Riding the ‘Blue Shark’

After forming and getting recognition regionally, hometown bands such as Harriet the Spy, Kill the Hippies and Velocipede, as well as the independent Kent label Donut Friends began networking with touring bands. The punk houses in Kent became a frequent stop in an underground network of touring punk bands from all over the country.

“Those bands tapped into this resource that we now use,” says Ryan Brannon of Party of Helicopters, “It was the ability to go on tour using a different approach than say, a professional rock band—not getting a manager, not getting the things that are necessary to make it your job, but just doing it because it’s awesome. Like, ‘Here’s a number, call this kid in Cincinnati, he’ll set you up a show’ or ‘I know a guy in Knoxville. He’ll hook you up.’ Everybody gets numbers and gets to know each other. Consequently, we’ve made friends across the country.”

Life on the road wasn’t always easy for the bands, though.

“It was so much fun that we pretty much all got addicted to it and wanted to keep doing it.”

“The very first tour Harriet the Spy went on,” McAdams says, “we did in a car following this band Grain. We just drove in a car. It was literally a week and a half. It was kind of a disaster. We played maybe one or two good shows, but it was so much fun that we pretty much all got addicted to it and wanted to keep doing it.”

The largest portion of the touring came when Party of Helicopters’ Jamie Stillman bought a blue 1990 Dodge van, nicknamed the “Blue Shark.”

“The Blue Shark somehow lasted five years,” McAdams says, “The Party of Helicopters went on their first tours in it. Harriet the Spy would tour every summer for at least a month and usually do a winter and a spring break tour. I know that at the end we figured out Harriet the Spy played over 500 shows.” Portland, Ore. became the final resting place of The Blue Shark in 2001, housing a vagrant, McAdams says.

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