Shannon Dawn | Vocalist / Comedian / MC

03.10.25

Dawn Cochran: All right. And we are live. Hi, how are you? 

Shannon Dawn: Hello, I'm doing great today. Thank you for having me on your... ?

DC : Webzine. 

SD: Thank you for including me in your Webzine series. 

DC: Absolutely. So why don't we tell the readers who you are?

SD: Oh, where to start? Well, I am a local multi-faceted entertainer. Lately I've been leading with my projects where I'm a vocalist, either as a songwriter, or as a cover band co-band leader. I'm also a lifelong comedian, and the disciple of the silly arts. That's my nightlife. I also have a normie day-time career that I'm very invested in, and very proud of. I'm a technical writer and a user experience content designer for my day job. But I also do a lot of creative, fun things. I'm also very invested in the the local music scene overall, supporting the punk, hardcore, and metal bands; the venues and all the growth, all the wonderful people that are doing so many fun things here in Buffalo. 

DC: And you're my friend. Wait, what did I say four years ago? You're my friend with benefits?? I still don't know what that means. What does that mean?

SD: I was sure I would remember, you know, I used to have a great memory where I remembered every moment, every joke. I had a photographic 360 modeling context dialogue memory, but right, so readers, Dawn had a Facebook memory wherein we had we were joking that we're friends with benefits, and that must have referred to something. The best thing, my best guess is that it referred to you generously letting me be on your Spotify family plan. 

DC: Yeah, but that doesn't make sense. And that's also not even funny. 

SD: What other benefits? Do you want to be my emergency contact? I don't know if that's a benefit, but...

DC: I would be, I would be honored. I'm wondering if it was like during Casey's 7&7 shows, or maybe the talent shows at Misuta Chows?? I don't know. 

SD: Oh, right, you were coming out to a lot of those.

DC: Or the trucker show.

SD: Yeah, you were coming out to help with some of those things too, right? Do you know, tell your readership about them?

DC: No, it's OK. This isn't about me, this is about you. Umm. So let's start with the most recent. So. Are you in one or two bands? 

SD: I mean either two or three bands. Oh, geez. OK. 

DC: Alright, let's dive into that. 

SD: Sure. So my original band, that's very clearly defined as Bitchin' Hour, that is a hardcore thrash band wherein, we write our own songs, we have our own practice space. Mostly originals; maybe we'll do a cover, but we're not a cover band. So that's yeah, crossover thrash. It's my first original band. We've been a band about two years. We have a demo/EP out. So it's heavy, it's a little goofy. It treads that party thrash, but also, there's a little bit of cynicism, and a little bit of party trash, but Bitching Hour, our demo/EP is called "Crossover, I barely know her," which is a title that just stuck in my head and just made me laugh for so long. And when I started the band, I was a very whimsical person and I became very serious person. I leaned into my serious side as the band evolved, but my wackiness persists. So that's my original band. And then a lot of people know me as Shanzig 'cause I fronted Danzig tribute band. It's not just a cover band, it's a full tribute. I consider myself the greatest Danzig impersonator. 

DC: I mean, I agree with you. 

SD: Thank you. Thank you. You know, it's a calling. Being Shanzig doing things in the Shanzig way. Right? It's not a look, it's not an attitude, it's a way of being. So that is a cover band that has had a lot of different line-ups through the years. It was the first band that I got people to be in a band with me for, so I sort of had to. I love the name so much, I had to make it a reality. And in the first several times I asked people to be in a band with me, they just laughed at me. But Robot Rob really took me seriously and we did the band in 2017. So then there's been, you know, interruptions and things, but then when I was looking for a new drummer, Angel Rivera of Abandoned Trains or Super Tugger, or a bunch of other bands he's been in -- He moved up here in 1997, so he's an OG punk. He was a big Shanzig fan. Fun fact, Angel was at the first Danzig show. He showed up for a Samhain show and Danzig said 'No we're no longer Samhain, this is Danzig now.' So he's an OG from New York. He helped me find a new drummer, Craig, who is also now in *spoiler alert* the cover band Gates of Steel, which is Angel Rivera's band. Also that he has Nick Gonzalez and their super talented bass player and local punk OG. So why I say I'm in two or three bands is because I'm now the girl singer/co-lead vocalist of Gates of Steel. And then last fall when I wanted to do my birthday show. I had Bitchin' Hour play, with a Shanzig line-up backed by Gates of Steel musicians. 

