Our return flight started with a quick jump to Buffalo or Albany Airport where we had a three-hour layover. With so much time to kill, most of the band and crew went to a nearby theatre to watch “American Gigolo”. Steve (Pysz) and I remained at the airport just killing time.
After a while, Steve comes up to me and in a conspiratorial whisper, asks: “Hey, you got a knife on you?” How about a razor, or even a lighter?” “A lighter, yeah,” I replied and handed it to him. Curious, I followed him up the stairway to the mezzanine and over near the railing where a cushioned bench sat. “Keep an eye out,” whispered Steve. Just then, he leaned over and flicked the lighter to burn a gold-colored cord that was holding up about a ten-foot Winter Olympics banner hung conspicuously over the open plan airport lobby. “Steve…” I started uneasily, thinking we would surely end up in the local jail, but in a flash, he had removed the banner, rolled it up and stuffed it in a carrying bag.
On the second leg, we were the only people on the plane – it was just us and a flight attendant, who brought us drinks and played cards with us in the deserted cabin. When we hit Metro, we were completely dragged out – until Steve revealed the purloined banner for a group photo op! Until that point, nobody else knew that Steve had gotten one of the best souvenirs of the trip!
There’s not much to tell after that. We got a small mention in the New York Times, the Detroit News and Free Press and of course, the local papers. The City of Ann Arbor held a display of all the photographs taken by Andy Oberdick during the trip at City Hall.
Then we got back to the business of playing gigs. It wasn’t really all that long after that the group began to break up. Mark moved to LA, people started getting restless. I guess after you play a couple of international venues like that and still can’t support yourself without the day job, things can get a little jaded.