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With the success of the Warstars September gig in Lithia Park, summer 2005 was definitely over. Andy as feeling that bringing the Warstars back together in 2005 was the best thing ever. Being blessed with the opportunities to play summer festivals and on his own birthday at his favorite pub in town was the icing on the cake.

Now Halloween was just around the corner, and Andy had his sights set on bigger and better things for the Warstars. The plan had been to set up an all ages show with another couple local bands. Andy thought the university would be a great place to have it go down.

Andy wandered up to SOU where Warstars had begun seven years prior. He happened into KSOC, SOU's student radio station, and slotted Warstars for a "battle of the bands" gig. This looked like it would be a lot of fun.

Andy and Thrasher got back to work on the songs right away. The idea was to play the show as a two piece. Meanwhile, Thrasher had been voicing discontent throughout the entire duration of his tenure with Warstars about not having a bass player. Andy just kept reminding him about The White Stripes.

Even so, Andy and Thrasher had both layed out the desire to manifest a bass player as soon as possible. And then it happened. A week before the SOU gig, Andy ran into his old buddy Josh who, as it turned out played bass. It also turned out that Josh was up for the challenge of learning some Warstars songs.

So a week before the show, Josh showed up to jam. The chemistry was there between all three band members, except the railroad effect seemed to be happening. Andy sensed that Jason and Josh were going to "force their hand" so to speak, and try to include Josh in the line-up for the upcoming gig.

Andy, knowing better, that someone learning the songs only days before the show, was bound to make mistakes due to nerves. Andy told Josh "Don't get any ideas about playing this next show... The next one, definitely, but not this one."
There were some words, and Josh said he thought he'd quit (no sooner than he'd joined) if he couldn't play. The hand was forced.

To keep everybody happy, compromise was made. Josh was to play the show. Now, the Warstars did not show up to compete. They showed up to play music because they love to play music. However, the judges looked at the event as a competition, and a popularity contest as well.

A hip-hop duo singing to a compact disc took first place. A hip-hop trio playing instruments took second. A hippie with a guitar and songs about hitch-hiking and a how "Bush sucks" took third. And the Warstars, with a raging set that had more energy than anybody else's set took fourth. And yes, the stars fucking rocked hard.

It was rather dissapointing that all the punk kids and transvestites that showed up in hopes of seeing a band like Warstars were driven off by the hip-hop and hippies. Warstars had a hundred free compact discs to give away to them. It's even worse that it was a popularity contest.

Worst of all, Josh's girlfriend and sister showed up and looked to the stage while the Warstars performed with a scowl of feminazi angst after hearing "Virginia's Vagina", an original love song. This not only disheartened Josh (who looked miserable and sad after such a great show) but caused him to quit the band.

Yoko "Oh No!"

What crowd was left after the hip-hoppers performed (which was actually many of the hip-hop performers themselves) really enjoyed Warstars and took photos of the boys performing. Also, the MC loved the performance as well. So popularity shmopularity. Who fucking needs it?

A few really neat things about the show... During "Jesus Loves Me" Andy and Josh jumped up and down in unison, so stoked on Jason's driving beats. And if you listen closely to "Bela Lugosis" you can hear Josh jumping up into the air and crashing down on the stage again and again. Rad.

Andy broke two of his strings on this token Halloween jam, and it still came out great. And lastly, it was such a great feeling for Andy to be playing at the same University where his band had played six years prior. We live in a circle, they say...

The show was released on a compact disc featuring the Warstars complete set, and the Beat Greens* complete set.

Thanks KSOC and SOU!

*Andy had done freestyle rap with Beat Greens at the 2003 "Emerge N' See" festival in Ashland, and was stoked to perform along side them. You can hear Andy on the Beat Greens second jam shouting "Got Steel Beams! Gettin' Some Fuel" Ah Yeah...