DC: Dang. So not to like jump the gun, but are you playing the Gates of Steel show next Saturday? 

SD: We have a bunch of shows coming up, right? We have one Friday and then I think two Saturday, and then Sunday. So I'd say right now, my job is just to not get sick, right? Actually, Bitchin' Hour has a show Friday the 6th, a fun show with Anthropic at Milkie's with the Foxy thrills, which is a fun thing. It's a burlesque troupe, not the burlesque troop I MC. Did I mention I MC for the Glam Vamps? That's still kind of me keeping like putting the comedy thing, but alright, so Bitchin' Hour is going to be playing with Anthropic and the Foxy Thrills and then Gates of Steel is going to do a show without me Friday. Then next week we have Friday the 13th at Revolution Gallery and then we're doing the Saint Patrick's Day Music Fest parade at the Rusty Nickel, and then we're doing that night. Angel produces a lot of shows at Good Bar, calls it Punk in the Attic. So this is Saint Punk's Day in the Attic. It's going to be Gates of Steel, our Irish punk band, with Soul Butchers, who are incredible. And Sunday the 15th, in the afternoon. Gates of Steel is going to be playing at the Tudor Lounge. 

DC: Oh niceeeee.

SD: Like party adjacent. So that's gonna be really fun too. We love the Tudor. We love Chris. Chris takes awesome care of everybody there -- takes great care of us. I go to Steve Ks's metal night -- the kitchen's open again. That little food stall they have in the corner, you can get a hot dog or some tacos. So that's great. I remember the night that they closed the little food stand. I wanted to jump over the counter and I'm like, 'I'm gonna make a hot dog' and Chris was like, 'Not now you are not.' So yeah, I'm glad the hot the food counter at Tudor is operational again. So anyway, I'm going to have to rush home after. My roommate has an Oscar party that he's very pumped about. So I've been getting into that. I've watched one of the movies that's nominated. I saw Sinners. It was great. So, yeah, check out Gates of Steel. We're an Irish punk band. We play jams by the classics, like Flogging Molly, Shipping Up to Boston, The Pogues. They had me do some of the duets, and then just to make it worth my time, they gave me a couple Cranberries songs and now I can even sing some leads of male vocals, like I do a Street Dogs song solo myself. The other vocalist, Dan Night, he's from Hair the Dog. He's been playing out in bands for about 20 or 30 years, I don't know. We were just talking last night about how he would go to open mic at Sportsman. He is a great voice and he's also a really goofball. So we have a great camaraderie. Just sharing that spotlight, goofing around. 

DC: So that was a lot to take in. I'm gonna dissect this a little bit. So yeah. So this interview will come out Tuesday the 10th. So the show on tomorrow will already be passed, but that's OK. Umm, I just interviewed the Soul Butchers yesterday. I'm not sure when that's going to come out because we actually ended up doing video and audio, so it's going to be on YouTube. But we did talk about the show on the 14th and I was pretty excited because I was like, "Oh man, I'm interviewing Shannon tomorrow." So that's cool that all that kind of came together. 

SD: Yeah, that's funny. I just ran into Justin at the elevator at our rehearsal space. So such a small world. 

DC: Very, Yeah. I did not realize that Saint Patrick's Day is also right around the corner. I mean, I guess I should have. I'm not Irish, so it's not really like a integral part of my existence. Umm, I don't really ever celebrate. Uh, Saint Patrick, But that's OK. 

SD: You need help. You don't. Yeah, I have a whole Saint Patrick's room in my house. I own a whole shrine. I guess I will speak to the Irish punk thing. I like the heavier stuff, so Irish punk isn't my forte. But I really love just the energy of the crowd. I love just how different it is from my other band and my roommate Dan, last year, he dubbed me the "Elvira of Saint Patrick's Day."

DC: That's hilarious, I love that. 

SD: So I'll take it. 

