Malverne High School was primarily a black school and we went there to play in a battle of the bands. I remember this gig really well. It’s the first time I ever fainted. I was onstage doing “The Star Spangled Banner” by myself and right in the middle when I lowered the guitar down from being behind my head, the strap broke and I went down with the guitar. When I hit the ground my knee landed on the wah-wah pedal pedal, turning it on and freezing it in the treble position. This sent a searing 4K feedback tone directly into my unprotected, speaker level head. I don’t know what it did but all I could remember was feeling my eyes go cross and waking up a minute later with the singer standing over me. He was saying, “It’s cool, they love it, they think it’s cool!”. The audience was cheering and I slowly arose like it was part of the show. I remember walking around the place after that and being very accepted when the few other white bands were getting thrown out. Cool, ay?