RIP Dan Sartain: 1981-2021
"They're never gonna tell you from the start, that the world is gonna break your little heart."
Before I get going this week, a reminder: I’m not a writer. I’m just a person who, after working a classically dull office job all day, is trying to do something fun for myself (and for you, I genuinely appreciate you reading this.)
Hence, I’m not really equipped to write about something big and real and serious like someone passing at 39 years old, but I also didn’t want to say nothing about it. So, I figured that I’d share some Dan Sartain stories this week, mostly because I remembered a bunch of stuff this week and I’d prefer not to forget it again.
I met Dan a bunch of times, he was always sweet to me and anyone I was with. He had a very infectious and fun kind of energy. He also sound tracked some wonderful times in my life, including the pre-wedding part of our wedding. I’m sad for his friends and family. I’ll miss him as a person and as a musician. What a fuckin bummer.
If you are so inclined, here are some ways to support Dan’s family:
The GoFundMe to cover burial arrangements and to act as a trust fund for Dan’s daughter Audrey: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-fund-the-burial-of-dan-sartain.
Dan’s Bandcamp: https://joindansartain.bandcamp.com/
Finally, if you ever are having a hard time with life, and you need anything, under any circumstance: reach out to me, someone, anyone, everyone. You are loved and you are important and you matter.
¿2003?: Try as I might, I don’t remember the exact first time I heard Dan’s music. My strongest suspicion is that it would have been PCB 98, which was featured on the Swami Sound System Vol. 1: 2003 Sales Conference compilation which was released in, well, 2003. Which, if correct, would surely have led to me immediately picking up Vs The Serpientes. That’s definitely the first Dan record I heard/owned. I touched on this in my Dan post the other week (what a weird coincidence that was), but I played that record to everyone. And I mean everyone very literally.
It’s so good and all those people were into it, whether they lean in one direction or another music-taste wise. It’s a real bridge builder album. Those types of records (well, CDs in this case) were always particularly helpful, back in the mid-aughts when we had a shared music situation in the office.
2006, Night & Day in Manchester: I also don’t remember1 if this was the first time saw Dan live. I do remember attending this show. Whether is was or not, it was definitely the first time I met Dan. We bumped into each other in the downstairs area of the Night & Day, which is where the bathrooms are, and it turns out, where the green room is. He saw my Rocket From The Crypt t-shirt and started talking to me and showed me his “shitty, prison-style” RFTC tattoo (his words.) After a few minutes he invited me to join him and his band in the green room2 if for no other reason than I guess standing around and talking right outside the bathrooms isn’t a great look for a headlining act visiting from overseas?
This was the night that Dan taught me how to smoke weed out of an apple. Which I saw on Twitter this week that a couple other people said he also taught them. Good times.
All I can tell you about the show is that it was great. I was already a little drunk before the apple, so after that I was kind of a mess. I had a great time and my friends were confused as hell because they couldn’t find me for about an hour and I was a mess when they did. Sorry, pals.
2009, Night & Day, Manchester b/w The Cluny, Newcastle: These were joint shows with the Night Marchers. Wherein Dan would start the show playing solo, and as the set progressed, the members of Night Marchers would slowly join him on stage so that by the end they’d all be up there and he’d leave and they’d go right into the Night Marchers set. What a show! What a joy to see Dan playing with John Reis. You could tell they both loved it.
Sometimes having a cool boss really pays off. That’s how I was able to swing deciding to do back-to-back shows minutes after the first one ended. Originally, I was just planning to do the Manchester show but Dan asked me to come to Newcastle the next night because he didn’t know anyone up there. And the Manchester show was so good, I had no reason not to. So I booked a train ticket and a hostel when I got home and left the next morning.
The next night’s show was just as good, maybe better. The Cluny is a better venue than the Night & Day, even though it is probably smaller. I just remember cracking a bunch of dumb jokes with Dan and having a lot fun. After the show, Dan and John tried to talk me into going to Glasgow the next night again. I declined, and to this day I don’t know why or what I was thinking. I think I was probably worried about wearing out my welcome? Whatever the reason it was a bad choice and I regretted it when I was on a train back to Preston the next day and not Glasgow.
I’ll also never forget John and Gar thinking I didn’t have what they thought was a suitably warm winter coat (it was November) and me kinda laughing and thinking they were a bunch of Californians because it really wasn’t all that cold. Well, who is the big California baby now? Yup, that would be me.
2010, Mad Ferret, Preston: I think the first thing to establish here is that hardly anyone of note plays in Preston, and I mean touring British bands. Touring overseas bands? Absolutely not! So, it was pretty fucking confusing and surprising to see Dan was playing in town and also at the Ferret, which sure, it always had shows going on, but it also kinda sucks.
We get to the show early because, its like an event so why not? And consequently we run into Dan and he seemed beyond stoked to see some recognizable faces in a place he’s never been to before. He basically adopted us as his crew for the night and was sitting with us, catching up, making fun of the local openers, etc.
It was a nice sunny day. I remember that. Meaning that Preston was at its least-shitty (which is still pretty shitty) and I remember that Dan was telling us he took a walk around town earlier and that he thought Preston was the place in England that most reminded him of Alabama and that he liked Preston. I’ve never been to Alabama, but it kinda made sense. There’s definitely a long piece that someone smarter than me, and more familiar with the American South, can write about the overlaps between the North of England and the Southern States.
