Show Journal 2002-06-07
Day 1 – And so begins our fifth tour. I hesitate to call it a “tour” because we only have 5 shows (with 9 days of driving) but the way I see it anything more than a week in the van should count. Dave started us off with an inappropriate playing of The Ventures as we hit the road. We used to take off from town blasting Motorhead at top volume, later it was Sir Max-A-Lot and now sadly enough we have digressed to playing the Ventures. We all bitched and moaned until he shut it off and put in another CD more to our liking. What we didn’t realize is that we had awoken the presence of Dave’s new alter ego known as “off key whistling man”. When Dave is agitated with your actions he whistles to any CD off key and off time until you submit defeat and apologize. We’ve played in Richland a dozen times before but somehow we managed to miss our turn and got terribly lost. Probably because we were busy trying to figure out how we were going to tell Derik and Damon apart in STFS. Dave suggested we call them Tweedledee and Tweedledamon. I can’t possibly imagine them being amused by that. We got to the show late and loaded in while STFS was playing. I was very glad to see everyone going off to STFS’s music. We sat in awe for a the rest of their set as they have become an awesome band since last time we saw them. They jump, they yell, them play hard and my god they rock now. They were good before but they seem like a whole new band when they play live. I am so glad we get to play so many shows with them. We had an amazing set tonight. I think this was the best show we’ve ever played in Richland. The guitar carnage started early tonight … 3 broken strings and a dead wireless. Seriously the show totally rocked, I would write more but words can’t do it justice. I think it was my second favorite show we have ever played. Afterwards we finally got to say hi to STFS (since we got there late) and then we headed out to Spokane that night. We watched an informative movie about the dangers of STD’s that was produced in the 50’s to pass the time. Pretty classy stuff. We followed STFS to Spokane to pick up Adam’s backpack which he had left there. We got pretty lost but didn’t really care since we were all still so amped to be getting out of town. We ended up staying at a truck stop in Idaho as STFS drove onward.
Show Journal 2002-06-02
We played ‘Day Of The Dead’ acoustically tonight on NRK. It all sounded fine and dandy until Dave inexplicably decided to do an Elvis impression during the breakdown and comment on Justin’s guitar solo in a “king like” voice. I swear I could hear the collective groan of every band in Portland that wouldn’t dare do anything like that on the air.
Show Journal 2002-06-01
Finally after a year and 5 cancelled shows we finally got to play in Eugene again. Was it worth the wait? Damn right it was. The show was in a high school but it didn’t really feel like it … big stage, huge PA, lights, etc. First up was the Boston Dock’s Oister Boys. I’m not quite sure what to say about them. You’ll just have to see them and formulate your own opinion. They played ‘Sex and Violence’ by The Exploited so that was good enough for me. After them was Monkee Torture. I’ve been wanting to see them for a long time and I was not disappointed! We’ve known Glenn for a while but had no idea he was such a bad ass guitar player. The highlight for us was their rendition of “What Would Baron Von Torture Do” … very metal and very cool. They totally rocked and if you live in Oregon do make a point to go see them. Up third was the band behind the whole show … EPD. They’ve been doing quite well recently with a few huge shows in Eugene w/ Face to Face and a few other bigger name bands. The big shows have been rubbing off on them and you can tell they have gotten tighter as a band. The music was dead on, their sound has gotten bigger and better and my god their drummer (Chase) has gotten better by leaps and bounds. It’s cool being able to see bands improve over time. We were up last and in traditional Eugene fashion we had a shaky start when we blew the power during the third song. I thought it was going to be a repeat of our last Animal Farm show but as they say on talk shows it was “all good.” On a side note it seems that everywhere we go in Eugene Dave’s bass amp blows the power. It weird. I think it all the hippies there conspiring against loud music. After a few songs, people started to get into it and the rest is history. Big thanks to EPD for hooking it all up, Glenn just for being Glenn and our street team people for helping out.
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!
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!
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 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!
Show Journal 2002-05-04
Our last show in Richland was so much fun I actually consider it in the top 3 shows we’ve ever played. Believe it or not, this one was actually more fun. Man … it was such a good night. Everyone in Richland is so much fun because they all seem to get involved. Whenever we play there Dave always says “I wish you guys lived in Portland” and it’s so true. The first band was quite amusing with straight up punk rock songs about everything you can imagine. They also said they were really stoked to be playing with us which was cool to hear. I wonder if they realize how normal and lame we really are? Man oh man, our set was so much fun to play. We got to play 18 songs tonight which is amazing because we usually only play 10 or 12. We didn’t want to stop and most people didn’t seem to want to leave so we just kept playing. One really cool thing is that it was one of the local high school’s prom night this evening and I swear to you that a few people came to the show in tuxes and prom dresses! So cool to see! Thanks to Lyle for coming along to the show and being so easy to dominate at Mario Kart. Another big thanks to Dustin and everyone at Atomic Records, thanks to “our peeps” on the street team and huge thanks to everyone who came out to show despite the absence of D.O.A.!!!
Show Journal 2002-05-02
Pretty fun show tonight. It’s finals week at George Fox University and they decided to have a show so people could get a study break. The show was free so needless to say there was a pretty good turnout early in the evening. However with each band the music got faster and louder and the crowd dwindled accordingly. I think we immediately weeded out the ones who weren’t up to the task so the people that stuck around seemed to like us. Nothing too noteworthy to report. Well, except for Justin belching so loudly during a song that I could hear him over my guitar amp. Then there was the game of full contact foosball. Oh yeah, there was the basketball shot to Dave’s coffee cup. Oh, at one point Justin brushed his teeth with a stick of beef jerky. Then there was the simulated sodomy of Justin in front of 50 people. Yeah, pretty amusing evening. Big thanks to Darin for setting up the show and to all who stuck around!
Show Journal 2002-04-26
I’m not sure if this was worthy of a review but since we set up equipment and played music I guess it counts. A lot of stuff happened so I’ll try keep it brief. We showed up at 5:30 AM and stood outside in the cold until 6:00 when someone finally let us in. The engineer (Josh) was late, so we had to setup the sound and equipment ourselves. Basically we played music for about a minute or two going into the commercial breaks. We had to play really quietly because we are a room next to sales people. Our cue to play was when Josh would wave his arms and we had to start playing. At one point he hurt his shoulder from waving his arms so frantically. The deal was we play music all morning and then towards the end of the show they take you in for an interview and play your “radio single”. So around 8:30 we went to meet Daria and Gustav. We walked in and basically just started shooting the shit about monster movies, our van and porn. It was far less intimidating than I imagined because we really just sat and talked the whole time and didn’t really notice what was on the air and what wasn’t. They were both totally funny and we had a great time. Towards the end of the show (and our interview) everyone celebrated Daria’s birthday by sending in a stripper. Yep, some dude dressed as fireman stripped down to his thong and did his bump and grind on Daria. Dave managed to sneak in a “hose” joke on the air and we were all amused. Pretty weird morning to say the least!
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