Show Journal 2003-11-22
I apologize in advance for the length of this review. Unless you have a real vested interest in this show you might consider skipping it. So, finally a full CD and release show for Thirty 3. Seems like every time they put out a recording it’s a 7″ or some limited EP that I can never get a hold of because they made like five of them. I go to the shows and I ask but they never have one available. I see them outside of shows and ask for one and still would never get one. Despite being friends with them for nearly 3 years, practicing down the hall from them and seeing them play probably 20 or 30 times I had no recordings to show for it. Needless to say I was pretty stoked to actually have a CD in hand for once and I must confess it sounds amazing. The lyrics are great, the guitars sound huge and the album is deceptively catchy. Since this was a CD release show and Thirty 3 likes to do things differently the original plan was that some of the bands were going to dress up in costumes. There were promises of bands dressed as ninjas, pirates and even cowboys. In an effort to be completely offensive we chose to dress up as bums. We jokingly said we were supposed to be “failed musicians” but yeah ultimately we were just bums. We’ll get back to that in a bit. Huge turnout tonight which was great to see since the tre tre boys had been busting their ass to promote it. First up was Blue Turns White. Disgustingly good musicians. No costumes though. The Dead Unknown was second and played a damn burly set of metal/hardcore. Totally impressive. However, no costumes. Our homies in Countdown To Life were third. Before their set they were ushered outside for a moment and the crowd was secretly given life size masks that featured each of the bands faces. When they started to play everyone put on or held up their masks. It was hilarious. They were a little bewildered for a minute and then amused. Thirty 3 thought had the best of them until Danny offered to save people money by burning a copy of their new album. Again, no costumes. So we went and got ready by putting on our bum attire. I can’t describe each costume individually but between the four of us we had 6 coats, 4 sets of high tops and/or boots (at least 2 of those were missing toes), 3 sets fingerless gloves, 2 flannel shirts, 1 beanie, 2 hats, 1 skanky looking santa claus hat, 1 sweater, 2 long haired wigs, 1 tie dye t-shirt, 9 blacked out teeth, 2 sunday edition newspapers spread across the stage and 4 faces smeared in dirt and black makeup. Looking back it’s probably a good thing we didn’t have time to carry out our plan to put Justin in a wheelchair. I kept asking Dave and Justin “do I look like a bum?” Dave said “I know how to tell” and proceeded to curl up in a ball on the floor by the wall and only uttered the phrase “god bless you” for the next 10 minutes. We loaded on stage and were met by mostly blank stares. Only a few people seemed genuinely amused and most of them were standing on the stage. Best line of the night was Dave who during the soundcheck asked for “more change in the monitors” while Justin just muttered and groaned in the background. There were several things I’d like to mention mostly for myself so that I can remember this evening. 1) It was damn hot wearing two coats. I mentioned it to Jon later and he responded “dude, I could have told you that”. 2) Despite being cleaned those clothes smelled bad when warmed to body temperature. 3) About three songs into the set my mullet wig/beanie flew right off my head during a vicious fit of head banging. Oops. 4) At some point while jumping I cracked the stage in front of my amp. I’m guessing it was probably the extra 10 pounds of clothes. 5) I think only the people in the front saw this but early in the set Rick came out from the crowd and curled up to take a nap in front of the drum rise under some newspapers … while we were playing. Also, while doing this Justin attempted to pick his pockets. 6) Dave stayed in character most of the set and proclaimed “god bless you” at least 8 more times. 7) Someone repeatedly sang “who let the bums out” whenever it got quiet. Geez, I can only imagine what the people who had never seen our band before were thinking. We got a kind of lukewarm reaction at first but I think if I saw 4 people dressed as bums on stage I would just stare too. We played some new songs and as a gift to the message board regulars (for their big 1 year anniversary) we played what will probably be the retirement of Safety Dance. Last up were the stars of the night Thirty 3 and thankfully they actually stuck to the theme and dressed up … as cowboys!!! They sounded amazing. Hands down the best I’ve ever seen them. Now that I actually have a CD to listen to and know the songs they are twice as much fun to see. I am genuinely happy for them and am in some strange way proud of them for finally getting such a good a CD out and hitting the road more often. They are one of our favorite band musically and personally so we were flattered they asked us to play. Man this review is long. Big thanks to everyone in attendance including the people who have seen us lots of times as well as the people who stuck around even though they might not normally listen to a band like ourselves. Special mention to ‘Hobocephus’ (the ‘b’ can also be changed to ‘m’), Hopper and Eric for driving up from Eugene only to have their car towed and miss the whole show, and thanks to Ang for showing up dressed in full on bum attire even through we hadn’t changed yet! Huge thanks to Thirty 3 and all the other bands for making Portland proud of itself again. (Footnote: For the record we do acknowledge that homelessness and poverty is a legitimate problem in this country. Over the years we have played many food drives, benefit concerts and charity shows. Having said that I do think being able to have a sense of humor about these things does have it’s place too.)
