BUFFER ZONE
One summer while I was visiting my cousin in Washington DC, I found this strange homemade cassette tape near his television that read BUFFER ZONE. I asked him what it was, and he said it was his friend’s band in which he was the drummer. I remember looking at the song titles on the tape, but the only one I recall was called “Pagan Prayer.” I remember this being a bit disconcerting, as the only thing I knew about Pagans was the goat-dancing virgin-sacrificing deviants from Dragnet ‘87. Ya know, People Against Goodness And Normalcy. P.A.G.A.N. (Very good Joe). Nevertheless, I was both impressed and intrigued by the fact that his friend’s band had put together an actual tape of their music (see above for the visual approximation of what it looked like).
My cousin additionally informed me that there were several other bands that were active in his high school. According to popular opinion, the best band at his school were called Mushrooms. (Pretty stupid, eh? I prefer BUFFER ZONE). While on my visit, my cousin and I happened to hitch a ride with the girlfriend of one of the members of the aforementioned Mushrooms. At one point while she drove, she turned to my cousin and another passenger and asked, “Do you guys want to listen to Mushrooms?”, to which my cousin and the other passenger genuinely replied “YEAH!” I don’t remember too much about the music, but I think I recall the band to be somewhat Bon Jovi-ish. (That may be unfair, because I really don’t remember that well). During one of the songs, the girl screeched “Oh my God, my boyfriend’s part is coming up,” and then subsequently “Eeek! That’s my boyfriend!,” to a shredding guitar solo blaring from the tape deck. The girl had curly blonde hair and wore a lot of hairspray. Great stuff.
But anyway, back to BUFFER ZONE. I thought of the mysterious band (which I never actually heard) the other day, so I google’d “Buffer Zone DC Band.” Wouldn’t you know, I found an archived listed of old DC bands here, with BUFFER ZONE listed. There’s no additional information listed besides the name of the band, but ain’t that something? I didn’t make the whole thing up. There’s no listing for Mushrooms though, so they really must have sucked after all.
