Redhanded

From Louisville Punk/Hardcore History
Redhanded Stats
redhanded logo
Record Labels: Closed Casket
Started By: Bryan Volz Sam Page
Based In: Louisville
First show: December 20th, 2002 @ The Clifton Unitarian Church on Payne St.
Largest show: 400+ people
Last show: N/A
Reunion show: N/A
Number of Members: 8

A history of Redhanded: (AKA WWDGD?)
Redhanded was formed in the summer of 2001 by Bryan Volz (The Vagrants, Thrashasaurus Rex) and Sam Page (Destined To Fall) with the goal of making a fast, fun hardcore band that didn't focus on looks, didn't sing about girls/boys, and wasn't metal. Kid Dynamite was the reference they used when looking for members. Within a short time of looking around for interested parties, Lee Fetzer (Endpoint, Armbar, Step Down, tons more) got ahold of the duo and offered to play guitar or play drums until a suitable drummer was found. With the recent disbanding of Kayfabe, he wanted to keep playing shows and not be stuck on the sidelines. Happily Bryan and Sam hooked up with Lee at his southend home and started making music. At their second practice, they recorded Live And Let Live and used that demo version to try to bring in more new blood.
After weeks of not being able to find anyone, Lee decided to leave the group to reform Kayfabe, leaving Sam and Bryan to continue the search for a drummer and guitarists. After trying out Ethan Pani from Edgeland and having a hard time makin' things work, and Lee being unsucessful in reforming the 'fabe, Sam, Bryan, and Lee rejoined forces, causing Ethan's dad to freak out because Ethan was 15 and Lee was 32. The band decided to keep playing Live And Let Live, a new song entitled Arm In Arm, and keep 3 Kayfabe songs, as Lee didn't feel like they were ready to die.
Within 2-3 weeks of this reformation, Lee ran into Chris Payne (Bodyhammer, Blue Collar Revenge Theory) at an Arch show. Chris had just returned from a hiatus in Colorado, and was ready to hang out and thrash again. Bringing Chris into the mix was a great decision, as everyone got along great and Chris is a very accomplished guitarist. The only thing left was a drummer, and Bryan was talking about this one night when completely out of the blue, old friend Joe Mitchell, who had just returned from San Francisco, piped up saying that he played drums. Excited as hell, Bryan got him to try out for the 'hand as a temporary drummer, as Joe was leaving for San Fran again at the end of December.
The band practiced twice a week at Lee's house throughout October and November to prepare for their first show on December 20th w/ When Spark's Fly, Thrashasaurus Rex, Kathleen Barbara, and more at the Clifton Unitarian Church. The show was amazing, with circle pits and chaos everywhere, especially after Sam (and everyone else in attendance) was doused with a gallon and a half of fake blood (which was a huge pain to clean up after the set - the band was still finding globs of red on equipment over a year later). Excitement was running high, and everyone seemed to enjoy it. Unfortunantly, and momentum built up by then was destroyed as Joe left for college a week later (after the band recorded 5 songs with him) and a new drummer was nowhere to be found.

Lineup 2

Over the next 2 1/2 months, at least 5 different drummers were tested, and they all failed. One guy was convinced that he was in the band even though he was told he was just being tried out, and didn't get it when everyone told him he needed to hit harder and they wrote "WWDGD" (What Would Dave Grohl Do?) on the snare head. After some despair, Lee was ready to settle back onto the drum throne when CP remembered a man from his past... Pat Matheny (Biscuit Race).
Pat worked perfect, and he had only played one song with the band when Lee exclaimed loudly "Hey guys, he's the new drummer!" The band built up new songs and greatly tightened the old stuff as they started to play shows again, and demo recording a few times, and recording the entire catalog in May, 2003 to Lee's trusty Korg 16-track. The first demo was put out with the results of that session in June, 2003 at the show w/ Harbinger, Dead Hate The Living (Cincy), and Three Inches Of Blood (Vancouver, BC). It was a hit and all 100 original copies were gone before the month was out.
As fall came on and the days grew shorter, so did tempers. After a pretty good Halloween 2003 show that also saw the release of a second, remixed demo with new vocal tracks, members expressed a high level of anxiety due to unhappiness with Sam's attendance to practice, sound, and attitude. All the problems came to a head January 2nd, 2004 as the band went to Headbanging Kill Your Mama Music to record for a full-length 9 song release. Sam refused to sing two songs, and didn't finish another after being told the day before that if she skipped out early, she wouldn't have to worry about the songs as the rest of the band would take care of the vocals. She left the next day for Europe, and the band came to the consensus the week after to move Lee to vocals (he wrote a majority of the lyrics anyway - all the ex-Kayfabe songs were his), and find a replacement for him on guitar. Unfortunantely, in retrospect, a lot of the problems with Sam could have been worked out with much improved communication on all parts.

By the time Sam returned in February, Redhanded was about to start practicing with old friend Doug Walker, and Sam was told she was out 2 days after she returned. The band went on in March to play it's best show to that point at the Bardstown Road Legion Hall, finishing the January recordings with Lee on vocals (he had already finished singing some songs in January when Sam left early) and

Lineup 3

dubbing Doug's new guitar parts on top of Lee's parts. Expectations were running high, but as the band listened to the newly remixed recordings, everything seemed off. In addition, Doug was infrequently at practice and hard to get a hold of, and everyone agreed that they were more comfortable w/ Lee on guitar, so in early July, Doug was out while Lee was singing and playing guitar again. It only took a few shows for him to realize that he didn't want to sing at all anymore, and the hunt for a new member was on again....

The band took a very long hiatus due in part to Pat having a child, and after almost a year and a half of no shows in Louisville, Redhanded started playing out again in October, 2006 w/ Jared on vocals.

Almost exactly a year later, due to continuing personnel problems, Redhanded decided to merge with Lee and Bryan's other band Jack A Dull Boy to form Brother Doubt.

For the official band webpage, please visit [1]
MP3s can be found at [2].

Members:
First Lineup:
June 2002 - December 2002

w/ Lineup 3

Second Lineup:
February 2003 - February 2004

Third Lineup:
February 2004 - July 2004

Fourth Lineup: July 2004 - Jan 2006

January 2006 - Current

Releases:

Available on the triple-dub only:

Compilations: Pucknation.com The Album 2 CD - Connection(?)

Videos:

Shirts/Merch:

  • CP - high contrast picture of CP playing guitar inside a black field surrounded by halftone dots. Only 2 made.
  • Stencil - Stencil logo on front. 5 made for band members during 1st lineup (4 white print, navy shirts, 1 black print, red shirt), 20 made for sale.
  • Old English - Old English logo on front of shirt, Louisville hardcore logo on back up by collar 30 made. Front
  • Old English hoodie - Old English logo on front, burning, winged hand logo on the back. Louisville hardcore logo on sleeve cuffs. 5 pullovers, 8 zip ups made. Front|Back/sleeves
  • Fox - more limited shirts that had frilly stuff and a fox on the front or back with the text "Redhanded - Louisville Hardcore"
  • Stencil Stickers - vinyl stickers w/ stencil logo from t-shirts.
  • Eagle - limited edition shirt for a show w/ Nixon & The Welfares on 2/23/07. Front

Show List: