Barking Spiders @ North Shore Hospital (1988)

In December of '88 my social studies class was taking a field trip to North Shore Hospital to spread some holiday cheer to children stricken with cancer. My teacher, Mr. Ruane, knew I was in a band (Barking Spiders) so he asked if we would play a few songs. He'd obviously never heard us play because hardcore music just isn't appropriate for a hospital. So for the occasion we learned how to play "Jingle Bells"...sort of.

My memory is a little fuzzy about the trip but I believe we played three very short sets in three different hospital rooms. One room the kids needed to be quarantined so we wore little booties over our sneakers and played behind glass. We performed the aforementioned "Jingle Bells", The Ramones' "Blitzkrieg Bop", and the quietest, reggae inspired Barking Spider original "Find Some Time". And of course we followed hospital etiquette and kept our amplifiers at a loud whisper.

At the end of the humbling day I hope we brought some cheer to the children. Here's some photos...