The Great Crusades Archive

NEWS:

12/23/99
I hear the Great Crusades are in the studio recording the second album. In the meantime, you can download a few MP3s!

Mirror

From the first album, "The First Spilled Drink of the Evening." Going to town on that Fender Jaguar. Working title: "Surf Nazis."

Stray Cat Strut

A live recording from the Great Cover-Up in Champaign, IL, in 1997. I played stand-up bass, since we were just a trio then.

The Photo Gallery is fixed. You can now view the enlarged pictures in a convenient format. (12/15/99)

This page is provided as a little bit of history from a former member of
the great crusades

Check out the above link for more current Great Crusades info, including an MP3!

The Great Crusades are a four-piece band from Champaign, IL, USA. We are/were/have been (current members in green):

BASS
Matt Docter, Don Gerard, Charlie Dold, Brian Hunt

LEAD GUITAR, LEAD VOCALS
Brian Krumm

DRUMS
Michael Rader, Christian Moder

KEYBOARD
Jason Docter

GUITAR, KEYBOARD, VOCALS
Roderick van Huis, Brian Leach

These line-ups included former members of Honcho Overload, Hum, Lanterna, Milo, The Moon Seven Times, Poster Children, Steakdaddy Six, Sugarbuzz, and Suede Chain.

Blind Pig, Champaign, IL, 29.December.1996: Roderick, Jason, Mike, Brian and Don
(this was the first Great Crusades show in Champaign -- we opened for Hum)

1997 Diary Entries Early Band Photos

The Great Crusades formed in September 1996 in the wake of the breakups of Honcho Overload, Steakdaddy Six and the Suede Chain (who have been known to reunite when the moon is right). This rash of breakups in Champaign also saw the lamentable loss of bands like Hardvark, Love Cup and Ward as well as the relocation to Chicago by Menthol (nee Mother) and Dick Justice (which did not survive the move).

However, the ideology of "out with the old and in with the new" prevailed, and there emerged a newer, more refined wave of bands sporting monickers like Braid, Castor and Sarge, who represented an emotionally different approach than had been previously identified with the Champaign-Urbana music scene..

The Great Crusades represent a new assessment of the important aspects of live Rock 'n' Roll music today, to wit: presentation is 90% (thank you, Jason Anderson).

Visit my personal site
for more information about me, Roderick van Huis

Visit my Steakdaddy Six site
for more information about (and mp3s from) the band I was in before the Great Crusades

Visit my Paks Romana site
for more information about (and mp3s from) the band I started after I left the Great Crusades

Email me
at vanhuis1@hotmail.com

You are visitor number since February 12, 1999.