In this episode of 'Seeing Them Live,' comedian and former punk rocker Ken Reid shares his evolution from 90s punk bands to comedy stardom, featuring memorable concert experiences like Aerosmith and David Bowie. Dive into tales of intense punk shows, iconic bands like Black Sabbath, and why Cesar Romero’s portrayal of the Joker in the original Batman series is underrated. Ken highlights his 'TV Guidance Counselor' podcast, blending rock 'n' roll stories with nostalgic TV moments, while exploring recording albums and hosting renowned musicians and comedians.
In this episode of 'Seeing Them Live,' Charles explores the multifaceted career of Ken Reid, a Boston-based comedian, former punk band member, and podcast host. Ken reflects on his diverse experiences, from his early days in the 90s punk band '30 Seconds Over Tokyo' to his extensive comedy career, which includes two comedy albums and a successful podcast 'TV Guidance Counselor.'
He humorously shares early concert anecdotes, including winning tickets through radio contests and memorable shows like the Aerosmith concert and a unique collaboration between David Bowie and Nine Inch Nails. The discussion reveals Ken's passion for live performances and his impact on the entertainment industry over two decades, underscoring his transition from music to comedy and podcasting.
Prompted by a story Charles shares where Michael Stipe asked Charles for his Batman shirt after an REM show, Ken and Charles do a deep dive into the portrayal of Joker by Cesar Romero in the original Batman series. They explore Romero's unique take on the character, the impact it had on the show's success, and how it influenced perceptions of the Joker in pop culture.
The episode also dives into remarkable concert stories, such as The Descendants' comeback tour and intense punk shows at Boston's Rathskeller, portrayed through vivid recollections of chaotic and energetic performances. Additionally, the hosts and Ken discuss the evolving concert culture, contrasting the violent punk shows of the past with today's more positive festival atmosphere. This engaging narrative captures the spirit of live music and the raw energy of punk rock, while showcasing Ken Reid's journey from punk singer to a successful comedian and podcast host with over 700 episodes of 'TV Guidance Counselor.'
[00:00:00] Charles: Our guest today is Ken Reid. Ken is a Boston based standup comedian and former punk rock teen who is in the little loved 90s Boston punk band called in, 30 Seconds Over Tokyo. He is also a podcaster. He's been performing standup comedy for over 20 years and has released two standup comedy albums. Ken has appeared on TBS, NPR, PBS, and Epix. His podcast, TV Guidance Counselor, in which he welcomes guests to discuss the difficult viewing choices of our collective past using back issues of TV Guide magazine from his own personal collection as an inspiration for their conversation.
[00:00:45] Ken's podcast has been running consistently every week since February 2014, and he has released over 700 episodes. Ken, welcome to Seeing Them Live.
[00:00:58] Ken Reid: Thank you for having me. Wow, I was almost impressed with my own bio there.
[00:01:01] Charles: Well, yeah, I mean, a lot of the guests that have been coming on, I mean, there's just so much to talk about. Yeah, you're no exception. You have lots and lots of things to talk about, the concerts you've been to, which of course, we'll start with that. But yeah, your comedy and your podcast, which your last episode had a couple of comedians on there.
[00:01:27] Ken Reid: Oh yeah. Irene Bremes and I'm Frank Conniff, who was a TV's Frank on MST3K. People probably best know Frank from.
[00:01:34] Charles: Oh my god, I was dying. It was, they were so.. Yeah, they were working well off each other, as were you. So, but we'll get, we'll get to that in a bit. So when we had you fill out the guest form, Ken, you know, your first concert, it looked like, uh, you put down your 12 years old and, your uncle brought you to the show. This was, 1993?
[00:02:02] Ken Reid: Yeah.
[00:02:03] Charles: So, yeah, I was just wondering, like, so was this like your cool uncle or was he a fan or how did that work?
[00:02:10] Ken Reid: It was actually my friends and I wanted to go and I used to, um, I was a real insomniac and I, I probably slept maybe two hours a night I was growing up. And so, I would listen to college radio a lot and WFNX, which was our local sort of alt rock station here, like kind of RK rock. And so, I would get free tickets for stuff all the time.
[00:02:30] I'd never go. And so, I got, I think I got two pairs of tickets to that and you know, it was 12. I can't get to Mansfield mass. It's like an hour South of Boston. So my, my, yeah, my aunt's husband was like, I'll go. So, we had to rope in an adult to, uh, to take us to the show.
[00:02:48] Charles: Oh, cool. So, you, you won, lots of tickets then by just listening to the radio at night.
[00:02:54] Ken Reid: Yeah. I mean, I was very lucky in that. I mean, from, I was at probably two to three shows a week from age 14 till my early twenties. And I think I probably paid for maybe 10 percent of them.
[00:03:09] Charles: Wow. That's, that's great. That's a, that's an interesting angle, you know, to win the tickets.
[00:03:14] Ken Reid: Oh yeah. And the college radio got to the point where basically like they knew me and I'd call up and they'd go through the ticket book and be like, what do you want?
[00:03:23] Charles: You didn't have to disguise your voice or anything?
[00:03:25] Ken Reid: No, no. They were like, cause other, a lot of times like nobody took them.
[00:03:30] Charles: Yeah, my mom, I remember my mom won tickets once to see Muddy Waters and Eric Clapton at the Chicago Stadium. She won them off of a Chicago radio station when I was a kid. So, she would do that as well. Good way to, to see some good shows. I was reading a little bit about that show and Megadeth was the opener...
[00:03:50] Ken Reid: It was 4 Non Blondes.
[00:03:52] Charles: Let me back up. I guess Megadeth was, they were, they were supposed to be the opening act. They played one show and the guy, Dave, uh, Mustaine, he, he was on a radio interview, I guess, shortly the day after the first show or something like that. And he said, we ought to be the headliner, but we don't mind since it's Aerosmith's last hurrah.
[00:04:14] Ken Reid: Yeah. I mean, he was, Dave Mustaine infamously got kicked out of Metallica. So, he was a guitar player, got kicked out, started his own band. So not a, uh, not known for being a pleasant man. And I thought that was weird too, because like Aerosmith and Megadeth, that's not like a crossover of audience at all. So, it probably, oh, I would have liked to have probably seen Megadeth at the time, but yeah, I'm surprised they even made it one show.
[00:04:42] Charles: So that was a quick lineup change. How was that concert for you?
