My First Show: Wanz Dover Saw Fugazi — But Not From Inside The Venue.

Welcome to My First Show, where we give bands a chance to talk about the first shows they ever attended — no matter how uncool and embarrassing those tales may be.

Mwanza “Wanz” Dover has been a fixture around the Dallas area for what feels like forever at this point — and in multiple capacities, too. Whether he’s spouting his encyclopedic knowledge of music or singing his brains out onstage, the guy just has a commanding presence. In the past, he’s played in The Frenz, various versions of The Falcon Project and Mazinga Phaser. These days, you see him DJ more and more around town under the nickname of Blixaboy, which is also the moniker he uses for his more dubstep-aligned original material.

So, surely a guy like Dover has seen some good shows in his day. Indeed, he has — and right from the jump, too. Dover says his first show was the mythic Fugazi show where the band played indoors while the crowd was outside (as documented in Michael Azerrad’s book Our Band Could Be Your Life).

We talk to him about that show, as well as his experiences as a musician and a DJ, after the jump.
 

Do you remember the first show you saw? Were your parents with you?
Technically, the first show would have been The B-52’s at a park festival in Atlanta, Georgia. But my family was at the festival walking around the park, and we stopped to see these weird folks with beehives performing. The first concert my parents actually took me to was the Rap City III tour with Run DMC, Kurtis Blow, Fat Boys, Whodini and The New York City Breakdance crew. I definitely appreciate seeing a “real” rap concert so early on. Probably has a lot to do with why I don’t like so much modern hip-hop.

What was the first show you paid money to see? Is it a show you could brag about today?
I saw a few other shows before I was 16, but my parents paid for me or took me. The first show I paid for with money I earned from my first job was a Fugazi show. It was at a warehouse outside of Deep Ellum. Last Rites opened. The fire marshal showed up right before Fugazi played, and they made everyone watch the show from outside of the building. We watched the band through a chainlink fence on the doorway to the building. People were doing stage dives from Fugazi’s Ryder truck. I was in the mosh-pit and I got sucker-punched and kicked in the face by a skinhead.

What do you remember about the first show you played? What about the first DJ set that you did?
The first show I played was in Wichita Falls. It was lame and we did a bunch of covers — Sonic Youth, Ministry (“Stigmata”), Hole (“Garbadge Man,” I believe), a Ramones tune and The Cult (something off of Love). We were awful. My first attempt at being a DJ was playing an afterparty for some roadshow that I can’t remember. It may have been the Curioso tour. I DJ’d alongside The Rapture and Mogwai. I had no idea what I was doing, and I really did not consider myself a “real” DJ until the past year or so. If you just play one song after another, I think that is more like being a selecter than an actual mix DJ.

Dover will DJ Saturday, April 16, at Good Records for Record Store Day.