The Pat Tragedy Story: Epilogue

In the days following the Air Guitar Contest, we found out that the Audio/Video class had videotaped the entire event. There were three camera angles, and since we were in a Broadcasting class that shared the same facilities, we made dubs for ourselves and watched the tapes with glee. Eric's friend Dale, who went to a different school, had ditched class that day and videotaped our performance from right in front of the stage as well. Nice close-ups, but my mumbling was much more visible. It was interesting to watch the performance from these vantage points. We were also able to critique ourselves and notice nuances that were oblivious to us at the time. One case in point: Eric put some extra emphasis on a head shake during his solo and his sunglasses flew off. Sean, seeing this from his catbird seat back on drums and thinking this was a choreographed move that he'd somehow forgotten from rehearsal, reached up and flung his sunglasses to the stage floor. I can say with confidence that absolutely not one person in the audience noticed this at the time. Even if someone had, they certainly didn't make the connection that we did later watching the tape.

Later in the semester, one of the projects in Broadcasting class was to shoot a music video. Music videos were still in their infancy on MTV and many, much like an air guitar show, would mainly consist of lip-synching in a mock performance, so it wasn't that hard to mimic what was passing for a polished video in 1985. The project was useful in teaching direction, laying out and lighting shots, editing, and casting. I assumed the David Coverdale role and used Eric and Chet on guitar and bass respectively, along with a different guy on drums to perform Whitesnake's Spit It Out. Chet chose UFO's Natural Thing, this time casting himself on vocals, while I moved to bass. Eric thought it would be a good idea to resurrect The Pat Travers Band to do the song Hot Shot. So I broke out the long black wig once more and Pat Tragedy was reborn in the studio. The shoot was a success, but there certainly wasn't any rush like the one we'd gotten on the amphitheater stage weeks earlier.

I was also in a photography class during my senior year and was shown some pictures of the air guitar contest that were taken by the instructor. One of them was the now infamous photo of Pat Tragedy taken at an upward angle from in front of the stage (seen in the post, Do You Know This Rocker? in the July archives). I told him that it was me in the photo and he couldn't believe it. He gave me the negative and I made some prints. Over the years, I've had the photo displayed off and on somewhere in the house. Sometimes, a young niece or nephew will ask me who that is in the picture. I tell them that it's me from my high school days. I always love to see their faces twisted into a look that is a mix of wonder and disbelief. When adults notice the shot and inquire about it, I ask them, "Don't you recognize him? You've actually met him before." This always gets them thinking for a few minutes, trying to imagine when they've ever met a real live rock star before.

The persona has also taken over my being a few times since high school. A handful of different Halloween parties have provided the opportunity to don the wig and glasses again, although I'm usually just impersonating a nondescript biker. But in my mind, behind the shades and under the drape of black locks, I become again the rock star that never was; Pat Tragedy.


The author, pictured standing on the historic spot where Pat Tragedy stood
19 years earlier.