[00:04:46] Ken Reid: It was good. It was good. I mean, 4 Non Blondes. I could have, you know, taken her left, but, you know, it wasn't really my thing, but they put on a good show, they were just like, I don't, I can't say they're at the height of their game at that time.
[00:04:57] Cause I think, you know, they were way over the hill there. I think they're probably 50, not even, but they were just so they had kind of reached that crest where it was like, they'd been playing long enough together that it was just like a tight, perfect show and they didn't, they weren't deteriorating, you know, it was the full band.
[00:05:15] So yeah, everything sounded great. It was, uh, you know, and it was the, it was an outdoor shed theater. One of the, one of those places. And so, I was lucky enough to have seats because at this place, which is now, I think called Xfinity Center. There's like lawn seats in the back and you can't see the stage.
[00:05:32] You just watch big screens. So I was, I was like, why would you even bother to go? So we were lucky to have seats too. So, we, you know, I could see the show and it was, yeah, it was, it was fun.
[00:05:43] Charles: And then, um, shortly thereafter, you had mentioned, as one of your best concerts, you had several here, David Bowie and Nine Inch Nails.
[00:05:51] Ken Reid: That was at the same venue. That was an amazing show. It was the, I think it was the first stop, the first stop on the tour. It was like, I think only like a two-week long tour there's bootlegs of it now, which I would highly recommend. But just, I've to this day, I've never seen a show like that and I've never seen a show, sort of programmed that way.
[00:06:10] So the opening act was a band called Prick, which was, uh, an older sort of industrial act that, um, Trent Reznor liked when he was growing up and when Nine Inch Nails kind of hit it big, he, um, he was allowed to have his own sort of imprint label and Prick was one of the bands he signed. Prick was pretty good, but the way the rest of the show went was, since Nine Inch Nails is basically one guy, and the rest of the band were like pickup musicians, most people didn't know if, you know, the whole band but Trent Reznor could be on stage and no one recognized them.
[00:06:41] So, on stage, it was the whole band and people just thought they were roadies and all the house lights were on and everything. And Trent Reznor came running, like running from the backstage and grabbed the mic and just screamed into the mic. And everybody was like running for their seats and the lights were still up and everything.
[00:06:58] And they went into their first song. And then as they played, I think they probably played about an hour. Bowie came out and he played saxophone on one of their songs. And then for each song, one person from Nine Inch Nails would leave and one person from Bowie's band would come on until Trent Reznor was the only one left.
[00:07:17] It was Bowie and his whole band and Trent Reznor, and they played Scary Monsters and then, and then Reznor left and then Bowie did like an hour. So it was just this like seamless, uh, with this overlap in the middle. And it was, it was so good. It was so good.
[00:07:31] Charles: Yeah, I was reading about that, and that's why I love talking to people about these shows. You just hear about these, these interesting performances, and this, this was really cool the way they did it, because I guess Trent Reznor felt weird having his idol, David Bowie open up for him. So, this was like a way to kind of avoid that and make it, sounds like it made it really, really interesting.
[00:07:55] Ken Reid: It was a rare occasion where I'm surprised that I haven't seen more of this in the shows that I've seen where you went to a show, meaning it wasn't just three sets, you know, it wasn't like isolated blocks. It was, you saw this, these two groups play together. You, you got, if you just like one or the other, you got that, but you got this very unique time and place. They're doing stuff together. That you had to be there to see. And that I feel like, I don't know why more shows don't capture that.
[00:08:25] Charles: That is an interesting concept, you know, and you'd think, you know, especially some of these, uh, even bigger bands and the musicianship is so good that, yeah, why couldn't you just sit in while the other band is playing and just, almost like a jam session, sort of.
[00:08:41] Ken Reid: Yeah. I mean, I've seen, I saw The Descendants when they did their comeback tour in 97, which I forget if I put on that list, but, um, you know, they're all amazing musicians. And after they did their whole set, they all switched instruments and then did a whole set of like early eighties LA punk covers. So like the singers playing drums, you know, the bass players sing it like, and they did like, you know, Black Flag and X and like all these songs, you know, for another little set at the end. It was so cool.
[00:09:08] Charles: Yeah, that's neat. I'd, yeah, I'd never heard of that tour or, you know, the way that unfolded was, was really cool. I'll have to, you said there's bootlegs out there of it.
[00:09:17] Ken Reid: Yeah. So there's actually a really good video bootleg of the actual show that I was at because MTV was there filming it for MTV news. So you could see the back of my head in one of the shots. So, they got MTV footage and then because of those screens that the people on the lawn watch, there's an in-house video feed. And so, someone popped the tape in for the in-house video feed. Um, so there's, there's some pretty good quality bootlegs of that show.
[00:09:42] Charles: Okay. I'm going to have to definitely check that out, that sounds really cool. And then, uh, I think, you'd listed also, and I don't know in what, what order, chronologically, but you had this, this Cramps show, and this Damned show, so I didn't know which one.
[00:09:57] Ken Reid: Yeah. The Cramps show was probably next. That was 97. I think might've been 96. It was when Fiends of Dope Island came out. And it was, uh, the last time they played Boston actually, because Lux Interior died, uh, not that long after that. But there was no band like The Cramps. I don't know if you've ever seen The Cramps playing, but man, Lux Interior is, was six, two and was wearing like six-inch heels, and they're just playing this crazy, just look up some Cramps stuff or there's, there was a movie that IRS records put out in 1982 called Urgh! A Musical War. And it's a, like this three-day festival. So like Gary Newman, the police, um, the members, The Cramps, everyone kind of played a few songs, dead Kennedys and The Cramps footage of that is nuts.
[00:10:45] So that alone would have been amazing, but the other two bands that opened one was called the Demolition Doll Rods, who were not my favorite musically, but all came out only wearing ice cream, like, like basically ice creams covering their nipples and genitals.
[00:11:03] And they all played like weird. It was very weird, which was kind of fun. But the next group was this band called Guitar Wolf, who refer to themselves as the Kung Fu Ramones. They're this Japanese sort of garage punk band who actually made a movie, uh, where they fight zombies called Wild Zero. And I have never seen a more rock and roll band in my entire life. It blew me away. It was the first time they ever played in America.
