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We played together like this a couple times, but we realized that Dirk needed a bass, and we needed another guitarist. Nick knew a kid named "Steve somebody" that he said played really well. We decided there was nothing to lose, and we invited him out to play. The day went great. He picked up on things really well, and it looked like we had a new member to the band, which we decided to call "Concrete Rain". The name meant absolutely nothing. We just thought it sounded cool. Well, at least I did. Now, mind you, we were running our vocals through a Fender Twin amp (we always have) and Dirk was playing absolutely nothing. Well, maracas when we convinced him. Anyway, after that first day, we immediately decided to invite Steve back. He seemed into it, and all was well.
Well, the next time we got together, Steve was not able to come. "Work," he said. This was fine, we thought. We all miss from time to time. The next time, though, it was the same story. And the next time. And the next. And the next. Keep in mind at this point Nick and I were becoming fast friends, and Dirk had purchased a bass AMP. Mind you no BASS, but an AMP. (Don't ask) Plus, we were getting a handle on some covers, and Dirk and I had written a song, "I'm on My Own". Nick and I were working on a song that would later become known as "Richard Corey". Sometimes it would just be Nick and I at practices, sitting around with illusions of grandeur, occasionally practicing and actually learning about what it was to be in a band.
In the spring of '98, I met another Gorettian named Matt Karn who Nick said could do some vocal work for us, which we were in desperate need of. He did a really good job for us, but with him singing, Dirk had even less to do. I "borrowed" a bass for him just about every Sunday we got together, but it was basically a piece of junk and never really got the job done. Plus, Matt at points had the Steve disease. By this point we decided that we couldn't really deal with Steve missing all these practices. He had only come to one, in fact, the first one. So we officially changed the name to "Steve Never Came", the brainchild of Nick. In theory, we were a five-piece band. In practice, we were a three-piece band, of which only two members actually owned the instruments they played.