A band you probably haven’t heard of is about to embark on a ten year reunion tour. Marshfield MA’s favorite pogo-punk band Entrophy folded in 2002 after eight years of touring locally and throwing substance rich after show parties. Now Entrophy has two new shows planned. One is to take place in the basement of a Jamaica Plains apartment house Friday night, the other in late May.
“I had it in my mind that we were gonna have a ten year reunion show before we even took the stage at our “last’ show,” explained Entrophy’s guitarist and vocalist Roach McKrackin. “I’m a marketing genius.”
Matty Evans, a Boston resident who grew up in Marshfield, set up the show to take place in late May.
The show will take place at a Unitarian Church in Duxbury, and feature the newly reformed Entrophy, The Profit$, The Marvels, Spitzz, and Left to Prove. He also lives in the building set to host the show on
Friday night. He explains Entrophy’s reincarnation differently. “I think it’s either because every time I got wasted, I’d be like, “Hey guys, you should have a reunion tour,” or because nobody’s got anything better to do.”
According to the official Entrophy website, the band formed in 1994, with
McKrackin, Juston Speed on bass, and Speed’s brother Nate Perilli on drums.
Evans recalls their first ever live performance. “I went to Entrophy’s first show in Marshfield because it was a punk show. They were awful. Once they finally kicked Nate off the drums they got worlds better, but it was still suburban high school punk. Nobody was expecting the Clash.”
Nate Perilli was replaced on drums by Roach’s brother, Ludwig Von Varnish. Perilli was reinvented as something between a front man and a court jester. This lineup would go unchanged until 2001, when Von Varnish left the band.
A good portion of the years to come found the quartette driving to shows along the east coast in a black van with the Entrophy namesake spray painted across the side.
They played in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Florida. Their recording library consists of three releases. The “DIY” or “Do it yourself” production quality demo, “Drinkin’, and other Punk Rock Clichés,” the 7 inch EP “Whatcha Gonna Do?” recorded at Rodent Popsicle studios in Allston, and the complication “Scabies, Lice, and Everything Nice.“
The band was asked to recall a favorite memory from their time on the road. “Oh man, I don’t know, there are a lot,” said McKrackin. “Puking and probably almost dying of alcohol poisoning for like 2 hours in a parking lot in DE comes to mind. As do legions of screaming high school girls. Also, all the shows we did, especially our farewell show where people were screaming “ENTROPHY” waiting for an encore…”
“I saw some weird stuff,” recalled bassist Juston Speed. “Like women with legs hairier then mine, a dead guy, and I met some interesting folks. Oh yeah, and I watched Roach heave his guts out for three hours straight.”
“I think the best few days of my life where spent on the road with some of the greatest guys in the whole world,” reminisced Nate Perilli. “It (touring) was the greatest thing I have ever done and I can not wait untill I have the chance to do it again.”
It’s thought that many patrons of Boston’s local music scene aren’t Entrophy fans. As Speed rationalized, “Hey its like all these people are dropping your name it does not matter if it bad or good, just as long as it enters the zeitgeist.”
However The band has said on several occasions that they only consider their harsher critics to be ten to twenty kids in number. Entrophy waved their musical middle fingers at those ten or twenty kids with the lampooning tracks “P.C. will destroy the Punk Rock scene” and “Walking Cliché.”
Eventually in 2002 Entrophy caved. Von Varnish left the band, and other issues arose. “(Like) Being sick of all the bullsh!# that came along with being in a band, not that there weren’t some f$%&ing good times,” said McKrackin. “And also because of the frustration of realizing in the past couple years that everything we accomplished in our 9 years as a band could have easily been done in 1 or 2 if we had gotten our heads out of our a@#es.”
The ninnies saw several bands gain enough pop culture significance to become house hold names, only to self destruct in less time than it took Entrophy.
Why? “Because we got the love!” said Speed. “Nathan (Nate) is my brother of course, and for all intents and purposes I consider Roach one as well. Made things a lot easier because we could get in each others faces and f$#@ with each other lot, and know it was not personal. We’ve made it through broken vans, fist fights, and OSL, and preserved.“
Perilli is less sentimental. “Well, as I was once told by the great Matty Evans, “The only reason Entrophy is still around is you’re all to stupid to quit.”
But they did for a while. From an economic standpoint it made sense to do this. “I sure as f%$# haven’t seen no green coming way.” Perilli stated.
“I’ll believe punk is mainstream when the cheddar I get from the band pays for my rent.”
Even if a lucrative recording contract never comes, A band can’t exist for 8 years and not develop a fan base.
“On the south shore, they’re a lock to draw 100,” said Matty Evans. “Every show, you can recognize 20 kids or so that you’ve seen at 15 other Entrophy shows and then 100 littler kids. Entrophy has been doing that since the 90’s.”
Evans recounted an experience he had at an Entrophy show in Fitchburg MA. “Justin was supposed to have like 400$ up front. He didn’t have any (money).
So Tammy (an Entrophy fan) and I had to go a round to collect from everyone in the parking lot. Basically panhandling. Matt Kelly and James Lynch from Fit for Abuse and Dropkick Murphys were just laughing at us.”
Evans and Tammy were able to collect more than enough for Entrophy to play their set. A fifty dollar contribution came from a father and son who flew from “either Michigan or Minnesota” specifically to see Entrophy.
“I have gotten a few e-mails,” said Perilli of the fanfare the reunion is generating. “The buzz is out. People will let us know if we were worth remembering.”
“I think we all decided that it was time to give it another go,” said Speed. “If only for the sake of getting new projects going.”
One of these new projects in a “DIY” DVD, featuring Entrophy’s farewell performance show from 2002 and a few extras.
A reporter writing a profile on Entrophy learned of the Friday night concert, and asked Matty Evans if it was worth pushing back his deadline so as to attend the show and write a more in depth article. “Don’t bother,” said Evans. “They’ll be completely incoherent.”