[00:11:27] Three guys, a trio, a Guitar Wolf is the singer guitarist, all black leather, all of them, black sunglasses, all of them pompadours. Singer came out, he had a six pack of beer. Opened them and drank all six in like less than a minute and then just screamed rock and roll and they just went into this sort of MC5, Stoogesy, you know, half hour of playing that didn't let up at all to the point where I, I was right at the front of the stage, and when they finished playing the guitar, guitar singer literally walked to the side of the stage and just passed out. Like just collapsed.
[00:12:04] Charles: The beer finally kicked in?
[00:12:05] Ken Reid: Yeah. Or just, they played so hard. Like at one point, uh, I think it was the last song they covered Kick Out the Jams by MC5. And the singer grabbed this kid in the front row by the shirt and pulled him on stage and then put the guitar around him and was like, play, play, and the kid is like, I don't know how to play guitar.
[00:12:24] And so he shows him the three chords for, for Kick Off the Jams and this kid's just playing it, and it's just like getting crazier and crazier. This kid has no idea what's going on. And it was just nuts. It was like burning the house down chaos where you're like, oh, I just saw a show. And then The Cramps came on.
[00:12:39] So it was like, then they managed to top that. And Guitar Wolf is since, I've since seen them, uh, you know, it was probably 20 years ago now, but their bass player passed away between next time they were in the US and that show was fine, but it was nothing like this, like this tour, it was just unbelievable.
[00:12:58] Charles: Yeah, that sounds really, really out of hand.
[00:13:01] Ken Reid: Oh, the best possible way. It was fantastic. And then the Damned who are one of my favorite bands. Like I, I feel like the Damned are just generally underrated as a band all together. Um, you know, they were the first UK punk band to tour America. The first ones to put on an album, but on all their early stuff, every record, every song on that record invented a new genre, you know, it was like, there's a song called Ignite that's like every Epitaph Records, nineties, Boston, I mean, uh, LA punk band.
[00:13:28] You know, Dave Vanian's dressed like a vampire, their gothy stuff is great. Then they're doing this kind of stonesy garage rock stuff and just amazing band. And, you know, seeing them on their reunion. I think in 2000 when Grave Disorder came out, it was just fantastic. Like I, I'd never seen anything like it and I've seen them many times since, and they are always just so good.
[00:13:48] Charles: They've had like some, from what I was reading, some lineup changes, like the drummer Ratscabies.
[00:13:55] Ken Reid: Yep. He was on the first three records. Yeah. Their original lineup just did a tour last year. But their first two records, this guy, Brian Jones, uh, he wrote all the songs and play guitar. And then he left and there were people were like, well, this band is done. But the bass player moved to guitar and started writing the songs and the band became even better.
[00:14:15] It didn't miss a beat. Their record Machine Gun Etiquette is one of my favorite albums ever. The Black Album is so good. And like, and their first record is just like essential. Everyone should have that in a collection kind of thing.
[00:14:26] Charles: Yeah. I'll have to check that out. It's funny, my wife and I just saw the Pretenders last weekend and at the Chicago theater and Chrissie Hynde had played guitar with them when they were called the Masters of the Backside.
[00:14:37] Ken Reid: Yeah, yeah, and she, yeah, and she played with him a bit too, and they were the Doomed, with Lemmy from Motorhead on bass, and Vanian had never sung before, he was literally, I think, 17 and was a gravedigger, and they thought he looked cool, so they asked him to sing. they asked two people to sing him and Sid Vicious, they asked to audition and Dave was the only one that showed up. Which is amazing because he, he has this very sort of unique, um, sort of crooning kind of style that people would hear often now with things like Danzig and the, and the Misfits and that kind of stuff, but they, it was really the first one to do that kind of thing and, uh, they're just so good.
[00:15:14] Charles: Yeah. Cause I, you know, before the show, I was just, you know, go to the Pretenders Wikipedia page and just kind of reading and, Oh wow. And I tell my wife, yeah, this guy I'm interviewing, Ken, he's, he loves this band, the Damned.
[00:15:26] Ken Reid: Yeah. Chrissie Hynde is a weird case because people don't think of her as being like an original punk, but she was in the UK, punk with all those guys.
[00:15:34] Charles: Yeah. That was crazy just to, to find that out. And then you had also Ken, well, I didn't know if you were finished with...
[00:15:41] Ken Reid: Oh yea, no.
[00:15:42] Charles: Okay. Because, um, I guess yeah, you mentioned they, they toured, just recently. Did you, did you see that?
[00:15:47] Ken Reid: I didn't see this tour, but I would have liked to have, I've still, I've still had not been out to like a major show since COVID hit. It would have been cool. I have never seen them with that lineup of the band. And only the singer has played on every album. Captain Sensible, the guitar player, I think missed one album.
[00:16:02] But yeah, he was playing bass. Brian Jones was playing guitar. They had Ratskabies. It was nuts. There's a great documentary about the Damned from maybe 10 years ago called Don't You Wish That We Were Dead. And, uh, it's just a great rock and roll documentary. Like, even if you don't, even if you didn't care for the band, it's just really good watch.
[00:16:20] Charles: Ok, yeah, we'll have to check that out. You know, we'd asked you a number of questions and under most surprising, you had listed a couple of things, one of which was lots of fights. And I was wondering, like, is this a punk or?
[00:16:37] Ken Reid: I think it was a teens and early twenties male thing, coupled with the punk thing. But when I was about 13 or 14, I started hanging out at this place in Boston called the Rat, uh, the Rathskeller, which was kind of like our CBGBs and I was about the same height. I am now and level of sideburns that I am now at like 12 or 13.
[00:16:56] So, and I never drank. I still haven't. So, they would just let me in to shows. Like I didn't have an ID or anything, but I, you know, I looked older and I wasn't causing a problem. So yeah, I mean, every show there was a fight at some point. And I've seen some brutal, some of those shows. I mean, one show, there was a sidebar at the Rat and I was standing there with my, my friend and these two guys started fighting in front of the stage and one of them pulled out a blackjack and, uh, and started hitting him.
[00:17:22] And the, they came like barreling towards us and we went backwards over the bar and it was the summertime. So, there were these big like industrial fans on the bar and one of the guys got up on the bar and he ripped the cover off the fan and then was just like shoving the guy's face in it. And it was just like, yeah, there was a lot of, a lot of blood and things.
[00:17:41] Charles: Yeah, for those who don't know what a blackjack is, I think I've seen one. It's a piece of metal wrapped in leather, right?
[00:17:46] Ken Reid: Yeah. It's like a, like a professional version of like a sock full of quarters.
