Show Journal 2006-04-15
Tonight marked two Seattle shows in a year which is definitely a record for us. Our old once every two years strategy had a few flaws. The drive up was pretty hairy. There was lots of wind and raid. We saw a flipped car, a car backwards in the median and later a cop car wrapped around a tree. Craziest moment was right outside of Seattle at Boeing Field when a SUV driving in the left lane for seemingly no reason drove a wheel up onto the dividing wall, crashed down, spun half way around and drifted to the middle lane. Thank god for right hand driving or we would be an oil slick on the pavement right now. I think that was closest I’ve ever come to being in a highway speed accident. On the home we also saw a car that had driven down an on ramp the wrong way into traffic and got worked. The other strange thing about the drive? There were lots of rainbows. Seriously, it’s sounds odd but I’ve never seen so many in my life. We arrived with incident (or a pot of gold) loaded in and watching the show. Good to see Plankton Beat again and CLR sounded pretty good as well. Normally I’d offer my usual “I wish I had started that young speech” but you’ve heard it before. I was looking forward to seeing the Dead Vampires and truly were impossible to describe. All sported bunny costumes on top of their ‘regular’ costumes which consisted of a skeleton, a vampire, a devil and someone who apparently normally dresses as an evil rabbit. The music was sort of like The Cramps but sort of not. It was nice to see something new for a change. The only weird thing was when the bass player arrived after 30 minutes with only two songs to go. If you are that dude wouldn’t you just cut your losses and stay home? My god, if one of us did that they would never hear the end of it. Anyway, we were up 4th and did alright. The crowd response seemed to make a gentle downward slope the whole night though but we played on. I think I saw Justin jump again which must have felt nice after being immobilized for so many weeks. The Independents were last and did great as usual. It was cool getting to play three shows in a row with one of the nicest bands we’ve ever met and we wish them the best of luck on their tour (3 months total!). After the show we headed up for Dick’s where I came dangerously close to having a breakdown after being forced to make 5 u-turns in Seattle’s city center trying to find the hamburger mecca. Dustin also showed us his “no hands” urination style. Thanks to Greg and Local Chaos for setting up the show, Zac and Monica, Kelvis, Chris, MC Michalor for making the long and treacherous trip and of course The Independents for reminding us why we enjoy doing this.