Gotta Start Somewhere Pat Sansone of The Autumn Defense and Wilco

No matter how successful entertainers become, they’ll inevitably always remember the first gig—whether it was disastrous, wonderful, or absurdly strange. Gotta Start Somewhere embraces these nostalgic moments by asking established entertainers to recall the first times they ever graced a stage. In this edition, The A.V. Club corners Wilco and The Autumn Defense multi-instrumentalist, Pat Sansone, and forces him to reminisce about his early days playing dirty biker bars. The Autumn Defense’s great new record, Once Around, is out now on Yep Roc and the band plays Lincoln Hall this Saturday.  

Pat Sansone: My first gig that I would consider a gig, I was 13 years old. It was 1985, and I was playing in a heavy metal cover band called Vexx. Everyone else in the band was a few years older than me.

Our first paying gig was at this place called Ed’s Beer Joint, which was a little shack bar on the side of the highway in Philadelphia, Miss., 30 minutes from where I grew up in Meridian, Miss. Ed’s was notorious for being a place where there was at least one shooting a year in the parking lot. It was a biker joint, but I was 13, and I didn’t know that.

The A.V. Club: Did your parents go with you?

PS: My parents did not go to Ed’s Beer Joint, no. That was probably the first time I’d ever been in a bar, and definitely the first time without parental supervision.

I really had no business being there. I was somehow able to convince my parents to let me do the gig. I remember that the big burly biker bartender was pissed at the rest of the band for bringing me into the bar. I think the drinking age then was 18, so they were all cool.

We played Friday and Saturday night, and I think we won the crowd over with some Judas Priest, “Breaking The Law.”

AVC: How did you know you’d won them over?

PS: I seem to remember some scary dancing happening. It’s a surreal memory, and it’s all very fuzzy.

AVC: What other songs did you guys do?

PS: Oh, the classics of the day. I’m sure we did “Round And Round.” I remember my favorite was “Stone Cold” by Rainbow. It was the moody number.

AVC: What were you playing in this band?

PS: I was playing synthesizer. It was a Korg PolySix.

AVC: How did you get in this band with all these older dudes? It seems weird they’d just have some 13-year-old in their band.

PS: I took piano lessons in this neighborhood where this school friend I had lived. I’d go over there after piano. His big brother was in this band, and all their gear was in the basement. We’d sneak down there where they rehearsed, and we’d play on their instruments when they weren’t around. Eventually we got caught and the older brother realized that I played keyboard—and not only that, but that I had a keyboard. So, they asked me to audition for the band. I got the gig.