[00:17:51] Charles: Yeah, yeah. You don't, you don't want to get hit with that.
[00:17:54] Ken Reid: No.
[00:17:54] Charles: Cause I, I was, it made me think like a lot of these heavy metal shows I would go to, you know, there was, there was a lot of stuff like that. You know, if you, you kind of had to almost turn your back to it, uh, or avoid people. I remember I went to see Black Sabbath once; I don't know, it was in the nineties. I think it was the original lineup except for, um, the drummer.
[00:18:17] Ken Reid: Oh yeah.
[00:18:18] Charles: And, you know, there was this guy just spitting on people, this huge dude, like standing right in front of me and I'm watching him do this and just, ahh yeah, like, like what are you, what are you doing, you know like?
[00:18:28] Ken Reid: Especially in the nineties. I think when a lot of people started seeing people slam dance and mosh and that kind of stuff that had not been exposed to it before. You had a lot of people go back, people, dudes, looking for fights that would just go to these things.
[00:18:41] So, you know, you could kind of peg them as soon as they came in. The other thing was where the Rat was in Kenmore square in Boston. It's right across the street from Fenway Park and the entrance to the Rat. Was basically in this big parking lot that they use. People would park there to go to the Red Sox games.
[00:18:58] So often people would leave the Red Sox games drunk and there'd be a bunch of punks hanging out by the door at the Rat. And you can imagine the clashing that would happen at that point.
[00:19:10] Charles: I didn't, wasn't sure if it was, you know, some of these smaller shows, but even at these larger ones, like I said, Black Sabbath, we went to see Judas Priest once with Iron Maiden. We were big Maiden fans and, going to buy a T-shirt and I went with my buddy and we got into this scuffle. He did. I mean, I'm definitely no tough guy, you know, but, uh, he could handle himself and it was...
[00:19:32] Ken Reid: It's just pointless.
[00:19:34] Charles: Luckily, it didn't last long. It was basically one punch and the guy was out and that was it. But, it just sort of makes you not want to go to some of these shows, you know?
[00:19:44] Ken Reid: Oh yeah. Cause you can't fully engage in what's going on on stage. Cause you kind of constantly have to be hyper aware of what's going around you, going around you at all times. Although I once saw Bad Brains who are another amazing band, but HR, the singer, is literally mentally ill and so you never knew what you were going to get at these shows.
[00:20:04] And one of the shows I went to, this was probably 98. He somehow got in his head that someone in the front row had spit on him. I was standing there and didn't see anyone do anything. And he took the mic stand and just started bashing people in the face with it.
[00:20:17] Charles: Oh my god!
[00:20:18] Ken Reid: And he hit this girl next to me and just blood was pouring out of her face and he just took off and the show was done. This was like 20 minutes into their set. So yeah, sometimes it was from on the stage.
[00:20:29] Charles: Yeah, that's, that's terrible. I was just telling my wife this week, we went to Lollapalooza a few weeks ago, and, you know, it's like a hundred thousand people every day, four days. And I read in the paper, there was only like nine arrests, which is incredible. But the vibe. The Deaf Tones were playing before The Killers and we were there to see The Killers, but because we wanted a decent spot, we watched Deaf Tones and they were amazing. And as aggressive as that was, I mean, those guys were like, they left it all on the stage.
[00:21:03] There were no, like you said, 90s or 80s, 70s. I was a tail end of 70s. You know, I've been to some shows like, like just jerks like that. I just, I no vibe that.
[00:21:16] Ken Reid: It was guys who would have, if a fight club existed, they would have gone to that. But they're like, oh, I could go just punch people. Oh, I'll look cool.
[00:21:25] Charles: Exactly. So, it, it's a nice change. You know, I didn't have to, like you said, have like one eye, you know, over my shoulder while I'm trying to watch a band. The other thing you'd mentioned was this Mike Watt show, which Dave Grohl and Eddie Vedder were on. I had mentioned in our notes back and forth, I was reading just by chance in this, uh, Pearl Jam book by, Steven Hayden, it's called Long Road, Pearl Jam and the Soundtrack of Our Generation. He was talking about Eddie Vedder on tour with Mike Watt. He doesn't mention Dave Grohl, but this was in 95. Was that the same?
[00:22:00] Ken Reid: Yeah, it was 95. So, Mike Watt was in a band called the Minute Men who are kind of like a legendary LA punk band, influential band. And then he put out his first solo record in 95 and he's a bass player. He's not really a singer. So, he had sort of guest singers and guest musicians on every song. And he's beloved.
[00:22:16] He's a good dude. You know, he's tight with Sonic Youth and everyone kind of looked up to Mike Watt. He had these amazing guest stars on the record itself. And so, on the tour, he pretty much had the same lineup. And there was a lot of people, uh, musicians from Boston who played on the record, like Evan Dando from the Lemonheads.
[00:22:33] And so the Boston show, Foo Fighters opened. It was their first show, I believe, outside of the West coast, I believe it was their first like touring show. The other band that opened was called Hovercraft, which was Eddie Vedder's wife's band and Eddie Vedder played drums in that band. And then when Wok came on stage, both Eddie Vedder and Dave Grohl were playing drums.
[00:22:54] They had two drum kits on stage. He had just this amazing lineup of people. Eddie Vedder sang some songs. You know, you had Evan Dando sang some songs. Like, it just was crazy. Pat Smear was playing guitar. Like, it was just this nuts, kind of like super group, which was of like active musicians too. It wasn't like a super group of like guys who were in big pants 30 years ago. And it was just amazing. and they only did that one tour and it wasn't a long tour.
[00:23:20] Charles: I would imagine that was probably a hard ticket to come by.
[00:23:23] Ken Reid: It wasn't really, it was an all-ages show. I have my ticket still, it was 8$. 8$ ticket. It was at this place called Avalon in Boston, which was one of the bigger clubs, but still not that big. I mean, I think it's probably like maybe an 800 seat. I mean, it's a standing room. But, yeah, weren't that hard to come by surprisingly.
[00:23:40] Charles: That's interesting. That's yeah, cause that sounds like quite a show. And I, and I'd mentioned, you know, in this book, you know, some of the fans, particularly in Chicago, I guess, Vetter reflects years later that people were throwing coins at him in Chicago, Minutemen fans who didn't want to see the corporate rock band guy on stage.
[00:23:59] He was really frustrated by this cause he's like, hey man, I'm one of you guys too, know, why are coins at me? But, uh, did you, did you see any of that at, at the show you attended?
