Box Jumper as The Wedding Singers

When bassist Jason Manning told me we were playing a wedding reception, I had a few questions:

“They asked us to play this?”

“They know what kind of band we are, don’t they?”

“They are aware of the subject matter of our songs?”

“And they still want us to play?”

To my befuddlement, the answer to every one of these questions was, “Yes.” After that I kind of just put it out of my mind, and kind of forgot about it until I was reminded last practice, after which I again asked Jason the above questions, especially after he told me the reception would be primarily a Latino affair.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I readied myself beforehand, and I was even more bewildered when I arrived. This was a wedding reception in the most traditional sense, held at the Dante Heritage hall, complete with catering, open bar, DJ, dance floor, wedding cake, grandparents, grandchildren, and a primarily Hispanic crowd in attendance.

For those of you who don’t know, my band Box Jumper is punk rock played by some of the whitest people you’ll ever see (except guitarist Abe who is our token Hispanic member…you can’t have a Bakersfield band without at least one Hispanic guy). I could not see how we would ever fit into this scenario. But the groom greeted us and was enthusiastic about us performing in front of his family and friends. The icing on the cake was the fact we were playing before a Mariachi band. Yes, that’s right. Box Jumper opened for a Mariachi band at a Latino wedding reception.

There were many children in attendance, and our songs can get fairly blue. We opted to not play a song with the repeating lyrics “I hate your fucking guts,” and I had to somewhat sensor a song I sing about my very functional erection. At the end of the set we covered Social-D’s “Ball in Chain,” a song we have never played as a band before then. We pulled it off fairly well. All in all, we actually got a pretty good response. Several people asked us for demos or merchandise, of which we had none, unfortunately. It was still very strange.

After the show the sky opened up with a fury of rain, hale and lightning, as if to decry this unholy union of Honky punk rock and Latino culture, but it faded as quickly as it unleashed. I could herald the night as an important one for multicultural relations. Don’t get me wrong. I did have a lot of fun, but it was still one of the strangest things I’ve been involved with.

Note: Check back later for pictures of the event.