Show Journal 2003-11-21
Holy crap what a rad show. Our last trip to Ray’s was a little lackluster (it was their inaugural show) so we were a little worried about the turnout this time but oh my god Richland came through with flying colors. The turnout was amazing, far better than any of the Atomic shows which was cool. We ended up arriving about 15 minutes before the show with Thirty 3 right behind us. Speaking of Thirty 3 they should really fix their head lights. Their driver side one is permanently stuck on high beam and blinded me for approximately 100 miles. They did pass us for about 5 minutes which gave me a small chance to see again but unfortunately we were mooned in the process. I didn’t realize how much I appreciated staring into that broken ass high beam until I was faced with the torturous image of Chris’s ass lighting up the cold night sky. So Thirty 3 was first and they played pretty well. There were a few issues with the sound but all in all pretty good. Rhythm of ’84 was second and as their t-shirt proclaims the Rhythm does in fact kill. I thought they sounded amazing tonight and the crowd really got into them. Of course with Jack and Kyle jumping into, out of and on top of the crowd every few minutes you better appreciate it. We had a great time playing and it was as good as if not better than any show at Atomic. Everyone up front was singing along, we had a few stage divers, even more guest vocals and there were at least 3 street team t-shirts to be spotted in the front rows. The new stuff went over well and despite it being totally late we played a few extra songs and requests. Big thanks go to our street team folks who always deliver big every time as well as the people who come see us at every show. (I swear sometimes I think I recognize more people in Richland than in Portland!) These are the kind of shows we’ll remember forever and we can’t thank everyone at Atomic for hooking us up every time. More thanks to Thirty 3 and Rhythm for making the pilgrimage to Tri-Cities with us. Oh yeah, super props to Jason for braving our show despite sustaining a collapsed lung at our last Atomic show. Toughest fan ever!
Show Journal 2003-11-08
This was our first trip to McMinnville and gathering from the words of the kids there this was one of the few punk shows recently as well. The turnout was pretty good including a few familiar faces who traveled from Portland, Newburg and even as far as Rainier. Marco Polio started off the evening with loud rock, a large afro and more televisions than I thought humanly possible. The almighty Iknowkungfu was next and honestly it was one of the best sets that I’ve seen them play. Coolest and nicest guys you’ll ever meet … even if they are intolerant to the local press. They joked on stage about being old but I’m pretty sure that if we compared our median ages sadly we are the older band. If you are one of the people who stuck around for our set then you are probably a little confused and hopefully a little surprised. Why you ask? Well, between the small crowd, the intimate vibe in the room and the general feeling of ‘what else is there to do’ we ended up taking requests and then inexplicably deciding to play a large chunk of our new songs for the next album. We played Rise Again and New Song #5 which is pretty much a given at our shows recently but we also played these yet unnamed selections too: the metal song, the jangly song, the quirky song, the hardcore song, the really fast song and the song abut Charles Bronson. At least 4 of those songs had never been attempted live and the other two had only been played once or twice for an audience. Basically it was a huge game of stump Briana and Taylor who thought they knew the words to every song! Anyway, consider yourselves blessed or cursed for being the first ones to hear all those new songs. The drive home was amusing as we discussed popping zits, Dave’s taste for himself and the finer points of the movie ‘Bum Fights’. Huge thanks to Brian from Blue Star Creeper for putting on this show as well as multiple props to Darin and the G Unit, Briana and her endless supply of Pixy Stix, Taylor and the family, the almighty sword of FU and Julie for not tolerating the consumption of “eye boogers”. I almost forgot — highlight of the night — about half way into Iknowkungfu’s set Justin walks right up to the front of the stage and sits down in a chair directly in front of Bill’s microphone and tries in vain to amuse him. Bill was either oblivious to Justin’s antics or more likely just ignoring him. After a few songs and no reaction Justin’s head starts to sway a little and he starts to nod off. I’d like to point out that he was falling asleep with a very loud rock band 5 FEET FROM HIM! Eventually he slides over to another chair directly in front of the PA speaker and proceeds to completely zone out. Mouth open, head back, probably drooling … the whole deal. The drummer for Iknowkungfu sees what’s going on and whips a drum stick (in mid song I might add) and knocks Justin in the leg. Justin stirs momentarily, looks over to see everyone laughing at him, smiles and within 30 seconds was back asleep on the chair mouth open and snoring … all with a live band right in front of him. Amazing. Absolutely amazing.