DC: Yeah, so. You are a person that I admire and look up to because you have your hand in so many different facets of entertainment. And I feel like that's amazing because, I don't want to categorize people, but a lot of people stick with one avenue, and they're like, 'this is me now.' But you're like, 'No, I'm going to do bands, I'm going to do comedy, I'm going to do burlesque. I'm going to do," You know, you're just. Out here doing whatever the fuck you want and that is great. 

SD: Well, thank you. Yeah. Sometimes I feel like I do things I want to do, and then sometimes I feel like I do things I have to do, in the case of producing shows. That's one of those things I want to say like, "Oh, I'm done." I just want to get my band booked on shows. And then somebody reaches out and says, 'Hey, do you want to do a show?' All I have to do is find bands and then promote it, and then make sure it runs OK. Now I have to find bands and promote it to make sure it runs OK. I was just thinking I was going to get out of the get out of the game, but some people have reached out about maybe doing Tudor. I've been booking a lot of shows at Milkie's, which is just I happenstance my shows. Jeff from Coming of Rage or just the in-house booker, touring bands... A touring band just reached out for us for a show in May. Bitchin' Hour is going to be playing that one. So it's a lot of Milkie's shows. But now maybe maybe Tudor will be a thing too. I hear that they're looking to do more of a live Thursday Metal Night. Maybe I'll make that another thing. But yeah, doing shows, doing stuff because I want to, making posters... I have reluctantly gotten better at graphic design, just through necessity. But I appreciate you noticing that I do so many things, because sometimes I do things because I think I'm good at them, and other times I think. Why not? Why not me? 

DC: Who cares if you're, I mean, I think you're good at things, but who cares if you're not good at things? Just keep doing things, right? 

SD: Better than perfect. 

DC: Let's see... where do I want to go from here?? So. I know you've been in the music scene for a really long time, but what was the beginning? What was the beginning of the music scene like for you? 

SD: Wow, well I grew up in Erie, PA, and I'm an 80's baby. So I first became aware of of punk and just non mainstream underground music when I believe I was 11. I was at my grandma's house and we were there to help my grandma do some stuff, mow her lawn, etc etc, move some boxes, and my other my aunt and her sons, my cousins, were there. And at this point my cousin was 13-14, and he had a leather jacket that had a Misfits skull on the back. And I was like, "Whatever that is. That's it, that's it." So I just was really eager to discover underground culture. And my sister -- my older sister, and her friends were really into Hip-Hop, which at that time still was underground. It still scratched a lot of those itches. So then I got into college radio. I would walk to the record store, in the sun, uphill both ways, go get a skate catalog, look at the band logos, take that gamble and see if the CD was good. Sometimes it was, sometimes it wasn't. But interestingly enough, I lost touch with a lot of my family for a bunch of years when I moved, but I've reconnected with that same cousin. And just last Friday, I went to Erie with Mark Miller (the photographer) and his girlfriend, Emily, who drove. She was great. So I rode down with those two, and I hung out with my cousin Joe, and we had a blast. We watched Terror and Erie local openers, Human Animal. So we had a great time. We reconnected, you know, buying my cousin a beer, my cousin buying me a beer, watching hardcore. Talking about the old times. It was a really great. It was a really really great night  

DC: And he's still in the scene? It wasn't like he just came out for you, like he's still going strong? 

SD: Right, right, right. So he yeah, he's in more of an indie rock band. Don't quote me, but he is in a non-hardcore band called Vices out of Erie. They're really good. But yeah, he still participates in the scene. People still know him. You know, he still is active. He teaches music lessons. It was a really great time. And this is wild. He and his brother, my other cousin, also in Erie, have an Irish band called the Mulligans.

DC: Oh, that's too funny.

SD: It is too funny. So if you just can't get enough of my bloodline doing Irish stuff, they are playing one gig at the Buffalo Irish Center on the 14th.

DC: Now, are either of you Irish? 

SD: Oh, we are. Yeah, we are. I think I'm about 1/4 Irish on my dad's side, and I think he is too, which is his mom's side. I think his dad might be more Irish. But you know, my name's Shannon, so. 

DC: Oh, does that... does that define that you're Irish? I don't know. 

