Liquid Reunion 2010

Left-to-right: Andy, Zane, Kip, and David

Still More Pictures!

The more time goes by the more pictures surface from the classic Liquid Rainbow line up. Enjoy!

More Pictures of the Classic Liquid Rainbow Lineup

From back to front, David Coleman (guitar) Zane Carrol (vocals), Kip Jarrel (drums), Kurt Wallenhorst (bass) and Andy Austin (guitar), Mainstreet, 1981.


The rhythm section! Kip Jarrel (drums) and Kurt Wallenhorst (bass), Mainstreet, 1981.


Kurt Wallenhorst (bass) and Andy Austin (guitar), Mainstreet, 1981.


Zane Carrol (vocals) and David Coleman (guitar), Mainstreet, 1981.

The Story of Liquid Rainbow

Eugene Waycaster and Andy, who had been best friends since they were twelve years old, bought instruments and started playing Black Sabbath and Jim Hendrix covers, along with some original music, around 1977. In 1978, they hooked up with a drummer who lived out towards Lebanon, Tennessee (Andy can’t remember the drummer's name). The band expanded their repertoire to include Deep Purple and other heavy bands. The drummer called it quits in 1979 because his parents were suspicious of those whom they called "those long-haired boys" (namely, Andy and Eugene). Picture taken before rehearsal Summer of 1979. From left to right, Andy Austin, Johnny Zacarro, Eugene Waycaster, and Stanley Bowman. In 1979, Andy started jamming with drummer Kip Jarrell, a high school mate. Influenced by the emerging punk scene, they played songs by the Ramones and the Sex Pistols alongside Black Sabbath and Kiss songs. David Coleman, who played guitar, joined Andy and Kip, however the three disbanded after failing to find a bass player (Eugene was involved in another project) and an adequate singer. In the early summer of 1980, Andy (guitar), Zane Carroll (vocals), Jim Cannon (drums), Susie Elam (vocals), and Eugene (bass) formed Liquid Rainbow. All were high school mates with a long friendship history. The band focused on all original material, mostly compositions by Andy and Zane. Casting about for a band name, Andy suggested that the others read a sentence that appeared in a piece penned by Jimi Hendrix published on the inside of the album jacket to Electric Ladyland:

“And he blurted out the sound burnt the side of his inner wall also passing by, and the liquid rainbow melted EROS all through his rooms and rooms of ears that he was hiding from Ethel the Queeny.”

Andy didn’t know what Hendrix was talking about (he suspects Hendrix didn't either?), but this entity or phenomenon called “liquid rainbow,” whatever it was, sounded cosmic, so Andy suggested they appropriate it. Everybody agreed and the band became a living thing. Liquid Rainbow documented some of its work using Andy's father’s 1/4” reel-to-reel machine, recording a rehearsal. The whereabouts of the tape are uncertain; however, Andy still remembers one of the original compositions they played on the recording, a funky jam he wrote named "She was Standing There." The band broke up a short while later due to competing ideas about direction. Late in the summer of 1980, Andy, Kip, and David got back together and started jamming. They told Kurt Wallenhurst, a high school mate who played guitar, that if he would buy a bass, he could join the band. He agreed. Kurt contacted Zane and told him what was going on and convinced him to re-join the band. Andy's sister, Karen, became the principal lyricist. Liquid Rainbow had now arrived at its classic stage. With all the pieces in place, Liquid Rainbow rented a rehearsal space at Saint Rose of Lima Catholic Church in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and practiced a set of all original material. The song list included: After the Storm Alice's Eyes Celestial Carol Conquest of the World Let's Rock Lucifer's Dream Midnight Shadow Rock the Heavens Rocket Lag She Seems to be Content The Walls Came Tumbling Town On New Years Eve, 1980, Liquid Rainbow played its first gig at the Iron Horse biker clubhouse. It was a crazy night. After they had finished their set, one of the bikers told them to keep playing. The boys explained that they had run out of material. The biker told them to start over again. So they played the set over again. When they had finished that, the same biker told them to start it over again. Zane complained that his voice hurt; he had been screaming through an inadequate PA system for more than two hours! The biker literally picked Zane up and set him to one side, saying, “You don’t need a god-damned singer.” So the boys played the set again without any vocals. Finally, everybody seemed satisfied so the band stop playing. They then moved to picture taking. Kurt had asked one of the party-goers to move so that a friend could snap a shot, and the party-goer started to attack Kurt. The same biker dude who had told us to keep playing came flying into the room and beat the shit out of the party-goer. The boys thought that was pretty cool until Andy realized that the biker dude had used his Crybaby as a weapon. Things started getting out of hand as the night move on, so the boys hastily packed their gear and split. The spring of 1981 saw the band conduct several performances in more secure environments. They played two gigs at 328 Mainstreet, a famous Nashville music emporium in which many major acts performed. There, on separate nights, Liquid Rainbow opened for Lust and Steeler, two bands Ron Keel fronted in the early 1980s before moving to LA and scoring minor international success. They also played a keg party organized for school mate, the occasion being his birthday. The lineup of Liquid Rainbow changed when Kurt Wallenhurst left the band in the spring of 1981. Danny Mundhenk, a student in the Recording Industry Management (RIM) program at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU), replaced Kurt. That fall, the band played a music festival out on Franklin road and a massive keg party organized by Paul Dodson on his farm. Zane left the band after that show. In the fall of 1981, Liquid Rainbow recorded a two-song demo on a 4-track 1/2” reel-to-reel machine (Jimmy Jose and Mark James engineered the recording). The songs recorded were two of David's compositions, “After the Storm” and “The Walls Came Tumbling Down.” A mix of the session is in Andy's possession (he is working to restore it). Andy handled vocal duties in place of Zane. Later that fall, the band entered Haynes House, a 16-track facility on the Middle Tennesse State University campus to record Andy's composition “Rocket Lag." Mundhenk engineered the session. Andy sang this song as well. The location of the original tape, as well as locations of the several mixes that were distributed are unknown. Andy dissolved Liquid Rainbow in the spring of 1982 over a dispute as to who would be the singer. The band didn’t want Andy to sing and brought in some dude from Texas to sing his vocal parts on “Rocket Lag” (Andy is unsure of where this version of the song is located, but he believes Mundhenk may have it, along with the original.) The boys gave the Texan a tape of a full rehearsal to prepare for an audition and basically assured him the gig (if this Texan reads this and still has the tape, Andy will digitally restore it for him for free). Liquid Rainbow re-formed in the fall of 1982 with Matt Green on drums and George Harrell on bass (the rhythm section from a rival band named Arrival). Frustrated with the direction of the band (they wanted to play Ozzy Osborne and Judas Priest covers), Andy moved to Miami in December 1982 to start his life over. David followed Andy to Miami shortly thereafter and they worked together in a band that would eventually become Maddax. And so Liquid Rainbow was no more.