Show Journal 2003-11-07
I actually missed all of the bands play tonight except for Hollow Point and the Civies. Most of my time was spent in the back room Sopranos style eating pizza and discussing roller coasters, nuclear fallout and how we all want to be Dave when we grow up. It was actually a fun time I just wish we had played better.
Show Journal 2003-10-31
There’s just too much stuff to mention so I’m going stream of consciousness on this one. Huge crowd, great costumes, lots of slut costumes, lots of dead people, one person had a shattered 800 Octane CD embedded in their head, Anna Nicole was frightening and way too accurate, Dave got flashed numerous times while holding the video camera which makes me think I need to buy one, very long line in the freezing cold that everyone was stuck in … including myself, Robby Hellfire rocked, Angus ruled, duct tapes boxers did not, Sumara was fast and technical and despite being Mormon they got a huge pit going, helmets are always a safe bet for singers, Hauler was simultaneously the loudest and gnarliest band I’ve ever seen live, Hauler was also the scariest when wearing those creepy face masks, our sound check took forever because of all the audio and video equipment and we want to apologize for that, all those pints of fake blood tasted awful and made my eyes sting, opening with a cover of ‘Halloween’ by the Misfits on Halloween was the highlight of the show and perhaps my entire year, at one point my nose was running but I realized no one could tell with all the makeup so I just let it flow, stage divers by the dozen, equal numbers of guest vocals from the crowd, I messed up the intro to ‘Everybody’ so bad I had to stop the song and get a “do over”, Dave ended our set by dumping a bucket of literally almost 15 pounds of candy on the front row, Countdown rocked hard enough that even Dave got on stage to sing, Countdown also covered ‘Day Of The Dead’ and Justin and I took notes from the power of Ty, they were also the heaviest I’ve ever seen them. I can’t possibly find enough words to thank Countdown for setting up that awesome show and also to everyone who travelled long and far to make this one of our best shows ever. Huge thanks to all involved with the filming and audio recording … let’s hope it turns out well!
Show Journal 2003-10-27
God I love playing the Roseland. The sound on stage is so impressive I can’t even describe it. I wish we could have sound checked for an hour because it’s just that good. The turnout tonight was actually pretty small. I guess the last 2 times through town Zebrahead sold out the Roseland but tonight was only a few hundred people. Granted that’s a few hundred more than we usually play too but it still seemed pretty small in such a large venue. Despite the less than stellar turnout it was still the Roseland and after all the big shows I’ve seen there over the years it’s impossible not to have a good time playing on that same stage. On a different note I gotta say Zebrahead was probably the nicest and friendliest band we’ve ever run across. I really hadn’t heard more than a song or two of theirs and I was totally impressed with them live. Surprisingly rocking, very catchy and they totally know how to work a crowd. Thanks to Double Tee, Zebrahead, Ashley and Angela for “hooking people up”, Michelle for the cookies, the purple twins in the restaurant for inspiration and motivation and an especially huge thanks to Chris 3.
Show Journal 2003-10-25
Eugene rocks and we really need to play there more often. The show tonight was great. I think what made it so cool was that everyone in the bands and the bulk of the crowd was totally cool and friendly. We play a lot of shows with bands that are just too cool to talk to you (or too cool to watch your set), not the case in Eugene. It really makes shows a lot more fun for us. We missed Under Enuff and want to apologize for that. Doubtfully Yours was second and for a new band they’ve got a lot of potential as well as a fairly bad ass drummer who can rock like no one’s business. EPD was third. I would write something about how well they played well and how their new songs show a lot of progress but ultimately I am haunted by the image of Sam in a dress and don’t want to think about it much more. Alter-Ego was 4th and sounded good. Lots of catchy and funny songs including the “best song ever!” Our set was awesome. Everyone who was still there was right up front circled around us and sang along. We played a few new ones and even wound up playing 3 extra songs. I’d call it an encore but there was no foot stomping or chants of “Oct-tane, Oct-tane, Oct-tane” … nope just a handful of dudes saying “can you play some more”. We’re easy like that so we did. Many thanks to the following: EPD for being cool as hell, Eric and Doubtfully Yours for the awesome show, the fine craftsmen who built the stage, the girl who’s name is escaping me right now that helped sell our merch, Conor for attempting to sing Golden Road, Susan for reminding us to play in Eugene, Josh Outreach for watching us two nights in a row, no thanks to Jeff, and thanks to everyone else to stuck around and made this a fun show!
