Austin360 blogs > The Personals road diary > Archives > 2006 > June > 09 > Entry
Meet Wichita Brody!!
I realized in looking back over the blog that I have yet to properly introduce y’all to someone The Personals now lovingly call Wichita Brody. I have been depriving you, and for that I apologize. Brody was one of the first people we met when we rolled up at Kirby’s (by the way, that would be right after Adam and Toby did a costume change behind the van in the parking lot of convenience store — we are just that hardcore). Brody was something of a volunteer sound guy at Kirby’s, I think, and we spent a couple days hypothesizing about how old he probably was (his age being obscured by a major beard and some seriously major white-dude dreadlocks). We are guessing he’s about 25. He reminded me a bit of Matt from Lions/Trophy’s in his laid back, friendly demeanor. Don’t know if his parents actually named him Brody, but either way, it was the perfect name for this guy.
Brody was the first of about a dozen people to offer us a place to crash in Wichita. Everyone there was so nice. We didn’t even have to tell them about Kristen’s situation because a bunch of them had been briefed on myspace. We got out of the van and it was “How’s Kristen?” and “We can’t believe you made it!” We took Brody up on his offer of a place to crash because he said he lived only a couple blocks away in a “Fonzie apartment” (AKA a garage apartment, which reminds The Personals of Troy, one of our best friends, and his digs in South Austin). After the show we headed to Brody’s place to crash, but we ended up setting the tone for the tour by staying up til sunrise watching Chappelle’s Show and some sock-puppet comedy from MTV2 about which I think Toby is still cracking up.
Let me tell you, I have never seen an apartment quite like Brody’s. The place itself was nice, and he had major stereo equipment and a couple of 5-string basses handy (very band-tastic). I say it out of love, though, when I say that it was the messiest, most trash-ified apartment I have ever seen. He wouldn’t let me open the fridge — “nothing’s dead in there, it just smells that way,” he said. In the morning, I was dying for some water and he got me some out of the only “clean” cup in the place — a paper cup from Wendy’s. (Seriously.) He also had a cat, which caused Adam (who is quite allergic, apparently) to wake up with his eyes almost swollen shut after a night of snoring like a freight train. On the plus side, Brody cued up two CDs by Morphine (one of my top three favorite bands when I was in high school) to help drown out the log-sawing. It didn’t work, but I love Morphine anyway.
My favorite part of the place was a sign on the inside of the front door that announced, “Trash day is Wednesday.” This seemed like some kind of existential riddle or absurdist comedy. Like, dude, which Wednesday are we talking about? In which year exactly? And when they say “Trash day is Wednesday,” do they mean that someone actually BRINGS TRASH to Brody’s apartment every Wednesday? That is how it appeared.
At some point in the night, Adam looked over at a piece of equipment along the wall and, assuming it was an amp, asked Brody something like, “Is that a 1x10 or 1x15?” Now, what I know about amps you could fit in a Wendy’s cup, so I cannot throw stones. But it was still pretty hilarious when it turned out that Adam was asking about a HUMIDIFIER! Then it got even better. Next to that non-amp was another one, this time a super cool-looking 1950s-era B&H projector. And Brody let Adam have it! Of all the garbage in his apartment, he was trying to get rid of this! We couldn’t believe it, but we were absolutely willing to make room for it in the van. Later, after breakfast at a place called Spangles (Brody’s favorite), he also gave us a half-full bag of charcoal for our upcoming day at the lake. He said he wanted to give us a grill someone left at his place, but he had just passed it on to someone else. In the Spangles parking lot, he also offered us some clear liquid in a vial. I totally assumed it was a drug I was too lame to know about. Days later the guys mentioned it had been eye drops or mouth wash or something.
If only there existed a Wichita Brody in every town! We owe Kirby’s and Kansas a huge thanks for starting our tour off in the best way. THANKS!!! Brody doesn’t have the Internet at his Fonzie apartment, but if anyone in Wichita is reading this, please tell him The Personals will never forget his generosity and general awesomeness and that he’s got a place to stay in Austin anytime. :)
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