User:Commonflow
Mojo Bus is an American Cover band from Urbana, IL. They specialize in 90s alternative rock covers. Originating in the spring of 2007 in the basement of a University of Illinois campus house at 804 W Springfield, the crew became known as "the 804 crew" throughout middle Illinois.
They frequented college campus bars including White Horse, where they played weekly 3 hour sets, which was completely unnecessary. Most of the band's fans were under the age of 18, which proved to be problematic for the doorstaff at White Horse and the band's frontman Chris, who knew that women from this age group were naive enough to believe anything he told them, including that the songs were all originals. White Horse staff grew hostile against the band once it was realized the band had outearned their wages that particular night, and the staff continued to hold a grudge against the band by only allowing eight free drinks instead of three hours open bar. The venue ended up losing money off liquor sales due to their open bar promise and when they renigged their offer, all hell broke loose regarding their relations. Although the band claimed they were musicians who drank, the staff accused them instead of being drinkers who tinker. The staff may have won the battle, but the band won the war, as they took partial credit for the permanent closure of White Horse bar, referencing the poor quality of their musicianship for the bar's eventual demise.
At Kams, where they almost got into a fight with an entire fraternity due to excessive soy intake and pre-pubescent vocal squeaks, and Firehaus, where they most notable showed up an hour late into their three hour performance. The three people at the bar didn't seem to care either way.
The band rebranded themselves as "Achtung", due to too many poor performances around campus. They found it fitting to submit themselves into the "band protection program" since bar owners refused to book them. After their final show in the fall of 2007 at Cowboy Monkey, the threesome split up into splinter cells of their original project. The bartender asked them what their band name was and they responded "Achtung". The bartender quickly retorted with: "Out of tune? Your band name is out of tune?" His words sealed their fate, because the band couldn't manage to get through three songs before they were booed off stage. Chris insisted that he had perfect pitch hearing and didn't need a tuner. Ryan had employed a tuner himself, but his bass guitar failed to stay in tune. Alex was just sloppy drunk and as he was keeled over in his chair, he slipped on one of his spilled drinks and tumbled backwards, back pressed up against the wall throughout the entire performance. Little did the trio know, this move would soon become a standard drummer style across Champaign-Urbana, some consider "performance art".
Alex and Ryan formed post mathcore band "Jeruba Shagon" and Chris went onto Bakersfield to begin his career as a serial dater. He also formed the solo outfit "Achtung". Due to Bakersfield's declining music scene and Chris feeling underappreciated for his art, he would oftentimes drive several hours to Las Angeles or San Diego just to get a gig, play an open mic night or karaoke performance.
After the trio graduated from college and found themselves distracted with adulthood, they came together one night and realized something was missing. Sure, they each had a pre-wife, but deep down inside, the rock was eroding their souls and they all knew it was time for a serious purging.
In the Summer of 2017, Ryan quickly jumped into action, printing up 4 band tees (he accidently bought a child sized tee shirt for a grown man), unabashedly writing "2017 World Tour" on the backs with a full list of potential targets. Ryan knew the other two would not oppose, because all three of their lives were off track, playing nightly games of Madden, decades worth of NHL 2K17 games in one night, spamming countless members of the Illinois community and inundating them with sales propositions, counting nuclear isotopes and sour beer tasting after sour beer tasting. How could these men possibly have it any worse? Mojo Bus was reformed during the fall of 2017 and their cover set was realized at their first show at Silvie's Lounge where they were misbooked with a Nu Metal band from middle Tennessee. It sure was grand, and the Nu-metelers couldn't help themselves but to ask the trio for their autographs.
The floodgates were now open for Mojo Bus' 2017 ruination. They attracted pairs of people all across Chicago to their shows. One performance after another, oftentimes cheered on to play "one more song". From Independence Tap to the Mutiny. From the Mutiny to their definitive homecoming show at the Rosebowl, where their biggest fans were the opening band who from all accounts were "totes impressed" and only stayed because they borrowed the opener's microphones. The ten year reunion was a great success, but don't take it from me. You had to be there.
Mojo Bus original cover songs have been catalogued on at least three CDW demo discs entitled "The Judge's House Sessions". Some important renditions included "Hey, hey (puberty squeak) Come Out and Play" and "Sir Psycho Sexy".