SD: I think yeah, you know what? It's on the list of Irish girl names like Megan, Molly. 

DC: Uh, anytime I hear Shannon, I think of the movie Far and Away, where Tom Cruise is like "Shannon" and it's not going to translate in this interview at all because it's not audio, but I love that movie. 

SD: Italicize that, or put it in like fake Gaelic characters. Right, Right. Post a GIF. I haven't seen that movie. I mean, I'm familiar with it. I remember like them like waiting. They were waiting across the Moor or something like that. Also, I did an accent that's not going to come through. Yeah, that's OK. 

DC: Maybe I'll post the audio. No, I don't know. So, OK, so you got into the scene, you know, 11, you're feeling it out now. I think we might have covered this before, you refer your first band as Shanzig though, correct? Or did you dilly dally in high school and college? 

SD: I had maybe a couple bands that had like 3 practices but no nothing that ever like...

DC: Stuck?

SD: Yeah, nothing that ever stuck and played a show. I had some attempts, some hardy attempts, but. 

DC: Did you ever try to attempt an instrument? 

SD: Oh, sure. Yeah. You know, my father got me into playing drums. So in middle school and high school, I was in the music program in the percussion section. I played concert snare. Or come Christmas time, they would put me on all the auxiliary instruments. So, yeah, so I have a background in reading rhythm. I think I have a really great sense of natural rhythm, can read notes. You know, I have to do it very methodically. So I was in marching band, which was hard. I did that for two years in Erie. So I tried to stick with drums. I had my dad's drum set. I just never really had a good space, or never really need the time to, you know? That's an instrument you really need to be disciplined with. So now I am also slowly but surely working on guitar. I guess I'll say this for accountability. I really want to be able to write riffs, so I'm finding time to just develop, just very rudimentary. I mean, I don't even need to to shred, I really just want to make some sure the chug rifts in my head I think I need. 

DC: Ahhh, you want to translate the head music to the... I got, I got you. 

SD: Yeah, my bandmates, what I scat to them, they apparently think it's more funny than, inspiringly heavy, soooo. Yeah, I would like to get more into that. I mean, I'd love to get more into drawing. I was also drawing in school. I was decent at it, which is another thing you have to put in the time, right? Lots of repetition, and I'm very guilty myself of really wanting to do something, and then never setting aside the time. Between work and fitness and... I've lived where I live for a year and a half. I'm still framing and hanging pictures, still getting things together. So I am using my percussion skills with Gates of Steel. So I'm the auxiliary, or now I'm the co-lead singer. But when I was just back up, to give myself something to do, I brought a tambourine. Then I expanded that I have like an egg shaker for a couple, then very special songs, the cowbell. 

DC: I for some reason I thought you were going to say triangle, which I could not imagine. Just with the cowbell. Cowbell is pretty good.

SD: You know adult me on a triangle? I don't know, but if you could picture 5th grade me being mad that all the boys are playing snare drum for the Christmas concert, and I'm stuck with the wood blocks and the triangle, and we just doing 4 times as many notes at the concert as I did during all the rehearsals all year. Maybe. You can picture that. 

DC: That's too good. Umm, I'm going to pivot to comedy. Umm, I know that I had recently told you that I want to see you do comedy more often again. But how did you start? What got you into it and why did you stop? I well, I guess being in bands kind of does that... There's only so much time in the world, right? 

