This Mistress - Music For Tents Part 3

We end This Mistress week with another recently discovered photo from the This Mistress performance at Wynn Ruffin's "Music for Tents" birthday party in Summer 1988. This line up included (from L to R) Matt Norcross - Bass, Scott McConnell - Synthesizer, Kevin "Bart the Fart" Wilson - Guitar, Tim Harrell - Drums (hidden), Ken Chandler - Vocals, and Matt "Scrap Pap" Skirpan - Guitar.

Behind the scenes with This Mistress

It's turning into a This Mistress week on the blog. Here's another behind the scenes photo from the This Mistress gig at Wynn Ruffin's "Music For Tents" birthday party during Summer 1988. Some pictured are (from L to R) Jackey McConnell (pink shirt), Kevin "Bart the Fart" Wilson (red shirt and two beers), Doug "Drug" Shields (red hat), Robby Wilson (red bandana), Tim Harrell ('fro and mirror shades), and Jim "Aaaarrrrhhhh" Dewey (holding cigarette).

This Mistress and "The Van"

This behind the scenes photo of members from This Mistress was shot at Wynn Ruffin's "Music For Tents" birthday party during Summer 1988. Pictured are (from L to R) Scott McConnell, Matt Norcross (in purple shades mostly hidden behind Matt Skirpan), Matt Skirpan (in "short shorts"), and Ken Chandler.

This happens to also be the only picture of "The Van" that I would occasionally get to borrow from my parents. The Dodge Van 200 customized by Marshall Van Inc was the main form of transportation during the sports playing days of my youth and the scene of many roving "parties" later as I began to drive. Many innocent and not-so-innocent fun times transpired around its whereabouts.

This Mistress - Music For Tents Part 2

Here's another photo from the This Mistress performance at Wynn Ruffin's birthday party in Summer 1988. This line up included (from L to R) Matt Norcross - Bass, Scott McConnell - Synthesizer, Kevin "Bart the Fart" Wilson - Guitar, Tim Harrell - Drums, Ken Chandler - Vocals, and Matt "Scrap Pap" Skirpan - Guitar.

Read the show report here.

This Mistress - Music for Tents

Brian Eno released Music for Airports in 1978. Not to be outdone, This Mistress performed Music for Tents 10 years later in the Summer of 1988!

Seriously, one has absolutely nothing to do with the other but This Mistress did perform under a tent during the Summer of 1988 at a birthday party for Wynn Ruffin (sp?) - a professor(?) at Shippensburg University. On the outskirts of Newburg, PA (population 361 in 2008) and in the shadows of Blue Mountain, This Mistress hit the stage (or should I say grass) for one of their final performances. This line up included (from L to R) Matt Norcross - Bass, Scott McConnell - Synthesizer, Tim Harrell - Drums (obscured by Kevin and Ken), Kevin "Bart the Fart" Wilson - Guitar, Ken Chandler - Vocals, and Matt "Scrap Pap" Skirpan - Guitar (out of frame on the far right).

This was a fun performance with a lot of people in attendance (including Jennean Hunter - foreground center fan in picture). It also had a sort of "Battle of the Bands" vibe to it since there was another band set up at the other end of the tent facing us. Another memorable thing about the day was the presence of a mobile "head" shop which was attached to the trailer hitch of a vehicle. I guess you never know when you'll need a water pipe in the middle of nowhere! A 10th grade teacher of mine, who was in the other band, was sure glad the "head" shop was there...