Something Is Waiting Frontman Empties His Wallet on Wrestling

It takes a brave individual to man the merch table before or after a show, peddling their creative life's work for taco money. In today's Merch Madness, we barter and moan with Eddie Gobbo of noise-merchants gone rock 'n' roll Something Is Waiting. 

What band shirt will you never throw away, no matter how gross it gets?
I have a Sepultura shirt from '94 I keep at my parents' house and wear every time I go there. My mom always says, "This shirt is 22 years old! TIME TO GET RID OF IT ALREADY!"

Has a stranger ever stopped you on the street to ask about your band shirt?
I once sold a guy giving me an oil change a Guns N' Roses shirt I was wearing off my back for $40.

Was it an authentic GN'R shirt? Those things can be expensive.
The Guns N' Roses shirt was actually a bootleg. It was the Appetite album cover. It was made before bootlegs were a dime a dozen and before Urban Outfitters and Hot Topic started reprinting classic shirts. It was actually printed by the singer of an old band called Bodies in the Gears of the Apparatus. My old band played a few shows with them, and the singer — who had a silkscreen at his house, I guess — would run off a bunch of merch of other bands and sell them at their table. It was really weird. You could buy, like, a Misfits shirt, a Pantera shirt, whatever. The key was he ran off a bunch of obscure bands' merch too, like Voivod and Downset, so everyone just flocked to it. Pretty sleazeball idea.

What’s the dumbest question you’ve ever been asked at the merch table?
"Got any 5X for my girlfriend?"

What’s the most money you’ve ever spent at a merch table?
$200 at a WWE live event back in 1995.

Who headlined the WWE event? What specifically did you buy? Do you still have any of it?
The event was whats known in the wrestling biz as a "house show." The main event was — wait for it — Randy Savage vs. Razor Ramon. This was right before both headed to WCW. Bought the all-over-print Undertaker and Bret Hart shirts, which are basically worth a fortune, and figures, obviously, which I still have in my collection of hundreds.

Do pastels belong on a band shirt?
Totally acceptable.

Have you ever bought a record at a merch table and immediately broke it?
I've bought vinyl numerous times and left it in the car overnight, only to wake up to that lovely melting smell.

What band shirt makes you jealous that you didn’t come up with the idea first?
MORBID ANGEL: EXTREME MUSIC FOR EXTREME PEOPLE, obviously.

Do you approve of ironic band shirts?
Yes, but it better have a clever tip to it at this point for me to dig it. Not just a Miller Lite logo with your band name, or whatever.

What’s the most obnoxious item you’ve ever bought (or sold) at a merch table?
An ugly, vinyl anime figure signed by Melvins.

Describe your favorite band poster.
The black and white Astro Creep White Zombie poster where its just them staring at you, and it says "White Zombie."

Something Is Waiting's full-length debut, The Something Is Waiting Band, was released on The Path Less Traveled this summer.