Show Journal 1998-08-08
Before I get into this I want to say that all of the wrestlers we met tonight and all of the wrestling managers were very cool and very friendly. They are the only ones who made this evening remotely tolerable. Ok now that that is out of the way here’s what I want you to do … think of an obscene word … preferably a verb. Keep thinking of that word … now insert it into the following sentence … ____ Portland Pro Wrestling. Hopefully your word started with ‘F’ and was four letters. Mine did. So here’s the deal, we were supposed to play at this wrestling match to try to get wrestling to appeal to a younger crowd. Wrestling and loud music .. seems natural to me. I tell you they have got a long way to go. The first four people in there had walkers. Over time, the place kept filling up with gray haired old women and little kids. However we were actually expecting this, so we were smart and had set up in the far corner of this huge gymnasium (as far away as possible) and sound checked everything at half volume. We were informed that half volume might be too loud so we turned it down to 1/3 volume. So here we are set to 1/3 volume and tucked away in the corner of this gym. However it just wasn’t good enough for the fine fans of Portland Pro Wrestling. After the place fills up we start to play. About 30 seconds into we realized that everyone (particularly the old people) hated it. Hate isn’t a strong enough word … loathed it would be more appropriate. This should symbolize it all … within two minutes, we saw an elderly woman holding her ears and being rushed from the gym in her wheelchair by another old woman who was trying to cover her ears as well. It was awful. Little kids and grandparents sat in utter and complete misery as we played our songs. The smart ones got up and left. The other just sat and complained out loud. I felt like the biggest idiot … playing for an empty wrestling ring, a bunch of empty seats and some kid with down’s syndrome who insisted on air guitaring along with me. (Don’t get me wrong, he was a pretty nice guy, but you need to appreciate the utter crappiness of this scene). So, we trudged through 4 songs and were told to quit. Not asked … told. So a 15 minute set kinda sucked, but it was no big deal … because we were still set to play one song in between each wrestling match, which would make it 5 more songs plus the intermission. So the first match ends and we start playing “still the same” right on cue. About 90 seconds into it the owner comes over and gives us the signal to quit. Totally cut off … mid song … I think even mid vocals. They promptly started the next match. So Dave walks up to the owner to find out what was up. He tells us to go ahead and pack up and then leave. We drove all the way up there with our entire PA, set the whole thing up and didn’t even get to play 5 songs. Dave tells the guy what to do with his attitude and job. I didn’t get a chance to say anything at the time so here it is … on behalf of 800 Octane … fuck the marshall center, fuck the owner of portland pro wrestling, fuck the promoter of portland pro wrestling, fuck all of the management of portland pro wrestling, fuck the fans of portland pro wrestling, fuck anyone associated with portland pro wrestling and most of all fuck that old goat in the wheelchair covering her ears who couldn’t get out before the rock hit her upside the head. Octane 3:16 mother fuckers!
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