Dave’s Photo Blog

I had just walked into The Vixen, in Provincetown, to shoot The Neighborhoods, who were headlining. Sidewalk Driver was onstage and most of the way through their set. Then Tad, the lead singer, dedicated their last song of the night to Mike Scag. The song was Rock and Roll Suicide, and they played it in tribute because Mike had passed away earlier that week. At the end of the song, Tim Frustration (pictured on left) came onstage to thank Tad and then they threw their arms around each other in a long, emotional hug. Mike Scag was the lead singer of The New Frustrations, and Tim was three hours away from performing with the band in a riveting, emotional and triumphant performance of rock and roll grit.

Folks, this is the real deal. It’s not manufactured, marketed, spun or honed to mass market appeal. It’s an honest look into the world of a rock and roll band. Out of respect for Mike’s family and friends as well as the members of The New Frustrations, I am not going to go into great detail about the circumstances around his death. What I will tell you is that earlier this week, Tim had that most awful of experiences – discovering his life-long friend after he had passed away. Since I did not now Mike, I can only reprint what others have said about him.

ANYBODY that saw him deliver a lyric on stage knew that he meant it. Not “ONE LINE” of his song BUT THE WHOLE FUCKING THING!!! … He was the true rock and roll death, he lived it, he trusted it and he gave back to it …

-Tim Frustration, The New Frustrations & The Johnnies

Scag was a truly unchained persona that lived as he preached … a good heart and a tormented soul with Rock n Roll as the voice to make sense of it all.

-David Minehan, The Neighborhoods

And it’s important to point out that from what I understand, all of the band had known each other since childhood. So this was a deep, deep personal loss of a man that Tim, Tom, Dicky and Major had practiced and performed with for years. And when I say years, I really mean decades.

Before The New Frustrations played, I ran into Tim outside The Vixen. I head read about Scag the night before on The Noise Board. I was attending the concert to photograph and write about The Neighborhoods but quickly realized that I would cover The New Frustrations if the opportunity arose. I wanted to be careful – everyone handles loss differently. But in the case of Tim, his desire was to, “raise a glass Saturday and rock your fucking sox’s off. Save the crying and sorrys for another day.”

Tim Frustration is a big man with a big heart and an incredibly friendly personality. After I introduced myself and let him know that I was aware of the situation, he dropped whatever he might have been doing and we got into a long conversation. Here he is at the start of the show, resplendent in a feather boa and silver tiara telling the audience that this was going to be a special show and that they were planning to rock the joint.

In a wide ranging and candid conversation, Tim told me a lot about what had happened as the band coped with their loss and tried to figure out what to do about the festival. The New Frustrations were scheduled to play both Friday and Saturday night. They canceled Friday night, but made it very clear that they were going to play on Saturday:

Please help me and us by not showing sadness but showing the face of rock. This is a celebration of a true rock and roll heart and I want him see the place go crazy in his name. We will not be hanging our heads. The band refuses any of you to do it.

-Tim Frustration

Tim is described as the, “visionary,” and, “idea man,” behind The New Frustrations. But on this night he also seemed to be the heart and soul of the band. It was clear from what he had written as well as my conversation with him that this was not going to be any ordinary performance. Tim and the band needed to express themselves with grit and determination. They were going to go all out. And they did.

The band played with great passion and they were tight. Tom, Dickey and Major delivered rock-solid performances laced with passion. And it was upon this backdrop that Tim delivered a performance that poured out emotion as well as some distress. I don’t write that to be negative – it was magical to watch because he was literally coming to terms with the past few days the best way he knew – by pouring everything he felt into one angst-fueled performance. Sometimes he played the guitar hard and rough. So rough that he broke a string late in the set. He walked over to the backstage door and kicked it in. David Minehan was inside warming up. He took a quick look at the situation, then took off his Les Paul and handed it to Tim. “Do you need a guitar,” he asked? But Tim didn’t need a guitar – he just kept playing, backing away from the door and coming out in front of the stage to play in the audience.

Sometimes he stopped playing completely and just stood there motionless. And he played to anyone in the audience, photographer or otherwise, that he made eye contact with. It was riveting.

Several times during the performance, he seemed to be overcome with emotion, as in this shot below. He finished playing a verse and then just put his head in his hands. But you have to remember that during all of this, the music kept coming. The New Frustrations played on, loudly and full of energy, and Tim came back into the songs when he needed to.

About halfway through the set, Tim walked backstage and came out with a small cardboard box. He started pulling out the contents and throwing it into the audience. He said something about not caring about selling it, but wanting everyone to have one. It turns out that the box contained copies of The New Frustrations recent record. It’s an EP with four songs on it. And it’s vinyl. Yeah, it’s a real record, not a CD or a DVD or anything like that. It’s called the Power Pop Rocks 7 inch and it contains the songs Changed My Mind, Way Out, One Last Night, and Biggest Lie. It’s available on their website, if you weren’t lucky enough to be there and grab one. I was, and I’m thrilled to have it. The label on the record shows you just what this band believes in, saying, “made loud to play loud.”

The set list for The New Frustrations went something like this:

1. Hey Girl
2. Changed My Mind
3. The Same
4. Million Miles
5. You Don’t Know Me
6. Just Want To Know
7. Biggest Lie
8. Better B. Good
9. Substitute
10. Permanent Vacation

Late in the set, Lee Harrington came out to sing a song that was one of the most energizing of the set. Everyone was on at this point and Tim was intent on expressing himself in the most rocking way he could. Here, he’s standing on the stage monitor platform running the strings of the guitar along a track in the ceiling.

At the end of the set, Tim became really emotional, perhaps overcome. He ran out in front of the stage and threw himself and his guitar on the floor and just lay there. I caught this blurry shot of the scene before the crowd surrounded him. But this was not histrionics; he and the band played their hearts out and he was expressing himself completely in the moment. As people grew concerned about his condition, he rolled over, but otherwise stayed prone. Then a woman he knows well ran around and kneeled by his side. She planted a big kiss on his stomach. It was such a sweet moment – a wonderful and disarming act of caring. And across the room, you could hear a hearty chuckle emerge from Tim. The audience relaxed and he slowly rose and made his way backstage looking spent, but also looking like he’d released a few demons on this muggy Saturday night.

To close this story, I’ll bring you this YouTube tribute to Mike Scag. The video features photographs of Mike performing with a version of Just Want To Know as the soundtrack. I’ll have a story up on The Neighborhoods in the next few days as well – they also paid tribute to Mike and delivered an outstanding performance as usual.

–

Hat tip to The Noise Board, Boston Groupie News and Boston Band Crush for the links. Thanks!