Show Journal 2002-05-31
We were warned that shows in Salem were pretty crazy but good lord I had no idea. We got to the bar and it was just a bunch of people watching basketball. I’m thinking “how fun is this going to be”? Iknowkungfu played (very well I might add) to about a handful of people. Cool to see but certainly not wild and crazy like we had heard. (They did play ‘Logan’s Run’ though and I’ve been singing it since). I’m not sure how the next band ended up on the show but they were kind of a rock/hippie/grunge mix. I’ll try to bow out gracefully and just say that it was definitely not my thing. Again the crowd was totally subdued. So about 12:30 we start to play. The first song went ok and a few people wandered in to watch us play. The second song was ok but people looked a little bored. As we played the third song we were suddenly assaulted by the CSG toilet paper machine! The device I speak of is a modified leaf blower that can shoot a roll of toilet paper in excess of 25 feet and dispense a whole roll in about 30 seconds. Man let me tell you … when the T.P. starts to fly in Salem people lose their minds! The few curious onlookers turned into about a dozen yelling, excitable and sloppy drunk fans that were throwing stuff, breaking stuff, falling over stuff and making our night enjoyable. The bar has a ceiling fan above the stage which quickly became the focal point for all toilet paper activity. When a stream of paper goes into the fan it swirls around entrapping whoever is below it in a toilet paper cocoon. During one song it wrapped around Dave’s head and he exclaimed to everyone that he felt like he was wearing a turban. Speaking of which … Dave was in rare form tonight. At one point he proclaimed “this song goes to you guys who are over there trying to pick up hogs at the bar”. I thought for sure someone was going to come over and kick his ass but then I realized … how seriously can you take someone wrapped in toilet paper? Oddly enough though a few guys sitting at the bar casually wandered over into the main room so as not to be confused with the “hog chasers” that Dave referred to. Anyway, more wildness followed and we had a great show. After us some friends of the CSG (who’s name is escaping me) played about 4 songs. After that was the mighty Catholic School Girls. Our crowd interaction almost seemed uninteresting compared to theirs. They already have a wild show and their hometown crowd makes it all the better. We only got to watch the first half of their set because we had to get back home. Thanks to CSG and ‘the Fu’ for hooking us up with the show!
Album Review
800 Octane is a very high energy band live and you can see this high energy on their CD which totally shows that they are not fake whatsoever. The singers voice is one of the main factors keeping them in a field of their own, and keeping them original. I can not compare them to any other local bands or even non local bands at the time. 800 Octane can be well classified as an “Super Rock Punk Band.” With lyrics ranging from girls to bullets to the brain. An easy vocal band meaning a good band to sing along while jumping threw the pit at their shows. They redid two of their old songs for this CD, “Day of the Dead” and “New Song #2” Which were a good amount of spice to get this CD going. 800 Octane is definitely a live band but, this CD does them justice, a good amount of justice. I would suggest buying this CD as soon as you can. If you like “Punk Rock” you will love this CD. Well done guys. Score : 9 out of 10 (Matt / Punkin’ Around)
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So what’s new? Not too much. We’ve had tons of great shows over the past two months and we’ve been selling lots of the new CD’s. Most people really seem to like it which is encouraging for us. (Speaking of CD’s we are down to our last 25 copies of ‘The Kelvis’ … better buy one soon!) I can say that we are looking forward to getting out of the Northwest for our one week “tour” in June. The midwest has always been good to us, so we’re excited to go back even if only for a few days. We’ve got a few appearances on various comps in the works, plus we are putting the wraps on our first 7″ which should come out later in the summer. Thanks to everyone who keeps up with us!
Show Journal 2002-05-25
Cool show tonight. It kind of felt like a repeat performance of the CD release show but that’s a good thing. Rhythm of 84 totally rocked tonight. Perhaps more so than last time. Seeing OTR was cool since they are on our label (never thought I would be able to say that). Fast, tight, solid … very cool. Spare Lead sounded good as usual and NTTY was equally incredible as well. Our set was fun for us. Lots of jumping around and lots of guest background vocals which is always a good thing. It’s cool that people know the lyrics to the new CD already! As good as the show was, the highlight of the evening was watching the video taped breakdance battles on the lobby! Priceless entertainment! Not much else to say except big thanks to everyone who came out and made this a good show for everyone!