SD: Yeah. You can't do everything. I consider myself a lifelong comedian, but as far as being a working comic, there's a certain amount of effort you can put in and just be an open mic, or that has enough jokes to play, just to keep yourself active as a comedian. And then just to get to that next level where you're really working and you're really improving. It's a lot more work, and I hit the point where I just didn't want to edit reels. I used to wear jeans and black T-shirts on stage. When I just saw how that looked, I was at a point in my life where I just really needed to decide if I was gonna really dig in and make the effort. I just kind of chose being a micer for a while and then music called, but there are a lot of Buffalo comics who, you know, moved to New York and worked for a couple years, you know? Yeah. I mean, you have to be funny. You have to put in the work writing your jokes. Right now, I'm watching the HBO show Hacks. That's a really good insight into... just you have to, you have to live it, you have to keep doing it and you want to be working comic. Jordan Jensen isn't in a band. Maybe she builds stuff, but you know, you can't do too many things. So I mean, I would love to say I could just go to open. Like I actually have some some girlfriends that... we do pranks and dares, and we come up with silly things to do. And one of the things that's coming up is "Shannon, tell us a joke." So now when I hang out with the punk moms, I am making a point to now always have a like a one liner and a more long form joke to go, but I'm relying on jokes they haven't heard. My last week at this terror show, my cousin asked me, "Are you still doing comedy?" And people look so disappointed when I say no. But then if I just have a joke, even if it's not great, I say, you know what? I still write them down even if I don't have time to shop them, I like that I still have that instinct to stop what I'm doing and write it down. Like one joke on hacks was like, "Oh, if it's that good, you'll remember it." Not how it works. So actually, two weeks ago I wrote a joke that I would consider it a one liner. My two goals this year are to become more mysterious and to develop a rounder ass, and I'm making progress on one of them. 

DC: Those are actually my two goals this year as well, because I don't ever shut the fuck up. 

SD: Yeah, yeah, Nice ass, but not so mysterious, both of us. 

DC: No, but I have been getting my squats in so, you know. 

SD: You can't do everything. 

DC: I can't do everything. I am looking at my weights and I'm like "Man, I should up the weights. I need more... I need deeper. What is it? Deeper gains, deeper gains?"

SD: You gotta activate your glutes, yeah.

DC: Uh, fuck. I umm, drank a little bit of this... I bought a weed drink yesterday, Weed Water. I drank a little bit of it and I feel like, uh, I'm starting to get a little giggly, so I should probably calm down so I can focus. 

SD: Wound up? Let's get silly. 

DC: Getting a little wild over here with my Weed Water. Man, OK, so well. 

SD: We could talk about... I guess we could talk about drugs. I was straight edge for 10 years!

DC: Yeah, let's talk about drugs yeah, I was straight edge when I was 12 and I told my mom I was straight edge and then I promptly smoked weed for the first time. 

SD: How promptly? 

DC: Actually, like the next day, I think? I'm pretty sure. I was like, "Mom, don't worry about me, I'm straight edge!" Because like all of the bands I listened to were well, not all of them, but you know, the ones I was getting into like AFI and stuff were straight edge and, and I was like, "Don't worry." So she told everybody for years, Dawn's straightedge, but. You know, there was, there was a lot of dabbling here and there. 

SD: Yeah, there was a summer I was really into basketball and my family thought I was really into basketball for like 10 years. Nope, just the Dream Team. Everybody likes the dream. They probably still think I like the Dream Team. I mean, I don't dislike them, but I think I had a different approach. I learned what straight edge was, I think when I was in 7th grade. But I just sort of, being an old soul, thought I wasn't ready to commit. And then I had a serious boyfriend who told me we were engaged and I still wasn't ready to say I was straight edge. Even though I hadn't smoked. I hated smoking. I didn't drink. I knew being a loudmouth woman in Pennsylvania that just getting drunk around these dudes just didn't seem like anything I needed to do. 

DC: Yeah, seems like a bad idea. 

SD: Yes, when I was 16 I was like "I'm straight edge, I am straight edge." and that worked for me till I was 26. And then I had joined Roller Derby, which wasn't the cause of it. I joined, and I was living with someone that toured a lot and was gone a lot. So I was shouldering a lot of responsibilities. I felt just very grown up. Budgets, shoestring budget, full time job, grad school. 

DC: Right. 

SD: So then I went for Library and Information Science at UB School of Informatics, which has now been rolled into the School of Education. But yeah, I'm getting my Info Science Degree. I finished in a year and a half, so I'd pay less tuition. Took a very aggressive class load. Wow. And then my classmates are just like, "Why can't you drink a beer?" And I'm doing a full day of work in an office, going to class for records management and accessible web design, and then having somebody text me, 'Hey, can you pick up food on the way home?' Yeah, I think I want a beer. 

DC: Yeah, that'll put a strain on things. You need a release or like a exit, not an exit. You know what I'm trying to say. 

