Show Journal 2006-02-25
Before playing in a band I had never heard of a “grange hall”. I couldn’t describe what they looked like, what you would find inside or what strange goings on occur at them. It’s weird the things you become acquainted with being in an underground band. Anyway, this was our second trip to McMinnville. I’m surprised we made it because Dave decided to take a quick nap while helping Dustin navigate. Good thing Justin and I were paying attention or we’d still be in the van right now. Speaking of the van, it’s officially disgusting. Every time you open a door trash falls out. It’s as if someone unloaded a dumpster inside and the doors are bustling at the seams with cans, fast food packaging and crumpled up paper. I digress. To sum it up the show was just “i-ight”. Weird look and feel to the place. The stage was small and had strange lighting not becoming of a punk show. First Offense souded pretty good. I would compliment the other bands here but despite watching all their set I didn’t catch either of the other bands names. In a trend unique to McMinnille people lined the benches on either side of the room while a few people stood up and rocked out. It looked like a middle school dance, with girls on one side, boys on the other and everyone just waiting for someone to make a move. Fortunately that someone was Kill The Kids, who set up on the floor and tore it up as usual. Must be nice to play two nights in a row assholes! (Sorry, we’re still jaded after our ill fated trip to Bend last night!) Our set was pretty fun. It was hard to hear each other but some people knew the words so that was cool to see. Plus it’s impossible not to enjoy yourself with Kill The Kids in the front row. Thanks to the grange hall, those who helped make the show happen and all the new faces we met!
Show Journal 2006-02-24
I’ll begin by saying we were so stoked to play this show. Kill The Kids? The Confederats? Bend? All Ages? A house party? We had been chomping at the bit for weeks to play this show! Getting out of Portland absolutely sucked this evening. Dave and I got stuck at work late, so we ended up loading the van with two people which always sucks. Then it took about an hour to get to Justin’s and get out of the city limits. We were already an hour down when we hit Hwy 26. There was a huge accident that tied up all lanes of traffic outside of Sandy. When we got to the top of the mountain there was snow and ice which is always a treat. Question. If given the chance to kill someone and get away with it, who would it be? I had long pondered this question and after cresting the mountain I finally met him. It was a truck driver. I don’t know his name but he drive his 18 wheeler down the mountain ranging between 30 – 40 mph the whole way. I’m all for safety but the road was bone dry after 10 miles. There was a line of cars about 20 deep between us and the truck and many, many more behind us. This went on for an hour. Seriously. A full hour. People started losing their minds. People made multiple cars passes in the dark around corners. Other people wouldn’t let the passers back in because they wanted to pass too. It was insanity. I’ve never so many near accidents in my life. Every 2 or 3 minutes some asshole would finally try a ten car pass and have to slam on the brakes. At one point Dave got on our CB and started telling him “pull that big slow sun’bitch over”. If you know the drive down 97 you’ll appreciate this. You know the long straight away after coming out of Mt Hood Forest? We were at the far end of that (still behind the truck) and there were headlights lined up behind us the entire road. That’s literally almost a two mile backup. It was nuts. We finally got around him and started hauling ass to Bend. We were about two hours behind and were calling the promoter and other bands telling them to stall. Just outside the city limits we get a call from our friend PJ who informs us the cops arrived and the show it shut down. Fuck. We asked PJ to look for the promoter and tell him we’re coming to get gas money whether he likes it or not. I did not just sit in the van for 5 hours to lose money. We show up and everyone has bailed. We saw the venue (which looked killer) and heard from people that there were 200 kids stage diving and going nuts for Kill The Kids and that it totally ruled while it was going on. We met the promoter (Marty) and once we confirmed he wasn’t going to jail he hooked us up with some gas money. It always sucks not to get to play, but this was so close we could taste it (and in the venue even smell it). Despite my whining we are very thankful that no one got into too much trouble. There were a few underage drinkers that got tickets but that’s about it. That could have been real ugly for Marty and the house mates. The drive home was uneventful at best. In an ironic twist we actually got passed by an 18 wheeler going up the mountain. Anyway, it’s officially now been well over a year since we’ve played Bend. Before anyone says “you don’t play here enough” remember this one. It’s definitely not from a lack of trying!
