Show Journal 2009-06-12
Go figure that the best Portland show we’ve had all year (well, except for that Guttermouth one) would be in someone’s living room. There was a lot of stuff to take in so I’ll keep it brief. The Seditionists were up first. Brash, snotty, fast, sloppy, low-fi punk rock. I would dare say quite enjoyed it. We Play Quiet was up second and featured a saw. Yep, saw as in “I bought this at Home Depot to cut things” kind of saw. I suppose you could cut fools with it too, but a blade is much better for that. The saw had a very strange almost theremin like sound to it. Interesting take on the genre for sure. Bill Skins Fifth was 3rd, but sadly I didn’t see much as we were catching up with Mayor. Not Dave, the Mayor of Tri-Cities, but the Mayor of Compact 56. We spoke afterwards and he seemed like a cool guy and that gets props here. Destroy Nate Allen was next and he/them was the reason we took the show. Nate used to book our Roseburg shows back in the day and was probably the coolest small town show promoter we’ve ever come across. Everything ran on schedule, pay was always fair, and many times you’d even get fed. Pretty amazing since I think he was in high school at the time. He’s played solo acoustic sets for quite some time and has written many good songs. His new incarnation, featuring his wife on vocals equated to quite possibly the feel good show of the year. Fun songs, easy singalongs, clever lyrics and a DIY spirit few can duplicate. It was Nate, his guitar, his wife and the both of them singing to one another, with a huddled in crowd, no microphones and a room full of smiles. Very cool. They are off for a 6 month tour (!) so we wish them the best. Our set was a blast to play. The room seemed loud, energetic and as the immortal Buster Pointdexter would say “hot, hot, hot”. Speaking of which, I never realized Buster was the singer for the New York Dolls until recently. I almost touched him once exiting a log flume ride many years ago at a Six Flags. Wow, this is a fascinating show review isn’t it? Didn’t I say it would be brief? Anyway, we had a fantastic time playing and I can’t thank everyone who came out to watch us play. Absent Minds was last and in keeping with the theme of the evening they too also had an unusual instrument, a cello. For a while it was inadvertently coming out distorted which sounded pretty awesome. They were pretty excellent. I wanted to watch more but I’m old and old people can die in hot weather so I spent the rest of the night outside in the cool air. Thanks to all who participated in the show. Extra big thanks to Nate and the folks who run the Coop!
House Party, Kid N’ Play Style
Tomorrow night we’re playing at The Coop in Portland w/ Destroy Nate Allen, Absent Minds, Bill Skins Fifth, We Play Quiet and The Seditionists. The address is 3535 N. Lombard. House show rules apply, which translates to: have a great time and rock out but please respect the house and don’t act like a douchebag outside. People do these shows because they love music, not because they want to clean your vomit off their porch.
Show Journal 2009-06-05
Right from the get go this show was looking pretty grim. Traffic was awful, there was an insane windstorm, gas was stupid expensive and when we arrived to the venue Stupid in Stereo was playing to literally about 5 standing people. This is definitely not what you want to see after a 4 hour drive. They played well and seemed quite a bit more polished that I recall seeing them before. Props to Ryan and the boys for that. Reviver took the stage and played to even fewer standing people. This was a shame because they have been on tour for 2 months and although the crowd response was pretty weak, I thought they sounded good. Neutralboy was up 3rd and I was stoked to see them due to what I had seen and heard about them online. We don’t meet too many bands that have been at it longer than us and are still doing it all themselves. Quite a few more people trickled into the venue. It’s a shame the place wasn’t more lively because they played well, sounded good and were a step above most bands I’ve seen. The comment of the evening came from their singer who was attempting to antagonize the mostly seated bar crowd and said the following: “I can’t wait until I get back to Seattle tomorrow so when my friends ask how was Richland, I can respond it sucked because everyone sat on their lazy asses.” The reverse psychology actually worked as the place seemed to wake up for the last 2 songs. We played last and thank god some people came out of the woodwork and decided to go a little crazy up front. I do think it was the first time we’ve seen the bar section outnumber the all ages section but it was cool nonetheless. I was also very glad to see people knew the new songs since we hadn’t played there since December of 2007. All in all it turned out to be a pretty great night. Thanks to Dustin, Ray’s and all the familiar faces and friends who made it out to the show!