SD: Yeah, yeah. I just thought... Straight Edge just didn't make sense to me anymore. I just feel like I don't feel like youth. Yeah. So I dabbled into drinking, and then it was years later that I tried anything else. 

DC: Yeah, I dabbled in the drinking, uh, forever. But. 2026 is the year. I microdosed mushrooms for the first time yesterday. Umm, I think it's going to rewire my brain and fix me, so I'm pretty excited about my journey here. Umm, I don't want a trip. I don't have any desire to trip. I think that it's scary. 

SD: Yeah, yeah. You know what? People used to always tell me 'You should never do drugs. You are crazy. Everybody else here should do drugs. Not Shannon.' 

DC: I don't think you're crazy. 

SD: Maybe I don't need them or I was too much. Whether it was I was too wacky, or dealing with too many demons. Maybe people just wanted me to drive. 

DC: Who knows? Yeah. Has anyone ever told you you are overzealous? I've been told that one before. 

SD: You know, I've had a lot of similar things... Strong personality, I guess, not overzealous. I haven't had that particular one. 

DC: Yeah, I was like 'Dang, let me just not be a good fun time or whatever.' I don't know, it was weird. I feel like we're similar in that aspect of, not that we're overzealous, but just that. We are not like meek little women, so. Yeah. Yeah. Also, just so you know, we're at 30 minutes. The zoom will end soon. Nah, I'm just kidding.

SD: Oh man, zoom. So yeah, working remotely has its own set of conventions and cliches. 

DC: Yeah, I worked remote for three years and I really miss it, I got so much shit done during the day. Like, "Oh? it's my lunch time, let me go put the laundry in, let me do the dishes real quick. Oh my God, I can make a meal that's healthy and I'm not like door dashing?" Well, the commute I feel like is the biggest part. Uh, yeah. So I do miss it. Umm, how do you feel about it? 

SD: Well, I started working remotely for the most part in 2016 or 2017. I was working on a university grant that was itself off campus and very chill. But then when that grant was defunded, I went into freelancing. So before the pandemic, I was working either mostly freelance and flexible, where maybe I had a part-time office job with like a doctor, or some consultancies where I had to stop in some places. But I was, I had sort of really set my sails to be remote content person. And that's where I'm staying. Knock on wood. I love working from home. I love this. Sometimes I open my laptop and I say 'Oh, I'm just gonna check for messages and then get dressed.' And then I realize I'm sucked in. But then other times, the flexibility does work in my favor.

DC: Yeah. Do you get to travel and still work remote? Or do you have to be in Buffalo while you're working? 

SD: I went on one trip where I did work half day while I was in transit. Being that I'm a technical writer, I was able to set myself up with working asynchronously. Sorry, I'm gonna try not to abuse that. I am also this month going to Hell's Heroes in Houston. And the friend that I'm rooming with is also very career minded, so she and I are going to work half days, two of the days. 

DC: But oh, nice. 

SD: Yeah, the Fest doesn't start until 1pm, so I'm gonna balance that because as a contractor, I don't get a ton of PTO, and I just don't want to eat it out of my check. Even though being a contractor, that's the deal where I could just take time off, and miss the hours, but it's just tough. So I make it work. So I am allowed to travel, but there are some situations where they say like, "Oh, you need to be working out of such and such a time zone." Even my job is Pacific Time. So some days I have to stay late and I just try to work late the days that I can. And then when I have band practice, you know, I just block it out on my calendar and try to make sure nobody needs me. 

DC: How many days do you practice? Do you practice every week? 

SD: Yeah, Bitchin' Hour, we're writing new stuff and we're looking for more shows, so we do practice every week, whereas Gates of Steel is only active when we have cover gigs coming up. So right now Gates of Steel is practicing once or twice a week. Real fun for me. Our practice spaces are right next door. The Bitchin' Hour space used to be Gates of Steel smoking room.

DC: Is this at 700 main? I was there yesterday. 

SD: Oh, with the Soul Butchers, yeah. Oh, cool. Yes. So Joe the drummer was, I believe the first drummer of Shanzig. 

DC: Oh, really? Great. 

SD: Yeah. So we used to practice in the butcher space. 