Shows with real bands
Damn, there’s a lot of shows in the NW coming up. Highlights include shows with Death By Stereo and Paint It Black. Possibly some dates with the Independents will materialize as well. Basically we’re trying to play a whole bunch before the Undead On Arrival filming resumes in May/June. When that starts we’ll be taking some time off to write and hopefully make some recording plans. Now come see a show or buy somthing so we can afford to record again!
Show Journal 2006-02-17
Kind of an old school reunion tonight. We played with 8 Foot Tender for the first time since … drum roll please … October 1997. I didn’t recall their singer being so amusing but he made me laugh out loud a few times. The MRNB (aka the OCKNB) rocked it tonight. We’ve actually known them since … even longer drum roll … July 1997. In fact some of you might be interested to know that their singer J, who was in another band at the time, played at our very first show in Portland. Lyle and Brent were in another band called Bomf! That we played with numerous times from ’97 to ’99. Lyle actually played guitar for us for a bit before we got Justin and Brent helped facilitate the embalming tool photos from ‘Rise Again’ (yes, those were real). Their other guitar player Kelly actually did all the cover artwork for our album ‘The Kelvis’. Talk about knowing a band for a long time! They sounded really good tonight and as always were a pleasure to watch. We were up third and did ok. No highlights and no lowlights, just a fun and solid show. 48 Thrills headlined and sounded great. They are definitely worth checking out live if you are in the area. Catchy sing along punk rock. The only thing that was lame tonight (other than the 20 degree load out) was all the fights. Of course whenever you see a shirtless guy in the pit you just know something bad is going to go down. Thanks go to 48 Thrills for inviting us to play, the Hawthorne Theater for having us, Stephen Morgan and his Richland crew for the commute and everyone else who watched us play.
Show Journal 2006-02-11
Lord knows we’ve been real bad about playing Seattle. We’ve been averaging about one show there for every two years. Needless to say it’s nice when we get rewarded with a good show there because we might not deserve it. Big show and lineup so I’ll keep it quick. The venue was clean, real clean. When was the last time you saw a show where you shared a lobby with an art gallery opening? Punk rock and finger foods. Interesting mix. Speaking of food Kevin, Al and Todd took us out for burritos that were literally the size of a baby. It was a nice surprise to see Pornstore Janitor again as it’s been a long time. Got to see Hang again which was cool as well. We finally met Potty Mouth Society after being on a comp with them. Our set was pretty good, so no complaints here. Full Frontal Assault was “gnarly”, in a good way. Thanks to everyone new we met and the few people who arrived that had actually seen us before. That’s all.
Show Journal 2006-01-28
Musically tonight’s show was a little humbling. We played with two “experimental” bands which either means they are going to totally suck and make noise or they are just short of genius. Pretty sure it was the latter. The Freak Accident was all over the place from noisy jazz to heavy rock. Guitar, bass, drums, samples, keyboards and a trumpet. You do the math. Removal was insane and the definite hit of the night. I literally wanted to just pack up and go after seeing them play. At times it sounded thick and sludgy like Fu Manchu (or any other favorites stoner rock band you might know) and at other times kind of like technical rock with crazy breakdowns. If you play any sort of instrument you were probably as humbled as we were. Oh yeah, samples and a video show as well. I would so like to see them again. Our set was “pretty good”. It started really late (12:30 AM for an all ages show?) and we were still exhausted from last night. Dave’s speech to the crowd about not remembering the last time we played there was probably an indication of that. Of course the energy loss could also have been the effects of “The Chronic” that Dustin subjected us to in the van stereo. I’m not sure we played as well as we have in the past, but seeing so many of our friends faces there makes it impossible not to have fun. We always say Richland is our favorite place to play and it really is. It has been for years. A million thanks to Dustin, Chad and the Atomic crew. Hard to believe they have had our backs for over 8 years now. Also, thanks to EVERYONE who stayed late … Kiah, Matt, the Chief, Jared, Cryssi, Stephen, Rae Lynn and all the other names that are escaping me right now!