Show Journal 2003-10-24
For such a small turnout this show was a blast. The drive down ended up being pretty damn amusing. First we rocked the new CD by ‘Man’ who is an one person band that consists of vocals, a bass and a kick drum. The guy is so angry it’s hard to fathom. Next we watched Escape From New York and decided that a) someone should be nicknamed ‘Fresno Bob’ b) the van could use some chandeliers on the front of it and c) the movie is much funnier if you imagine that the Duke of New York is in fact human excrement. In typical Bend fashion we arrived late and ended up missing the first band. I wished I had seen their set because they had a member that looked exactly like Justin. Same sweatshirt, same shorts, same belt, same shoes, same haircut, same tendency to wear sunglasses on his forehead at night and even the same desire to wear shorts in 30 degree weather. It was uncanny. Since they were from Canada so we got to hear Dave’s assortment of anti-Canadian jokes which is always a treat. I did get to see all of Monkee Torture’s set which is always a highly amusing experience if you are listening carefully. I could swear there was a song about wanting to be a hobo. Then of course the classic WWBVTD? Very good set from the best punk rock/butt rock hybrid around. Thirty 3 headlined and I thought they sounded great. Afterwards we inquired as to how many Care Bears were killed to make the fuzzy lining on their amps but were not given a response. While they were loading Jim found a can of spray on snow (for X-mas stuff) and proceeded to write ‘Portland School For Retarted Boys’ in huge letters on the side of their van. Somewhere a picture exists. Big thanks to PJ and Mikey for hooking up the show, Kaylin for the cookies (and company), all our friends in the other bands and everyone who spent a cold Friday night with us.
Show Journal 2003-10-10
I’m not quite sure why we only make it to Roseburg once a year but it just seems to work out that way. We arrived to learn we had an interview/write up in the local paper that featured the teachings and wisdom of Dave as well as what we were told was a pretty terrible picture of us. As expected the evening went very smoothly and was a blast courtesy of Nate and Rock4Reason. The only exception to this was a nasty “girl fight” that happened moments before we got there. It’s too bad we missed it because there’s something really exciting about a full on cat fight. Then again maybe I’ve just seen too many movies about women in prison. Most of the bands tonight were screamy hardcore/metalcore stuff (except for the acoustic guy from I.F.) so I think we caught a few people off guard with our not so metal sounds. Note to self: play more Misfits songs in Roseburg as everybody there seems to know them. Second note to self: do not follow up a Misfits song in Roseburg with your own because it will be very anti climatic. Oh yeah, we busted out another mostly unheard song tonight at the show. The working title is “Paging Mr. Bronson” which really doesn’t have anything to do with the song but cracks us up when said in a Pee Wee Herman voice. It probably goes without saying but CTL absolutely ruled tonight. I’ve seen Danny take some falls but I had never seen him take that much abuse for 30 minutes and still rock the house. Perhaps the power of Ty compelled him? Man I love that band. Actually, all the bands we met tonight were very cool to hang with and we wish them luck on their respective tours. Thanks again to Nate for the show hook up!
Show Journal 2003-10-04
Pardon my French, but holy shit this show was fun. Honestly this was probably the best show we’ve ever had at the Meow Meow and one of the best ones ever in Portland. The show was a special for local radio station 94.7 KNRK where tickets were only $0.94. (Actually they were $1.94 … damn service charges!) I was hoping there would be a lot of people there but I had no idea it would be totally sold out. Our set was great. No one fell in the holes on stage, Dave broke his bass and wireless in one smooth motion, Justin didn’t lose his shoes, the message board crew represented the front row, Michelle outbelched Justin publicly and someone offered to take a picture of “my instrument”. What a fun time. Billy Talent? I was skeptical of this “up and coming radio band” but I gotta admit I think I’m a fan now as they were pretty damn good live. I can’t recall the last time I felt the floor of the Meow Moew bounce like that. Apologies to all of the people who came out and couldn’t get in and huge thanks to Thrasher and crew.
Latest Photos