DC: I did not even know that. I don't know how it didn't come up yesterday. I actually met Joe on Halloween at the Soul Butcher show and I had said, "Oh, I've seen your name online." And then the rest is history. Umm. But yeah, Shanzig, honestly. 

SD: He's a really great, funny dude. Oh yeah. Go ahead.

DC: Oh, no, I was just saying Shanzig is one of my favorite tribute bands. Umm, I do miss seeing you guys at Mohawk and stuff. Maybe you should put one together. Uh. Well, for Halloween, I guess. 

SD: Yeah, yeah. I think either like my birthday is mid-September or Halloween. I don't see why why we couldn't get that going. 

DC: We have, it's only March. We have time. Maybe I'll be in your band. Maybe I'll play the bass. I'm just kidding.

SD: Jump on the triangle. Yeah, yeah, we added one ding. We're gonna play Godless. We'll let you do one ding. 

DC: Oh, I'll be the merch girl again. 

SD: Oh, That's an important job. Yeah, well, you did great.

DC: What a... what an era of two years of my life. Yeesh. Anyway. 

SD: Those circumstances notwithstanding, you're in the crew. 

DC: Hell yeah. Umm. Let's see, what else do we want to touch base on? I feel like we've skipped around so many times and I can't believe that I forgot that you were a Roller Derby girl too. I was so intimidated and everyone would always tell me, 'You should do Roller Derby, you should do Roller Derby.' And I was like, I don't think I can. Like these girls are gonna fight me. 

SD: I mean, it's a full contact sport for sure. You know, I think there were a lot of people that, you know that quote about like, "Oh, you never know a woman or like a tea bag, you never know a strength until you put it in water." For the most part, some people's abilities match their personalities, but that wasn't an absolute. You would see people that were big talkers that would freeze out there or just didn't have the discipline to get good, when your abilities don't match your standards, that's where you find out who you are. You either have to work there or fake it or give up. But. There were a lot of really fantastic skaters who you wouldn't say, "Oh, that that chick's in Roller Derby." That really stuck out. One person that comes to mind is Rex Kitten, who was on The Sauceys with me. She wears heels everywhere. She doesn't have tattoos. She just it looks like a classy, nice lady, where you're like, "Oh, maybe she's into music?" But you don't go, "That's a punk." She kicks ass. She got right back on skates, I want to say two weeks after she gave birth.

DC: Oh wow.

SD: Not two weeks. Maybe not two weeks, but some absurdly short amount of time, and then she is still skating. 

DC: That's awesome. 

SD: Yeah. So you really never know. Some people really stick it out. People ask why I didn't stick with it. If I was going to, if I was going to do that much to my body and spend that much time, I should have been a wrestler or a wrestling manager. So that's my only regret is that I did dip out after two or three years and just didn't go in that direction, but yeah. Because I love pro wrestling. I love the the artistry and the carny attitude out there. 

DC: The other characters are hysterical sometimes. You really have to become that person that you're portraying in front, you know, in front of a live audience. 

SD: Wrestling is one of those things like where you can just go back to it any moment and they just catch you right up and it's always the same. It's different, but it's always the same. I'm really excited to see as far as like, you know, weirdos making it in the real world, uh, Dan Hausen is on WWE now. So I'm looking forward to seeing weirdness celebrated. Maybe that'll offset a cultural movement where you have to accept the workplace, the weirdo in your workplace. 

DC: Umm, I think that the people that I work with have accepted me. I'm definitely the weirdo of the workplace. Umm, they're definitely all blue collar men, you know. 

SD: Oh, for sure. Oh yeah, I've patronized your workplace. 

DC: Yeah, yeah, um. Here I'll end with a couple questions about Buffalo. Umm, what is your favorite thing about Buffalo? 

SD: The people. 

DC: Yeah, that's my worst thing about Buffalo. 

SD: You know what? That's what drew me when I lived in Fredonia. I was finishing college. I thought about moving to Chicago because I was studying radio and it was just the starting to feel more welcomed. That's just what what kept me coming back. I got sucked in. 

DC: What are your favorite venues in Buffalo? I'm going to assume Milkies is, and Tudor, but I will let you answer. 