Show Journal 2006-01-27
Despite the allure of the show being all ages, this was actually a bar show. Kind of a dingy and smelly college bar at that. When they opened up the door to the upstairs part of the club for us to load in (ie – “the top of the cock”) it was as if someone had just unearthed a tomb with rotting corpses inside. The smell of last weeks show rolled down the two flights of stairs all the way to the street and made everyone gag as we loaded in. Speaking of gagging who takes the stall doors out of the restrooms? Seriously, three urinals and a toilet all lined up in a row with no dividers. Nice to get a small taste of prison life. We ended up riding down with the Clorox Girls since they were having van troubles. It was cool to hear so many of their crazy tour stories. The highlight was definitely “I was really wasted and left my jeans in a dryer somewhere in Canada so I only had one pair of jeans for the rest of the tour and they were way too tight”. Classic! They are out losing their pants somewhere in a foreign country and our wild night consists of drinking coke and discussing bowel movements. The Clorox Girls were pretty fun to watch and I’m glad they could play the show. I only wish more people were there to see them. PB Army was up second and they were having major microphone issues. Constant squealing = not good. Dave and I commandeered the PA and discovered the amp for the mains was unplugged. After fixing it (plugging it in) the volume and energy level started to pick up. PB Army sounded pretty good. A few too many encores, but I don’t know that I could resist 30 drunken friends insisting on more rock. Anyway, it’s always good to see them. We were up last and started playing to Darin and Tim because everyone else had wandered away. We started off strong. Justin broke two strings during the first 3 seconds of the song. I hate when that happens. If you stop the song after only 5 seconds you look lame. If you keep playing and have the other person walk across the stage, find a guitar and tune it, only to come back in at the last chorus you look lamer. Never get a second chance to make a first impression. Thankfully alcohol was flowing and I don’t think anyone other than us really cared. People eventually started to move and we played 6 new songs because no one knew the difference. Highlight of the night and possibly my year? Two guys in camouflage hunting attire came up and kept asking Dave to say “bullshit” into the microphone. “Hey Man. Say bullshit. Say bullshit into the mic. Do it. C’mon say bullshit”. So naturally Dave says “bullshit” and they both raise their arms in victory. So bizarre. The only other exciting moment was when on the way home we heard a loud “ping” noise and realized the vent on the roof of our van broke off exposing out loft to the elements. January weather in Oregon with a hole in your roof? Not good. Can’t wait to see how full of water the roof is tonight on the way to Richland. Thanks to PB Army and the Clorox Girls!
Cancellations suck
It’s official both this weekends shows are cancelled. Roseburg had a problem where the venue backed out and Bend had some mixup where the supposed date wasn’t actually confirmed by the promoter. Either way it’s pretty lame. We’ve got a makeup date for Roseburg in late March and hopefully someone will help us find some another show in Bend as it’s been waaaaay to long.
Show Journal 2006-01-18
Tonight’s show was in a clothing store. Amazingly this is not the first time we’ve played in a clothing store. Last time was about 10 years ago. Strange how many things have changed and how many haven’t over the course of a decade. Despite the bragging rights of saying we’ve played in not one, but two clothing stores, tonight did have a lot of firsts. Tonight was the first time I ate a fast food pita. Tonight was definitely the first time any of us were accosted by a homeless man offering to sell Duracell’s (not just batteries, but Duracell’s). Tonight was the first time we didn’t see the uber-nerds discussing science fiction at Pioneer Villa. Tonight was the first and last night Dustin will jump the van off a BMX jump. Anyway, the show was very small and very DIY which is always refreshing to see. The down side was that it took forever. Granted, part of that was due to our late PA arrival, but 4 bands in 5 hours makes it hard to keep the energy flowing. Despite the long breaks there were still people there at the end of the night that weren’t afraid to dance and that’s made it fun. Thanks to Ugly Litter for booking the show and to the Android staff for having us. Also, congrats to Susan!
Podcasting
Mo’ podcasts for the new year. Check out this new one featuring all kinds of bands we like called Sak-Cast Radio. They are looking for new music so if you have a band get on it!
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