[00:24:10] Ken Reid: I didn't at that show. No, I don't. I feel like people were, were kind of cool with whatever. I imagine Chicago was a lot more old punks at the show. Cause you know, the Minute Men toured and hit that sort of touch and go records, you know, Steve Albini, sort of crew in the Chicago at Naked Ray Gun, that kind of crowd probably was more in the audience there.
[00:24:29] Charles: Yeah. Cause when you mentioned that in the, in the form that you filled out and I, I'd read that not too long ago, I'm like, Oh wow, it's the same tour. That kind of covers everything you'd filled out, Ken.
[00:24:40] Ken Reid: Yeah, there's one more show I actually just remembered. I saw the revolution without Prince after Prince had died. The reunited revolution did a tour. This was maybe, I don't know, eight years ago. And it was unbelievable. You know, they all kind of took turns singing songs.
[00:24:56] They closed with Purple Rain, but Lisa Melvoin was like, you know, none of us can sing this song. We know he's not here. So, you guys got to sing it. And this whole, whole venue, everybody's sang when they closed with the purple, right. And it was like, just transcended. It was unbelievable.
[00:25:10] Charles: That sounds really cool. I wanted to like kind of move into um, some of your things that you've done and are doing currently. One thing, this band you were in, 30 Seconds Over Tokyo, well, I listened to the album.
[00:25:23] Ken Reid: Uh, thank you and I'm sorry.
[00:25:26] Charles: Was this in 1997?
[00:25:29] Ken Reid: Yeah, 97, 98. The first record came out.
[00:25:32] Charles: And were you the singer?
[00:25:34] Ken Reid: Yeah.
[00:25:35] Charles: You were the singer. Okay. I could, that's what I looked at Discogs and, you know, you could see like the, the inside of the album and all that and it listed you as a singer. So, I was like, Holy cow. I mean, I'm listening to this, this album and, um, it’s...
[00:25:49] Ken Reid: Screamy
[00:25:50] Charles: It's pretty intense. And I was, I thinking like, okay. One, first of all, the first, uh, song on the album, oh God...
[00:25:58] Ken Reid: Stand your ground?
[00:25:59] Charles: Yeah. I was listening, I go, oh, wow, it kind of sounds a little bit like Motorhead, a little, you know, kind of, and then I, as I'm listening and I'm scrolling through, I see at the very end, you guys do a version of Ace of Spades at a faster rate than what Motorhead had played. Yeah, which is saying something, but my question, Ken, with regard to you singing these songs, how do you, or what's your mindset like right before you're going to do this kind of a thing? Like I would imagine in a live situation because it's so intense, like how do you, how do you hype yourself up to that, level? You know what I mean? Like it, it's, it's intense.
[00:26:38] Ken Reid: It was in hindsight, like I could definitely not do it now. We were, we were 15 when we started. When that album came out, we were 17. So from age 15 to 19, we played, you know, a couple of times a week, every week. And so didn't know any differently, I guess was part of it. The other thing was those shows just have like a massive energy level.
[00:27:02] Like you would see the crowd moving, kids would be jumping on stage. And, some sort of one thing I missed doing standup versus bands is it is really, oddly, invigorating and powerful kind of to be on stage and just have this wall of sound sort of as like an army behind you. The other thing, uh, in hindsight, when I've gone back and relistened to some of that stuff, we would write in a lot of like stops and starts and songs.
[00:27:27] Thinking about it, when you've just asked me this now, those really would like, amp me up because that like stop and then like come back in, it just kind of goes with it. But I, I was tired all the time. I mean, I was constantly had throat problems. There was a lot of like coughing up blood all the time. You know, definitely I'm not singing correctly like a trained person would be. But yeah, I mean, also I think just like teenage energy.
[00:27:49] Charles: Yeah. No, it's amazing. And yeah, I think the whole album took me about maybe 30 minutes to listen to that because some songs are like a minute 30 or minute 20.
[00:27:58] Ken Reid: That's what I would say to people. I'm like, no, these are like three to five minutes songs. We just play them in two minutes.
[00:28:02] Charles: Right. Yeah. I remember I; I'd seen the Ramones a couple of times and, you know, the amount of songs they would play in like 80 minutes. It was like 40 songs in 80 minutes basically. Cause, and then I'm thinking like when you're playing this live, like this was, you know, in your album, but you're, you're even more amped up because of the crowd, it's probably going even faster than...
[00:28:23] Ken Reid: It was all faster. We had to slow everything down for the recordings.
[00:28:27] Charles: Yeah, no, it was cool. I, I enjoyed it. It was very impressive.
[00:28:30] Ken Reid: Oh, thanks. Yeah. It was weird. Cause everyone here, like we started with Dropkick Murphys and bands like that. And so the scene here was sort of like very UK or more like soccer chanties bit slower. And we were more like a early eighties West coast hardcore band. So we definitely like, we're kind of an odd man out there.
[00:28:48] Charles: Yeah, no, it was, it was great. And you, so you had like just this one album, right?
[00:28:52] Ken Reid: We did a second record, but broke up before it came out. So, that record, I actually think is pretty good. and it's funny cause I, you know, I'm not usually very, um, self-congratulatory, but we recorded that record summer of 99 and the songs were very different, same level of intensity, I think, but there were bands that I heard four or five years later who sounded more like that second record, but it took four or five years for me to hear other bands that kind of went in that direction, which was kind of validating.
[00:29:22] Charles: Hmm. Yeah. no, I mean, that's a, that's a huge accomplishment too, there were quite a few songs on that, that album I listened to, and you know, get them down and record them and put out an album. I mean, that's gotta be very difficult or quite a feat.
[00:29:35] Ken Reid: Yeah, it was fun though. Like I, I love recording, like just the, the ability to do that stuff. And as like an old punk, like that sort of DIY aesthetic of being able to actually do it, means so much to me that like now doing the podcast, that's like the, the ultimate realization of that in that, you know, we were able to record in our own homes with a pretty minimal financial investment of equipment.
[00:30:00] With gear that sounds as good as million-dollar studios and put it out on the virtual shelf next to everyone else. And that was not even remotely obtainable in the nineties, you know, we still needed a distributor and, you know, there was physically, and I had to go to our local music chain and, you know, sell records on consignment till they sold. And then they would just buy them flat out. Like, so it was, it was, it's night and day, but I, I kind of loved that process.
