Memento: Jawbox Letter Proves They Were the Truest ‘Sweethearts’ of ’90s Indie Rock
For a band that titled arguably its best album For Your Own Special Sweetheart (1994), Jawbox may themselves be the sweetest post-hardcore band of the ’90s.
On the fateful Friday night of Nov. 22 in 1996, excitement for the weekend got into the heads of three students – including yours truly – and ousted any semblance of logic as punishment. When we learned that the J. Robbins-led Jawbox had plans to play a gig at Mabel’s in Champaign, a city located two hours south of Chicago.
We didn’t know the band – which featured another prominent indie-rock figure, Kim Coletta – was on the verge of breaking up after releasing its fourth, self-titled studio album. No matter; we likely would’ve made the four-and-a-half-hour road trip anyway, if only to hear Jawbox perform their best song ever, “Savory.” (Ironic in terms of the amount of time we traveled to get to Champaign, Jawbox came out four-and-a-half months before our trip.)
Casting all manner of travel strategy and reason into the air, we left Grinnell College on a whim in the truest sense of the word and hit the road. Miraculously, the drive was suspiciously smooth and presented no obstacles that might have indicated our decision was half-baked at best.
Mabel’s, on the other hand, saw to that. Unknown to us before we left Iowa, the club had a strict and stupid policy of disallowing anyone younger than 19 years old to come through its doors. Two of the three of us college students didn’t meet that requirement (nor did we have fake IDs that might’ve rendered the debacle moot.
Given the distance we had just traveled, we weren’t about to easily give up the chance of witnessing Jawbox’s performance and go off into the night. Rather, we climbed a staircase located behind the venue, where we had previously witnessed bands lug in their equipment and gear. We waited at the door, which was restricted for musicians and their crews, hoping we might be able to slip into the venue when no one was paying attention.
Turns out some of them were: the four members of Jawbox. We heard one of the show’s opening acts playing inside the venue, but listened much more attentively to the words of condolences and apologies that Jawbox – also featuring guitarist Bill Barbot and drummer Zach Barocas – offered to us, even though they weren’t responsible for any aspect of the debacle.
Jawbox tried their damndest to reason with Mabel’s employees and requested they make an exception to their attendee-age rule as we battled weariness from the road trip. The staff offered no mercy whatsoever, to the chagrin of the seven of us as we surrounded the doorway. For their own part, though, Jawbox exhibited empathy for their three devoted fans by giving us most of the cash they had on their person – enough to cover the cost of our gas expenses.
During the ride back to the college, our mutual dismay was palpable. At the same time, we were somewhat tickled by the fact that we had a colorful anecdote involving some of our favorite musicians. What made the story even more potent, and which proved that Jawbox had heart and integrity lacking in so many other bands, including other musicians that the three of us mutually revered.
That additional exhibit of sincerity came in the mail a few days later and is pictured at the top of this post. Lest anyone have difficulty reading it, here’s what Barbot wrote on a mail-order pamphlet for DeSoto Records, which he and Coletta founded in D.C. in 1989:
“Kurt, thanks to you & Geoff for being so understanding that night – a great case for why we try to play all-ages shows whenever possible. I’m sorry it took a 5-hour drive to find that out! Here’s the new DeSoto catalog & some stickers. Enjoy. Thanks again, BB.”
Almost 30 years later, it turns out the three naive teens were right: That evening did make for a great story.
For more editions of The Bad Penny‘s “Mementos” series, check out:
• Winterlings’ autumn harvest
• Research Society’s “2001” obsession, Lego’d
• Wanda Jackson’s personalized card – and a matchbook too
• Branden Daniel’s Amazing Technisound Dream Vest
• Salme Dahlstrom’s coffee-centric contribution
• The Moog’s hairspray
• The Bad Penny’s button collection
The Bad Penny (beta) 
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