Other things I remember from that show:
Dan asking me where Swami Super Fan Daniel was. Daniel usually followed all the shows around for a week or so. He wasn’t doing that this time, so when I told Dan that, he asked for his number, asked me which show was closest to where he lived, then called him and left a voicemail telling him he was adding him to the guest list for the upcoming London show and hoped to see him there. What a fucking sweetheart move.
Dan telling me that two of his favorite song writers were Old Dirty Bastard and Ghostface Killah
Dan gave me his phone number back in Alabama (which was actually his moms landline number) so we could keep in touch. For reasons I also can’t explain, I never called and I don’t know why. Add another regret to the pile.
2011, Deaf Institute, Manchester: Dan was touring with Two Tears, so it was cool to see Two Tears. (Kerry Davis aka Two Tears was in Red Aunts and Beehive and the Barracudas, two wildly different but really fun bands, so it was fun to see her play at least once in my life. I remember her being kinda shocked that someone so far away from San Diego wanted to talk about The ‘Cudas.)
I do remember that Kerry’s backing band was also Dan’s band and that this was the first time I heard any of the songs that would become Too Tough To Live. They sounded great.
I also remember that Dan came and sat with me and Nic for a while downstairs before the show, like he walked past, noticed us, sat right down and we all picked up where we left off in Preston the year before. It turns out, this was the last time I spent any meaningful time with Dan. What a bummer.
Sidebar: Nikhil Ranade was playing drums on this tour. Which is notable only for extreme nerds like me who know that Nikhil is the usual touring soundman for Hot Snakes (and sometimes other John Reis bands) and is, in my mind at least, the honorary fifth member of Hot Snakes.
I was talking to Nikhil afterwards and was telling him I was planning to move back to the US soon and I remember that he told me not to move to San Diego, which was one of the multiple plans I was considering. I don’t remember what his reasons were?
2012, Night & Day, Manchester: Well, this was the last time I saw Dan play and while it was certainly eventful in a unique way, I’m just now realizing that it is now also the final time and that kinda sucks. I’m glad I saw the show and glad I got to see a Dan show with my old gig-partner-in-crime “Associate Producer” Simon3.
So, this show was really something. The kind of something that ended up with some random dude complaining to me afterwards about how he wanted a refund (it was a free show!) and how disappointed he was. Not sure why he picked me to complain to, but he did not accept my riposte that the show was free and he got more than his money’s worth. For reference:
Dan played Too Tough To Live in its entirety, complaining to/at the sound guy between almost every song. The sound wasn’t great, but it never really was at the Night & Day. (In retrospect, there was obviously a lot more going on than just the sound, and I think this was the last night of tour. And the start of a silent period in Dan’s music career.)
That said, the Too Tough material sounded good without perfect sound and the band was really ripping through those songs. I was legitimately blown away. I knew from talking to other people who’d already seen the tour that there was usually a second half to the set in which they played ‘The Hits’, but I was content with what I saw. It ruled. And it was a free show, afterall. And Dan came through town every year. Next years’ show will be great, right?
Well, no…I missed the last tour he had in the UK before I left the UK (I don’t remember why) and he never played in LA over the last seven years. What a bummer.
In Summation: I’m sad to know I won’t have another chance to see Dan play or to talk to Dan or to finally go to his barber shop in Birmingham, AL and have him cut my hair. But, his music will live forever, and he will remain the soundtrack to so many good memories formed over the last 18 years and to so many more new, yet-to-be-made good memories. (The newest memory he sound tracked for me? I listened to the Sun Studio live session when I was driving to get my first covid-vaccine.)
I loved having a friend/acquaintance that came through town about once a year who was the sweetest and whose music was an essential part of my life for the last 18 years.
I hope his friends and family, and in time his daughter, understand how much Dan’s music meant to so many people and how much his sweet and joyful spirit meant to those of us that were lucky enough to spend time with him.
Rest in Peace, Dan. Thanks for everything.
Yes, alcohol is probably one of the main reasons for these memory gaps. Another reason? A pre-smart phone/social media age. I don’t have pictures and posts to rely on to accurately place events in the space-time continuum. So as much as I like to shit talk modern technology, I guess helping with memory is a score in the positive column.
This was my first time being invited into a green room for a band that weren’t my real-life friends. Every other time was also with Dan, including at that joint Night Marchers/Dan Sartain show at the Cluny in 2009 where my green room “tax” was to give a shoulder rub to one of my personal musical heroes “Swami” John Reis. I do not think he was impressed with my massage skills. Even without a good rub down beforehand, he still put on a good show.
There’s an incredible Simon story from an non-Dan related Night Marchers show. It’s not my story to tell, so I’ll just leave this tease here.
This is sad news. Only saw him a few times but strucl me as a down to earth and very talented guy. Gutted
Raise a glass of bourbon and an Apple
Bong in memory..... Dan forever went up in my estimation when I met him in Preston- mainly for the mockery and disdain of the Local scenester wannabe (who shall remain nameless) playing a lute as one of his support acts!! But also for being just a genuine, sound and cool MoFo!