[00:30:27] Charles: Okay. Cause I just think whenever you create something like that, it's just not, oh yeah, we put out an album. There's a lot of work that went into that.
[00:30:34] Ken Reid: Oh yeah. But we were kids and it didn't feel like work. Like, I feel like if it was our living, I assume that would, but it was like, wow. We're, you know, we, we got like off time at the studio, overnights, that kind of stuff, and you know, you hear it coming through those monitors and it sounds like a real album and you're like, wow, we did that! Yeah.
[00:30:50] Charles: No, that's cool. I thought we, maybe we could transition into like your comedy and then your, your podcast. I mean, speaking of albums, then you, you have a couple of comedy albums, right? Uh, I think one of them is called the Vanity Project.
[00:31:06] Ken Reid: Yep. Yeah. I did that out in LA at the Meltdown Comics. And the first one I did was called the Pilot Season EP, but I mean, those are just, yeah, you just a live show and record it and there it is. It's like a documentary of the set. But, um, yeah, surprisingly those did pretty well.
[00:31:21] And, it's weird with comics versus music in a lot of different ways. But when a comic puts out an album, they consider that material burned. They never do it again because it's now been released, which is literally the exact opposite of a band when you release an album.
[00:31:35] Charles: Yeah, yeah.
[00:31:35] Ken Reid: So you build an hour, record it, put it out, and then it's gone. And then you got to start over again. So that, that's an interesting difference.
[00:31:42] Charles: I didn't think of that. Now, when you release these albums, they were live. Was this, because you've toured with, like, some really big named comedians. Was that during those sessions, or was this just on your own?
[00:31:54] Ken Reid: No, this is on my own. So, I, yeah, I booked cause when you're touring opening, you usually do like 20 minutes, maybe 30 minutes. And you know, you really need to do like an hour at least for an album. So, yeah, that was on my own. I did that show at Meltdown Comics.
[00:32:10] There's a comic book store in LA that had a theater in the back that Camille Nanjiani and Jonah Ray had done this show on, and Camille was in a bunch of movies in the last couple years, like the Eternals and stuff. So yeah, uh, Greg Proops and Mark Heitlinger were nice enough to open that show for me, which is ridiculous. And so yeah, it got like LA Weekly, pick of the week as the show.
[00:32:29] So it, we sold it out and had a good crowd and, uh, it was just came together and came out. Whereas I feel like if I had tried to put that show together in Boston, I would not have filled a room that size.
[00:32:40] Charles: Yeah, that's, that's really neat. And, and it is, I'm just seeing these, uh, the similarities between being in the band and on stage and the comedy and the, and the records and stuff, but it's, but it is a little different. When you tour with these comedians, what is that like?
[00:32:57] Ken Reid: Depends on who it is. I mean, I usually do all the driving, so, there's a lot of long times in the car and it's just the two of you, unlike with a band where it's like a different economy. You know, so you're hanging out with them. And the venues very wildly, depending on who it was, like when I did shows with Bob Saget, we were doing like the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom and big outdoor sheds.
[00:33:15] And one show was on a rotating stage, big outdoor venue. And, uh, we did the Newport Yacht Club and these big, you know, some, just very weird, and not what I'm used to. But the, the acts I usually end up getting to open for tend to be the ones who will play more like rock venues than like comedy clubs.
[00:33:33] So in that regard, it's kind of very familiar and it's like much easier because comedy clubs are a strange anomaly in that they, they build themselves as just comedy. It's not necessarily who's playing. So, it would be like, if a rock club was just like rock show. And you're like, we're gonna go see rock show. Who's playing? I don't know. You know, it's just like, it's rock show. So, you know, you, you, you're more li likely to get people who are like, I hate this rock. This isn't rock show. And it's like, well it is. This is not what you think it is. 'cause they, you know, so it's, it's, uh, you're less likely to have that happen when you're playing like a show that's much more focused as that people know why they're there.
[00:34:12] Charles: Yeah, that's, that is kind of strange. So, you're just, so you would just drive to these different venues then.
[00:34:18] Ken Reid: So Humum. Yeah. It's like some days you'd be like, you know, four- or five-hour drive and do the show and then the next day, four or five hours. And, you know, you do a little circuit.
[00:34:26] Charles: So, you, you obviously get to know the person really, really well.
[00:34:29] Ken Reid: Yeah. For better or worse for them.
[00:34:32]
[00:34:33] Charles: You pop in a cassette of 30 Seconds Over Tokyo.
[00:34:36] Ken Reid: If I want them to just jump out of the car without me stopping. Tell them they're hitting roll when you hit the ground.
[00:34:42] Charles: Uh. Yeah. I thought maybe we could chat about your podcast. I mean, you've interviewed, speaking of Mike Watt, I saw you, you interviewed him, a bunch of musicians, comedians, all sorts of people.
[00:34:54] Ken Reid: It started as people that I knew, and then it was like people who I was interested in their work and then I joke, but it's true. A lot of the people, a lot of people are people who I would have liked to have read a autobiography of that didn't exist. So, I'm just like, I'll just go get it. Let's go get it personally.
[00:35:11] So yeah, the Damned I had on the first year. That was really cool. A lot of musicians, you have Veruca Salt was on, speaking of Chicago, Steve Albini did an episode about Marshall Crenshaw, Devo, which is very weird.
[00:35:24] Charles: It's, it's gotta be good. Yeah. Cause you love the band, you know, the Damned in particular, and then now yeah, you're talking to this guy, but, what's kind of cool though, is you're the TV guidance counselor.
[00:35:34] Ken Reid: So, it's, and that was, it might work in my favor a lot because it was people who either didn't like doing interviews or sick of, cause you get asked the same questions all the time. And it's like, how many times do you answer the same question? So, they would get to talk about stuff that they never talk about, like Lou Barlow from Sabato and Dinosaur Junior on.
[00:35:53] And we talked about how, you know, he, he sound checks with the family ties theme song because it's his entire range. And Nina from Veruca Salt, the house she bought in L.A., she bought it because the guy who wrote the Brady Bunch Oh My Nose episode lived there and wrote that episode in the house.
[00:36:07] And she's like, had to, I had to live there. You know, that, that's, that's stuff you never hear them talk about. Like, why would anyone ask him that stuff? So it's, you know, I had Anthrax on and Charlie Benanti is like a huge, like horror movie and TV nerd, you know, and, and like talking about that stuff is. You know, I think at least it's for fans of them, even if they only listen to one episode of my show, cause they like the guests, they'll hopefully hear stuff they haven't heard from that person before even if they've had a lot, or heard a lot of interviews, you know.