SD: Oh, well let's see. I miss the sound at The Icon. That was great. 

DC: Yeah. They had good shows. 

SD: Yeah, I think I always have fun at Nietzsche's, the place gets really... I like how much it gets packed and there's just that, that dark vibe in there. 

DC: Yeah, and they have a lot going on every single day. It's incredible. They're really, like holding it together, like. 

SD: Yeah, I like even the new management. Now you can use a credit card. I think they did the thing where they kept what was cool and improved the things that were just little, little bits of sticky points. Yeah. Oh, where else am I really excited to see a show? I like all kinds of shows. I love those wasteland generator shows. I like a big show at Town Ballroom. I like when Mohawk Place is operable. It's like it is 1997. I am 17 years old and Mohawk Place is closing. It is 2025 years old and Mohawk is closed. Yeah. I worked with Marty a lot for Shanzig, and Halloween and such. And then the Glam Vamps had sort of taken the helm for a lot of the holiday shows. And I'm not the lead of the Glam Vamps, but I'm the MC. I talked with Vanessa or Suga Tush a lot about the shows and stuff, so I went over to Mohawk and did a little volunteering. I painted the archway that patina green color. And now there's new management. I just read that today -- new management again. It's the same owner, but now they're having new management within there. Oh, another great place is the Amvets. 

DC: I've never been to the show there. 

SD: Yeah, it looks like a place where historically when you go to an event show this, the sound is rough. I've been to some shows there where they have had sound engineers who know what they're doing and it sounds great. They have a room with a stage, but they do shows in just the open. 

DC: Yeah, I've seen a lot of people post on their stories and I'm always like, 'Man, I should really just go to one of these.' But I also feel like I'll just get my ass beat. Like some of those guys are still in their tough guy era. 

SD: I've seen a handful of crowd killings there. I think the videos of crowd killing a rowdiness are misrepresentative of just the general turnouts. Good kids, good adults. So I'd say that's where I would like to play this year. We're branching out. I'm actually in the process of doing a weekend in June where Bitchin' Hour is going out to Albany to open up for Extinction AD in June. And then so I'm putting together a show the night before the Bug Jar. So that's like I said, booker by necessity. Sure. 

DC: Yeah, little Rochester action. Nice, Yeah. 

SD: Well, yeah. We've been a band for two years, but this will be our first out of town show. 

DC: That's super exciting, yeah. 

SD: There's progress, when Bitchin' Hour had been a band, six months in, I was really eager to record, and then we were practicing the other day and I realized that I want it when I want. I decided I wanted to be in a heavy band. I knew I didn't even know how to sing heavy yet. I hadn't decided how I wanted to. So that fell into place at its own. Natural pace. Just me figuring out like how do it. I'm writing songs to scream and I'm not even sure how I scream. Right, right. So now I've settled into sort of like what my heavy voice sounds like. I don't even have to think about it. Yeah.

DC: So now you're ready to expand the horizons of of New York State and, and beyond? 

SD: The Whole Rust Belt region. 

DC: Hell yeah. Umm. Is there anything else that you wanted me to bring up that you want to talk about that you want to touch on? 

SD: Umm, just shout out to Goodie the goodest boy.

DC: Hell yeah. 

SD: Yeah, I dabble in photography. So if you want to give a follow on Instagram to Goodiethegoodboy, you'll see a very good dog and then just also just some lovingly taken, well composed photos. Also the captions, you know, as a writer, I like to... I don't want to do the "my human" And so the captions are "The voiceless voice." It's like, is it me talking or him? I caption in an objective, I try to be cute but not cringey, but man, he's cute. 

DC: He is cute. I got my cute boy sitting right behind me sleeping. I don't really know what I'm gonna... I don't really know what's happening with this guy, but he's here now, so. You know. 

SD: Yeah, but they're good. 

DC: Yeah, yeah, they're the goodest boys. Alright, cool. 45-46 minutes. I mean, that's, that's pretty good. Uh, so yeah, I will put this up on Tuesday and I thank you for your time and good luck with your show tomorrow and your shows next week and uh, thank you. I think I said thank you twice. 

SD: Yeah, it was great talking to you. Thank you.