Lance Hahn R.I.P.
It’s strange the way things work out. Recently I moved to France and I have been trying to contact people from my past. I started with the people who helped influence and shape me from my Syracuse Punk Rock days. It has been wonderful getting in touch with some people and seeing what has happened to us over the years. It got me thinking of all kinds of people in CA I have lost contact with. I was so hopeful about finding some of them, imagining that we’d catch up on the good times. To some extend this has happened. When your mind leads you one way you are never prepared for sudden shocks.
I got an email from an old friend Jenn, she sang in Good Grief. We have been communicating off and on recently. She tells me Lance Hahn has died. 1967-2007, 40 years old. No rock star death, no fast car, crashing plane, OD, money spent too fast, etc, just complications due to kidney disease. Kind of makes you wonder just how much digging in the past you want to do.
I would love it if everyone who reads this sends 5 emails or makes phone calls or writes letters, just 5 people, and tell them what a profound impact on your life they had. We never know how the little things we do each day impact others unless they tell us. Sure with some people it’s obvious but we impact so many people in much more subtle ways that unless you are told you might never know.
How Lance influenced me
When I first moved to CA I was just coming out of the closet. Within a month of moving I saw Cringer perform with Jawbreaker, I think it was with Jawbreaker-when they lived in NYC-before they moved to SF, it was at the Women’s Building on 18th street in the Mission. Lance had a Silence=Death sticker on his guitar. It’s a small thing but I never forgot it. I think I went around telling people Lance was gay after that for a year but I was set “straight” after awhile. It impressed me even more that s straight person would do that. I was 19 and had not been exposed to much visibility.
His varied musical tastes and his reviews for Maximum Rock and Roll. As I posted earlier, I was so in the closet about music that I liked but didn’t conform to “our” standards. I knew it was stupid but i was too insecure to proudly proclaim my likes in terms of music. When he positively reviewed a 7″, I would go to the basement of MRR and listen to it. If I liked it but was unsure how my “friends” would react, I put in the back of my mind, well Lance liked it, to console myself, just in case.
I was in awe of how he did so many things, band stuff of course but also MRR, Blacklist, Epicenter, promoting other bands, having so many friends. I thought he must live a 36 hour day in our 24 hour ones.
He was always so encouraging of us as a band when we first started out. I thought he must be sick of all the crappy little bands but he seemed to have nothing but enthusiasm for it.
I remembered when he joined Monsula. That was a sight, Lance playing in Monsula, I sw them once at Gilman with Lance.
I remember he played for a long time with little Peavey Amp with a distortion pedal. Proof that the person makes the music not the amp, althogh i went through many permutations of amps, many times even within a month, I think the only person I saw go through more was Harry. But in a good way.
Songs
Cringer
I don’t remember the name of the song but it went
I wanna go back, to the beginning
As Good Grief we played it once in a while at practice, of course after Harry joined us.
J-church
Blister (I think)
Baccanalian blisters, I always wondered what this could have meant in the lyrics. I loved how he was getting into dissonance then in music. I think he was the only other person I knew who liked the Treepeople.
If anyone else knew him there is a website and another blog you can visit.
Don’t wait for death to remind us what we should have done during life.
October 31st, 2007 at 7:03 pm
Not to mention that he recorded a song for a compilation on Homemade Records for me. I asked him and even offered to pay a small amount towards the recording. I fully expected him to decline, but in usual Lance fashion, he accepted. This is Fucked, This is Shit with Jolt, Jabberjaw, and The Winona Ryders. I can’t remember the name of the song but I remember it started out with him making siren sounds on his guitar. It might have been called Siren even; sounds like a J-Church song title.