DRUM! Magazine – Issue 15-5, Pg. 43-45

Originally a guitarist in the Windy City band, Baxter, Neil Hennessy didn’t start banging the skins until the ripe old age of 20. Up to that point, he merely observed the drummer in his band and messed around on the drums when he had the chance. To him, drumming was merely a diversion, but his skills would soon prove very beneficial when Baxter split up.

Around the same time, The Broadways broke up, leaving guitarist Chris McCaughan and bassist Brendan Kelly in search of a new gig. “Brendan called me up and expressed an interest in starting a new band,” says Hennessy. “He knew me as a guitar player, and I suggested that I play the drums. He came over one day, and we started in the basement and that was sort of the birth of this. All the stuff I had learned from playing guitar I just tried out in The Lawrence Arms. Seven years later and I’ve been playing every day.”

In just a short time after forming in 1999, The Lawrence Arms put out two full-length albums on Asian Man Records, and in Summer 2000 the band was offered a spot on the Plea For Peace tour. “The first tour was actually one of the best tours we ever did because it was a package tour and we were getting the rider every night with the beer and deli trays and all that. It was interesting. I had never toured beyond a week or so, maybe a week at the most, and this was a month long tour with The Alkaline Trio, Blue Meanies, Link 80. I was 20 years old, it was my first introduction but now I’ve been do-ing it for so long and looking back I realize that not a lot of bands get it that easy right away. We just happened to have friends that helped, and we’re grateful for that.”

A European tour followed, then a split CD with The Chinkees, but the Arms’ first taste of fame and notoriety came during the 2001 Warped Tour when the boys were offered a chance to showcase for Grand Royal records in Chicago. A hometown show on a major tour really did seem like a good idea at the time. “It was right before Grand Royal folded, and I think they were searching for something that might pull them out of the decline that they were in,” recalls Hennessy. “It was a very hot day and probably right under 100 degrees. We have a friend, Marcus, who has no sweat glands and he can’t be in the sun. He had to go home because they ran out of water, and the water they did have until they ran out cost six dollars a bottle. Brendan was pissed off at how the overall scheme was going that day. He stepped up on stage and started to rant… and express his disdain for the Warped Tour.” Suffice it to say, the Grand Royal folks did not take too kindly to Brendan’s expression and vowed to never let the band play the Warped Tour.

Still, The Larry Arms continued the tour but almost called it quits once it ended. “We spent a little over a year on the road, and we were sort of beaten up. We had nowhere to live and we weren’t making any money. In fact, we were in a lot of debt and we were at a point where we were going to break up because we couldn’t keep touring and accumulating this debt. It just wasn’t working.”

Their situation may have seemed dire, but it all worked just enough to gain the attention of Fat Wreck Chords. The record company had heard the split CD with The Chinkees and offered to release the Arms’ next album, Apathy And Exhaustion. “It was the first time we felt the pressure as a band to make something that people are going to hear now. It was the first time we took that into consideration. I think it turned out pretty well. I listen to it now and I would change a few things, but ultimately that was what we were feeling at the time.”

The relationship between Fat Wreck Chords and The Lawrence Arms has been a fruitful one. Currently, the band is riding high on the success of Oh! Calcutta!, but do not expect to the see them play the Warped Tour anytime soon. In fact, don’t even mention it in their presence. It’s still a touchy subject. “It wasn’t really a vocal goal until now to let people know that we disagree with the Warped Tour and that we don’t necessarily think it is punk rock in any way. We really want to bring back club tours in the Summer. There are 20 or so humungous bands on Warped Tour every year that could go and do club circuits all Summer and kids would have stuff to do all Summer long. Now they go to one show and they go buy all their stuff and they get 30 minutes of their band. It’s kind of a cop-out of the bands. Regardless if you think its punk rock or not, these bands are just lazy.

“A lot of bands think it’s a greatplace to get exposure, but how is it good exposure when you’re playing on a small stage and Rancid is playing 30 feet away from you? No one’s going to watch you if they can go see AFI or Me First And The Gimme Gimmes. It’s great for these big bands that can do well in merchandise every day and walk away [making] 20 or 30 grand in a day. Ultimately, it just doesn’t make sense to me how that can be fun. Music, first and foremost, should be fun and should be something that is witnessed intimately. I feel like its completely ripping down any reality in music.”