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We appeared on NRK’s Blackjack Radio this evening and did a quick interview and played a song from the new CD (which was cool because we ran into Krist Novoselic there). Interestingly enough we were asked to come back and play acoustically on June 2nd sometime between 7:30 and 8:00. We think this should be highly amusing for two reasons … 1) since 1994 we’ve only played acoustically once and it was only for 30 minutes in front of a very intoxicated audience and 2) no one in this band has ever owned an acoustic guitar so our skills range from bad to terrible. Be sure to tune in to hear us sink or swim!!!
Show Journal 2002-05-18
I’m going to cop out and give another abbreviated show review. First things first, Iknowkungfu rocks as a 3 piece! However, they should learn that a CD release show is no good without new CD’s! The High and Mighty have a very, very, very good guitar player. CSG were insane as usual. Words really can’t describe them so I won’t attempt to. You just have to see them to understand! Thanks to all who came out for Justin’s birthday surprise and also to everyone who paid to see us play but thought we were playing third and missed us!
Show Review
Next up was 800 Octane. This Portland crew has built up quite a local following, and it seems like they always manage to secure a good turnout at their shows. Their great sound, and catchy lyrics draw new fans to every show, and tonight they put on a great one. Their set list was a killer mix of stuff off of their latest release, The Return, and several of their older tunes. Including crowd favorites like ‘Berserker’, ‘Day of the Dead’, and ‘Get In The Van’. And they gave props out to their street team, which is always cool. (of course they forgot to mention the FIRST person to hang flyers for this show in town, who shall go unnamed) Overall this was a great show, and all of the bands gave everything they had to please the crowd. (PJ / Kick Back Punks)
Show Journal 2002-05-17
We’ve had so many good shows recently that we are just waiting for the evil hand of karma to come deal us a nasty blow of bad luck and ill will. Not yet though. Despite the fact that the Melvins and Dead Low Tide were playing across town we had a pretty amazing turnout! Thirty 3 played first and rocked. I’m not sure what the crowd thought of them (they were probably expecting a straight up punk band) but we all know they rocked a monkey’s ass. It was nice to see them play without mullet wigs for once, but more on that later. The Confederats were up next and we were stoked they could play the show on short notice. We actually played with Greg’s old band (Thrust) in Bend quite a few times back in ’97 so it was good to see him again. They play fast, aggressive, old school skate punk and sounded great. Last up was us and we had another good show. Hell, every show we’ve had recently in Bend has been amazing. The Bend crowd rules and as Forrest Gump would say “that’s all I’ve got to say about that.” As I mentioned earlier I thought we had escaped seeing Thirty 3 in their heavy metal alter egos, but alas it was not so. During ‘Day Of The Dead’ the Thirty 3 guys appeared in matching heavy metal wigs sporting monogrammed t-shirts. I can’t remember what all of their shirts said, but I do recall that Crys’s said “I fuck on the first date.” When I think of classy people, Crys and that shirt now make my top ten list. Rumor has is they all had a choreographed routine for that song but sadly I didn’t really notice. Whenever we have a crowd of people shouting all the lines to ‘Day Of The Dead’ at us I have a hard time concentrating on anything else. Anyway, all in all a rad show. Thanks to our homegirls who hooked us up with flyers and cookies, the Rats for playing the show, Thirty 3 being cool as hell and helping clean up, and everyone in Bend who always comes to see us play. A special shot out to PJ from our street team who modified our posters to include the logos of all the bands, put the aforementioned posters up and helped get the word on the streets!
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We’ve got about a dozen new pics from early 2002 posted. If you have more e-mail us! This really sucks to say but sadly we are going to have to cut our tour short. In fact we have to cut it waaaayy short. We are still going to play the first handful of shows in the Midwest, but everything else after that is going to be postponed until Fall. Why? Well, we had a whole bunch of bad timing issues sort of hit us at once. Work schedules, personal schedules, and a few potential show opportunities for later in the year that we couldn’t afford to pass on. Total bummer because it’s like 3 freaking weeks away. Argh. Some good news to report is that our new CD is available online at Revelation Records and Interpunk! That helps to numb the pain a little
Album Review
Local PDX Rock and roll dish a new album just to keep the fans on their feet. It’s been a long wait for 800 to come out with a new album, but the wait is no more. And you can’t go wrong with this release!! They keep-you-rockin’ through this 12 song full length. They even re-did “Day of the Dead” & “New Song #2” for it. I would say this is some good Rock & Roll on this CD. The guys in 800 have a great talent for song writing; they seem to write songs for fans. Anthems some might say
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