Spork
From The Secret History of the Cedar Valley
Contents |
History
Spork was one of millions of teenage Nirvana-inspired bands to have existed in the early to mid '90s. Something about Spork's sound and the band members' backgrounds hinted at something darker, however. Only one recording of them is known to exist, a demo tape produced with some assistance from members of Scarlet Runner.
Among Spork's most memorable performances was the time they crashed the Fishbone concert put on by UNI. It was arranged with another band that drummer Kevin Geist played in at the time (Captain something, they were rather boring), who were booked for the show, that at the end of their set Kern and O'Tang would get on stage unannounced and uninvited, plug in their guitars, and start playing. At the sound of the instantly infectious riff of "Elactrigrape," the crowd for some reason started cheering and got to their feet -- probably glad to finally hear some actual rock. Security was probably called; according to some accounts, members of the stage crew were physically cutting through cables to stop the band. After finishing the song, Spork left, their stunt successful.
Band Members
- Nick Kern - Vocals, Guitar
- O'tang - Bass
- Kevin of Spork a.k.a. Kevin Of (Kevin Geist) - Drums
Discography
Spork.jpg
Self Released |
Lore
Nick Kern seems to be an eccentric character with a difficult history. I remember going over to his dad's house near Falls Ave. in Waterloo around the time that Spork was getting started and my sister Sarah Hoffman had recently started dating him. Anyway, not long after that, he had moved out of his dad's residence under seemingly shady circumstances, despite being only about 15 years old, and was living in a pretty ghetto apartment on W. 9th with a bunch of similarly young guys including "Death Metal Dave" Dave Russell and this big guy who used to break into pop machines. This was the period of Spork's heyday. It was pretty much a constant party over there, and I remember that they would occasionally go to shows and get the headining/touring bands to come back to their apartment to hang out afterwards. After Sarah and Nick broke up, Nick seemed to sort of disappear for a few years. I heard that he had been in jail during that time. This past couple years I've occasionally bumped into him around town and he seems happy to see me and like a lot of people, usually asks me if I've been doing any music stuff. --chuck hoffman