The Mayor of Tri-Cities returns
Long ago we used to joke that Dave was the Mayor of Tri-Cities. We could go anywhere and someone would recognize him. Sadly his reign of power has long since ended due to the fact that our last show there was in Dec of 2007. It’s been a long time so please gather up your fellow constituents and head out to Ray’s tomorrow night for some rock and roll. Let’s get Dave back in office!
R.I.P. Frankenstein
Damn. You put someone’s picture on a shirt and they go and kill themselves. We hope David Carradine suicide had nothing to do with our usage of his likeness. Anyway, props to the man. RIP
Fire up your motors!
New shirts are finally available. Designed by The Kelvis and printed by Ink Brigade, these are our tribute to the movie Death Race 2000. Very limited numbers. Cost is a lucky $13 which includes shipping. If you have a PayPal account you can even order online. For more details check the merch page.
Show Journal 2009-04-24
We don’t put this stuff on flyers or on the website, but we really needed this show to be good. Our last 3 shows were fine excuses to get out of the house but as a band, especially one that has been playing so long as us, they were completely dismal and totally depressing. All were plagued by equipment failures and worse still a complete and total lack of both of interest and attendance. They’ve been bad enough that I find myself thinking “why do I still do this?” Tonight’s show was why we still do this. I’d love to claim it was some huge packed affair with hundreds of people (like the surge in Bend shows circa 2001), but it was not. What it did have though a dozen or so folks up front absolutely losing their minds to our music. It’s been a while since we’ve seen and felt that and it was a welcome change. There were plenty of people in the place who probably didn’t give a shit about our set, but the few that stood up, sang along and cut loose really made the whole night worthwhile for all of us. We must have had 20 people says “yeah, I saw you guys back in 2001” or “my band used to play with you guys in 2002”. Most came up afterward with compliments and a few said we were just as good now as we were back then. To an outsider it probably wasn’t anything spectacular, but for us it was a minor redemption of sorts. As for the rest of the trip it was pretty good. Aside from Dustin’s breakdown on the way to van the trip was uneventful. Last Stand sounded good and Kill The Kids were great as usual. Hands On Throat were pretty excellent and really surprised us with their energy and unique sound. Good stuff. Many thanks to the folks at Players and to Marty for hooking up the show.
Yes, it’s 4/20
Would you believe many years ago we actually found ourselves in Weed, CA on 4/20 at 4:20pm? Ironically we were stopping for gas, soda and junk food. Go figure. Anyway, later today when you done eating cheetos and discussing what it would be like to be weightless take a second and look us up on Facebook. As of typing this we’re at 36 friends which is pretty sad. The number of friends really should be higher than the number of drummers we’ve had.
Show Journal 2009-04-18
It’s 12 hours later and I’m still not sure what to make of this show. It didn’t suck, but it definitely wasn’t great either. Some good points were the fact we were playing at Dante’s, Visqueen was amazing, Kleveland did in fact rock, doughnuts we’re consumed (maple bacon bar!) and by end of the night there were a lot of freaking people in the crowd. On the bad side, we played first and early to a bunch of seated folks, Justin’s guitar stopped producing sound and Dave was playing on borrowed gear which didn’t quite sound right. A surprising number of folks said they enjoyed it so I shouldn’t complain but these last two shows have just seemed “off” in almost every regard. The highlight of the evening was our new van. It’s actually the same van we’ve had since 1996 but after spending two hours removing mold from the inside and peeling back its protective layer of moss and mildew from the outside it looked and felt like a whole new ride. Anyway, thanks to Lisa and Dante’s for having us and also to the folks that arrived early to check us out.
Saturday night redemption
So, our last bar show was literally attended by about 6 people. We’ve set the bar (no pun intended) pretty high and are shooting to double that total tomorrow night at Dante’s. Be part of the cool crowd and show up early to rock. Even more reason to attend are the two headliners, Visqueen and Kleveland. Both are stellar bands and will rock your face. Aside from the music you have drinks, pizza and doughnuts all within a 300 yard radius. Good times. Remember, we’re up first so arrive early!
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