[00:36:37] Charles: Totally. I, I was listening to, you had the guy on from, uh, the YouTuber guy, from...
[00:36:43] Ken Reid: Ricky From All Sorts of Words. Yeah.
[00:36:45] Charles: Yeah. Ricky From All Sorts of Words, and man, I mean, that is your..
[00:36:49] Ken Reid: We got nerdy on that one. That one was, yeah.
[00:36:51] Charles: You guys geek out on that one, but you know, you have this collection of TV guides and I was going to ask you how, how many do you have?
[00:37:01] Ken Reid: Um, it's a lot. Especially since I started doing the show, cause people like give them to me.
[00:37:06] Charles: Oh, okay.
[00:37:07] Ken Reid: So, I mean, it's thousands, uh, it's, yeah, it's, it's pretty much every issue from the late forties till like about the year 2000 and then gets spotty after that. And it's not just 52 a year because each region had their own variation. So there's like 40 different versions of every issue. I don't have every version but you'll have multiple copies of some that are actually different. So, when someone's on the show and they pick an issue, I try to get one from where they grew up, just to, you know, there, there's local stuff that we, you know, just to get it as fresh in their memory as possible.
[00:37:43] Charles: Right. Okay. So, you do, they...
[00:37:45] Ken Reid: Yeah. They'll pick one and then, uh, now it's all remote, but, uh, yeah, I'll send them a list of like a cover gallery and they'll pick one and then I'll grab it, scan it, send them a PDF, and then we, we do it that way. But yeah, actually speaking of Chicago, oh my God, why am I forgetting his name, the playwright who wrote the Spanish Prisoner, David Mamet.
[00:38:04] David Mamet is good friends with Jonathan Katz, the comedian. They went to college together and they used to hustle ping pong games together. But Jonathan was like, Ken, my good friend, David Mamet always gives me such great gifts for my birthday. And I was thinking, do you have a Chicago, area TV guide from, you know, this date and this year that, which is his birthday?
[00:38:23] And I did. And so, he's, so he said to him and I was watching an interview with David Mamet on something and he was in his office and this, this, this TV guy that was sitting in my house is, uh, you know, up behind him and it's really cool.
[00:38:36] Charles: Yeah, the regional, the region thing would be like, I'm just thinking like Son of Svengoolie.
[00:38:41] Ken Reid: Oh, yeah.
[00:38:41] Charles: The Chicago thing, right?
[00:38:43] Ken Reid: Yeah. There'd be all these local channels. And yeah, I mean, the horror host, everyone had a local horror host. You know, Elvira was LA people forget was not a national thing. Uh, yeah. It's Svengoolie, Goularte who was Ernie Anderson. Yeah. There's, there was tons of them.
[00:38:58] Charles: It's a great concept. And so, yeah, it doesn't sound like you'll run out of issues to, to pull anytime soon.
[00:39:04] Ken Reid: Either magazine or personally. That's the interesting thing about television to me is that unlike movies where you would go out, it's a, it's an experience. It's an event. You leave your house, you're in the environment here. It's all television sort of personal forever.
[00:39:18] At least everyone that kind of grew up three millennium, because it's pumped into your house, it's in your environment and it's also every week. So, you know, people all have this personal connection where like, you know, much like a song, oh, I remember where I was when I heard that. Or, you know, most people's first favorite song is a TV theme song.
[00:39:35] So people all have different sort of personal experiences. So, you know, I could have the same issue with two different people and get completely different, you know, conversations.
[00:39:43] Charles: They would watch probably different things, I would imagine. Because I was looking on eBay at TV guides and just images of TV guides and it seemed like the ones with Batman on the cover...
[00:39:57] Ken Reid: Oh yeah. The Batman 66 one can go for a bit of money.
[00:40:01] Charles: Yeah, they're getting quite expensive and so Ken, I've always had this in my head. Okay, and I was listening to, uh, you and Ricky, about all this comic books, it's a couple of my buddies are deep, deep, into the comics. I'm not.
[00:40:15] Ken Reid: Sorry for your loss.
[00:40:16] Charles: I know a little bit, but I do love the Batman TV series. You guys were talking about Jokers and I always, I wanted to ask you this. To me, it always seems like Cesar Romero never gets included...
[00:40:29] Ken Reid: No.
[00:40:30] Charles: With the Jokers.
[00:40:31] Ken Reid: The whole Batman 66, although it's gotten more appreciation now for really since the seventies was kind of written off as like an anomaly and kind of an embarrassment because it was so campy and felt sort of like what someone who read comics in the 1940s and hadn't touched one since and was 60 years old now thought comics were.
[00:40:53] And especially, you know, by the time the 89 movie came out, where Batman was much, this like much darker character, you know, people were like, we can't have that. But I think what's proven to be the case, especially with the DC characters is that they are much more are archetypes. So, you know, you basically only need to know one thing about Batman. It's like rich guy, avenging his parents, death dresses like a bat. That's it.
[00:41:15] And every iteration of that is valid and can kind of exist simultaneously as different aspects of that character. So, I think people have come around more that it can be sort of campy and fun, you know, to the point where DC actually has a Batman 66 comic book in that shows continuity, that is like, if the show continued to go on, right.
[00:41:36] So there's, you know, it's, it's exactly the tone of the show. And so, yeah, Cesar Romero, I think does not get the credit he deserves for painting over his mustache or Frank Gorshin for that matter as the Riddler, who was actually kind of terrifying.
[00:41:49] Charles: Yeah, because, you know, if you, if you watch a Cesar Romero movie, I mean his depiction of the Joker then is like...
[00:41:58] Ken Reid: He's Latin lover and just totally different.
[00:42:01] Charles: Yeah, it's like off the charts. And I always think, man, he, he is really stepping outside of what he normally does as the Joker. And yeah, Frank Gorshin is a Riddler.
[00:42:11] Ken Reid: Yeah, you know, Vincent Price as egghead or the director Otto Preminger as Mr. Freeze, is insane, you know. They had just some Eartha Kitt. They let people just choose scenery and go nuts. And that that's kind of entertaining.
