show”. When emails to him went unanswered, I called the only mutual friend that I thought could keep me in the loop. His name is Bill and he told me that Matt and another mutual friend, Joe, had indeed gone to that show that night, but that there was no information available on current conditions. We knew that some people had been killed at the scene while others had been taken to the hospital unconscious without identification. Bill promised to keep me updated. He called back the next day and left a message that Joe was in the hospital with severe burns, but that our friend Matt had not made it out of the club that night.

This weekend marks the 9 year anniversary of this tragedy. I suppose if you are over the age of 30 you might even remember when it happened? 100 people perished in the fire that night. Matt was a good friend to me and I will always remember that day sitting in that parking lot suffering together for the love of what had brought us together in the first place.

All these years later I write about Matt today, but I think about him all the time and about the role he played in my life. Tape on, my friend.

The following profile appeared in the Boston Globe newspaper shortly thereafter:
Matthew James Pickett

Bellingham

Matthew Pickett's passion for music was legendary. In a single year, the avid heavy metal fan attended more concerts than most people would in a lifetime. He cultivated another generation of music lovers in his family by taking nephews and nieces to their first rock concerts. Pickett, 33, often set up recording equipment to capture a show, as he did before the Great White concert last Thursday.
"Matt collected concert recordings from shows all around the world and could probably tell you all of the songs a band would play at a concert before the band had a chance to perform them," Ben Moebes, a longtime friend, said of Matty, as Pickett was known to his wide circle of friends.
Moebes fondly remembered a summer that he and Pickett spent playing around Echo Bridge in Newton Upper Falls, which became a special place for Pickett. It was there that he proposed to his fiancee, Wendy Weinberg, last year. The two had recently bought a home and were to be married in October. Members of Pickett's close-knit family spoke of his love for Weinberg and also how they treasured his warmth and sense of humor. The baby of the family was described as "the consummate family man," who was always there to offer love and support.
"All my brothers looked out for me and loved me with all their hearts, but Matthew kept a special eye on me," said Dorothy Pickett, his only sister.
Pickett grew up in Newton and graduated from Newton South High School before going on to the University of Massachusetts-Boston. In addition to his love for music and sports, Pickett was well-traveled and spoke French and Spanish.
"I'll continue to live my life but from here on out I'll do it a little better, think a little harder, take one more step further and love with all of my heart," said Dorothy Pickett. "That's what Matthew would do."

RHONDA STEWART