Show Journal 2002-01-12
I’ll start off by saying, holy crap this show rocked. Ok, now to back track for a few moments. Last night we played in Helena so we had a bit of a drive to get to Richland today. It was wet, it was windy and the pass from Montana to Idaho was very, very snowy. We saw two cars spun out and listened to truckers on the CB talk about how crappy the roads were. By the time we got to Spokane (going 10 MPH over the snowy pass) the bad weather subsided and we ate at Dick’s hamburgers to celebrate. Ok, it wasn’t really a celebration, we just love Dick’s. You know what? That last sentence sounds awful. I’ll leave it as is but remember we want to clarify we love Dick’s Hamburger place … not anything else! We got to Richland really early and decided to go to a local movie theater to pass the time. Due to the poor selection we ended up seeing ‘How High’. It wasn’t that bad but as Justin said we have probably exceeded our yearly allowance of drug jokes. Ok, so back to my first statement … holy crap this show rocked! First off we saw lots of familiar faces from our last visits to Tri-Cities and always love to see people we know. Between that and the slightly renovated Atomic Records we knew this was going to be a good show and I can honestly say that this was probably one of the most fun sets we’ve ever played. There was a pit going from the second song until the end of our set and most of the people we could see from the stage we definitely into it. Guitars were broken, band members collided, Jim fell off his drums, drums were lit on fire, people sang, people cheered and pardon my French, but we had a fucking great time playing. Amazing. I don’t what else to say. We had a fantastic time playing and big thanks to Dustin for hooking it all up and another thanks to all the people who continually support us in Tri-Cities!
Show Journal 2002-01-11
I’m really starting to like playing in Montana. Our first experience there in 1998 was less than flattering … only 4 people at the show and all of them were really, really drunk. Our last two shows however have been tons of fun to play so we were really looking forward to this one. We decided to leave on Thursday night and ended up driving all the way to Idaho and slept in a truck stop. Not too bad but it was damn cold in the van. I think it was 18 degrees outside? We had good weather the next day (no rain or snow) and the drive was really quite nice. Dave really wanted to stop and eat some Rocky Mountain Oysters along the way and was willing to do it for the bargain price of $5. We entertained the idea briefly but came to the conclusion that if he were to vomit bull testicles on stage we would never be welcome in Montana again. We skipped the ball eating and ended up getting to Helena very early. Once there we met up with Megan (who was putting on the show) and several of her friends. Everyone was totally cool and did a good job of making us feel at home. Before the show we went over to the Country Harvest for some dinner. Dave ordered Iced Tea and quickly spotted a small spider in the dish with his lemon. The waiter remarked that Dave must be a good marksman for spotting the small arachnid so quickly. Weird. I missed the Shrimpers but Jim said they were cool so we’ll go with his commentary. The Bricks had an old school punk influence and not surprisingly were pretty cool to watch. Finally the mighty Switch Two 47 took the stage and we were all very impressed. We’ve played with them twice before and they are the coolest guys in the world. The best moment of the night however (maybe even this year) was when Derik from Switch said “this song goes out to 800 Octane” and they proceeded to play a cover of Shaken!!! It was so awesome! As Justin said covering one of our songs is probably the most flattering compliment possible. Those guys rule. Next up was Coldsnap 9 who we played with in Livingston last summer and oh my god they rocked. Do yourself a favor and check them out now … you won’t be disappointed. I use this phrase all the time, but seriously …. they rock. Everyone was pretty stoked after seeing CS9 so it was easy to play to the already amped crowd. Only a few people knew any of our songs but everyone seemed to like the music. We played Astro Zombies again and just about damn near everyone who knew the words came up and sang. After the show we met one kid who really wanted a sweatshirt but only had a few bucks on him. We told him if you wanted it he would have to undress and then run back into the main room in front of all the people to get his prize. He did. Amazing. Unfortunately that just ups the ante for the next person who wants something free. Perhaps we should start traveling with a donkey? After the show we went back to the Country Harvest with the other bands for more food. After being frightened by a certain person’s knowledge of 2 Live Crew songs (we are protecting his identity for the people in Rochester) we went to Nina’s house where she was kind enough to let us stay the night. All in all we had a great time in Helena. Happy birthday to Megan and thanks to everyone who made us feel welcome. Special thanks to the guys in Switch Two 47 and Coldsnap 9!
Show Journal 2001-12-28
Oh how Redding rocks. The drive down was surprisingly quick and easy. The VCR is a travelers best friend. We watched Deuce Bigalow on the ride down and shout the phrase “god dammit white boy” at every opportunity. We got to Redding really early and 3/4 of the band slept in the van to kill time. The show was pretty cool, the first two bands were fun to watch and Spent sounded better than ever with a new guitar player and added backup vocals. Our set was cool because we played lots of requests. We also had a new backup singer and a few dancers on stage at a couple of points during the show. Craig’s Brother was last and despite the lackluster crowd reaction they rocked pretty hard. Every song of theirs was solid and good. We were all impressed. Nothing else too exciting to report, it was just a fun show to play and a good time. The only downer from the show was not getting paid. 840 miles round trip and we didn’t get a dollar. Was it worth it? Absolutely! We’ll play to all our friends in Redding any day. After the show we braved the monsoon like weather conditions and drove all the way back to Portland.