[00:42:24] Charles: Yes, I always thought, you know, Cesar Romero needs to be given some credit there because that's, that's a really interesting character that he plays, when you compare it to what he was doing normally in his movies and such.
[00:42:36] Ken Reid: Oh yeah. Totally out of character. But he kills it. He nails it. It's still great.
[00:42:41] Charles: Yeah, it's, and I think I was reading too, he's like one of the top 60 all time TV villains by TV Guide Magazine.
[00:42:49] Ken Reid: Yeah. I'd buy that. That makes sense.
[00:42:51] Charles: He's included in that. Related to that and like a live music experience, I think I had mentioned to you, I'd gone to an REM show and my buddy got this idea, they're playing this place called UIC Pavilion. University of Illinois, Chicago. That's where I went to college mostly.
[00:43:07] I went to a couple other places, but they had this, the Pavilion held like 10,000 people and REM was touring on their Fables of Reconstruction tour. And so he said, yeah, let's go around back and see if we can meet the band. I'm like, uh, okay, whatever that, that's not going to happen, but let's, let's check it out.
[00:43:22] So we're hanging out there 45 minutes and boom, you know, the back door opens, like it's like the silhouette, you know, cause it's lit from the back, you know?
[00:43:31] Ken Reid: Smoke's coming out, yeah.
[00:43:32] Charles: Here comes Michael Stipe and you know, the whole band. And, so we're talking and they signed like our ticket, stubs and just, you know, kind of chatting and, and I notice Mike Mills is staring at me. And I'm wearing a Batman and Robin T-shirt. It's a white T-shirt and the image is black. So, it's like what they would call like high relief. There's no gray tones in it. black or white and they're, and they've got like their pugilistic, goofy pose, you know, like they're ready to fight.
[00:44:03] And you know how if someone staring at you, you're like you can see it on the corner of your eye. He and walks up to me and he goes, hey, you want to trade shirts with me? And I look at him, and he's wearing like this, short sleeve, like a plaid collared shirt. And I looked k down at my Batman and Robin shirt, and I'm like, I don't think so. And when I tell people that, they're like, you didn't trade shirts with him? I'm like, no man, it was a really cool, yeah, I didn't want to give it up.
[00:44:26] Ken Reid: It's a good shirt. Yeah. I mean it was so good he wanted it. You're just going to give it, you don't know. Yeah, some JC Penney shirt he's wearing.
[00:44:35] Charles: Exactly. That's one of my, my favorite TV shows of all time. Of course, you know, I watched it in reruns as a kid, and I, I always love watching it.
[00:44:43] Ken Reid: But that's that shared experience thing where, you know, you don't know him at all.
[00:44:47] Charles: Right.
[00:44:48] Ken Reid: But you guys could have just sat and talked about episodes for probably two hours like you were old friends, you know?
[00:44:53] Charles: Yeah. But I, when I was listening to you guys, I mean, you have deep knowledge about a lot of stuff.
[00:44:59] Ken Reid: Not on purpose. It's not very useful.
[00:45:02] Charles: Well, I don't know. Just the episodes I listen to because they're long episodes. Like, that was close to almost, was it two hours?
[00:45:08] Ken Reid: Yeah, I shoot for like an hour, but yeah, sometimes they end up getting pretty long.
[00:45:12] Charles: Yeah. But it is very interesting. You guys talk about tons of stuff and, uh, definitely, I recommend, you know, checking out your podcast, for all things, poet, pop, culture, you would...
[00:45:23] Ken Reid: Yeah, I would say so. Yeah. There's something for, you know, I always tell people that they can go cherry pick, um, like guests that they recognize. Usually that's the best way to do it. For listeners of your show, actually, and for you, you may find interesting. I had a guy on a couple of years back who do you remember the early days of MTV?
[00:45:39] They had a contest called the lost weekend with Van Halen?
[00:45:42] Charles: Yeah.
[00:45:43] Ken Reid: And you could win, you could win a chance to just tour with them for a weekend. This kid won it. This 17-year-old kid wanted from Philly. I had him on the show and we talked about that experience and it's as insane as you would imagine. That tour was, if you're familiar with the Van Halen video for Panama.
[00:46:03] Charles: Yeah.
[00:46:04] Ken Reid: That was recorded at one of the shows that weekend. So that was the weekend and it's just this crazy story of this, you know, it's just a guy living in Northern suburbs in Philly and, you know, goes, thanks to TV, you know, he spends three days with Van Halen and it's nuts.
[00:46:22] Charles: They just probably threw him out of a car at the curb of his house, right?
[00:46:25] Ken Reid: Basically. Yeah.
[00:46:27] Charles: He was ruined for the next month, probably.
[00:46:30] Ken Reid: Oh, it's, it's the height of like Van Halen insanity.
[00:46:34] Charles: Oh my god, I'll have to check that out. Of course you have 700 episodes, I barely scratched, I didn't even scratch the surface, I guess.
[00:46:41] Ken Reid: I don't know how that happened.
[00:46:42] Charles: Yeah, your, your knowledge is deep on a lot of stuff.
[00:46:46] Ken Reid: Oh, thanks.
[00:46:47] Charles: Ken, as we, uh, approach the end here of our time, do you have anything? Well, I guess you probably have a few things you might want to plug. I was wondering if you, are you doing any comedy currently like touring?
[00:46:58] Ken Reid: Yeah. Nothing too far out of New England. Maybe once a month-ish these days. But, um, my website is ikenreid.com. K E N R E I D. If I have dates, they're on there. But the show comes out every week. So, still haven't missed a week in 10 plus years somehow. So that's, they could just get that wherever podcasts are. Yeah.
[00:47:18] Charles: Yeah, that's amazing. That's another incredible accomplishment.
[00:47:22] Ken Reid: It's very strange. In every year I do like a year in review, just more for myself, like the last episode of the year, I go through the year that I was surprised people liked him, but yeah, I'm like, oh yeah, I did talk that with that. That did happen. It's kind of a good, uh, like taking stock of things.
[00:47:36] Charles: Yeah, yeah, that's impressive. So, check out your website and, uh, anything else?
[00:47:42] Ken Reid: That's probably it. Yeah. I mean, they can, they can find me, they can check it out. If you heard me on this show, let me know. I'm easy to find.
[00:47:49] Charles: This has been great and I really appreciate your time, Ken, and look forward to listening to some more of your episodes of the TV Guidance Counselor.
[00:47:57]
Ken Reid:
Thank you. Thanks for having me.