Show Journal 2001-12-27
Rad show tonight. I had never even heard of the Blackbird before but the place rocks. Good stage, nice PA, great food and a cool staff. As far as bar shows go this was one of the smoothest ever. Thirty 3 played first and sounded great as always. I like them even more now that I am learning their songs. Our set was good. We played a cover of ‘Anything, Anything’ by Dramarama and a few people even knew it. Apparently Beavis, I mean Jim, was feeling frisky tonight and decided to light his cymbals on fire during the set. Yes, it’s a move taken straight from the MCD handbook but it was pretty cool. Don’t ask Dave about it though because it turns out he didn’t even notice the 2 foot flames coming off the drum set. The last band (who’s name is escaping me) was pretty good as well. A great closer for the dwindling but appreciative late night crowd. Thanks to all who came out (you know who you are) and no thanks to my piece of shit, cheap ass, mother fucking AKG Wireless unit which failed again and was subsequently thrown into a wall, smashed on the sidewalk with a cinder block, and finally pitched onto I-84.
Show Journal 2001-12-21
Man, who knew this show was going to kick so much ass? We were all a little concerned about this show since it wasn’t our “usual” crowd but my god it was a blast. All the bands were really good tonight and the crowd tonight was fantastic. They were singing along and dancing to all the bands which was very cool (and quite unusual) around here. Our set was cool, we played more of our faster stuff (which surprised a few people) and it was kinda nice. We also pulled out Astro Zombies towards the end of our set and let me tell you, if you are going to cover the Misfits, a Defiance/Speds crowd is the place to do it! Seemed like damn near everyone was singing. Very cool. Also, the crowds knowledge of Clerks dialogue was pretty scary. I think the only thing that sucked tonight was loading up that god forsaken stairway. What would Jim and Justin know about that though! Actually Jim got the good end of the stick by not having to wheel everything through the streams of puke trailing from the guy passed out beside the door. Thank you’s for tonight go out to Mocephus for selling our stuff, Eric and Alex for coming out (to the show, not the closet), “Do Nothing” Dan for doing nothing, Doug from the Speds for setting up the show, and all our other friends who came out early for us!
Show Journal 2001-12-15
What a weekend. The Deviates called us up a few weeks ago and asked us to play the last show of their tour in L.A. with them and The Line. Given the sad state of our last L.A. shows combined with our admiration of the Deviates we happily agreed to play the show without hesitation. The reality of it was that we would drive just under 1000 miles for one show. 18 hours in the van for 30 minutes of playing. Was it worth it? Hell yeah it was! With the company of Nate Dogg (who roadied our first tour) the drive down was actually a blast. We installed a VCR in the van before we left, so we just kicked back, watched movies and played Nintendo the whole way down. We joked around, ate junk food and the day flew right by. Plus, Portland has had over 30 straight days of rain so we were just excited to see the sun and clear skies. Periodically Jim would turn on the windshield wiper fluid to remind us of home. Nate decided that Justin’s new nickname was ‘Slim Shaky’ because of his often erratic driving. One cool thing was that we stopped in Redding to eat and there was a van in the parking lot with 2 of our stickers! We ended up sleeping at a truck stop somewhere near Bakersfield. Before sleeping Dave decided to watch one more “movie” in the parking lot. I’ll skip the details but rather than a “recreational vehicle” our van is now classified as a “procreational vehicle”. (Dave would prefer that all females reading this immediately forget the previous sentences and try not to draw any conclusions about his movie collection.) It was really cold in the van that night and to complicate things we had forgotten to crack the windows and woke up with condensation on everything. After a truck stop shower we drove on to L.A. and basically just hung out for the afternoon. We ate lunch outside at a little Mexican restaurant where a bird flew in, grabbed a beakful of my nachos, and then flew off. Little bastard. After that we cruised around L.A. for a while. Nothing quite like rolling down Rodeo and through Beverly Hills in our incredibly dirty and enormous white van. At one point we happened across the “L. Ron Hubbard Winter Wonderland” complete with choir and Santa Claus. Experiencing a Scientology Christmas was very strange indeed. On to the show … the show was a ton of fun for us but a little weird. Stranded was up first and I thought they rocked. Heavy, fast and good. They got a very lukewarm crowd reaction which was surprising since we were all so impressed with them. So we played next and here’s where it got weird. We played really well. Really, really well I would dare say. As hard as we played though, no one really got into it. A few people started a pit on a few songs but just like the first band the crowd just never really got into it. Some people cheered, some people clapped, some people booed but on the whole it was just a very apathetic reaction. No matter what the reaction we had a great time playing and were totally pleased with the way it turned out. The sound system was incredible, the stage was huge and it’s always cool to play for 500+ people! The Line and the Deviates said they enjoyed our set which was flattering for us. Since it was the last show of their tour and a big night for them we were stoked they liked it. I would have hated to suck on their big show! Speaking of not sucking The Line and The Deviates both played so well I can’t even put it into words. They both had endless energy and played each song faster and better than the one before it. The Line … my god they can rock. I had never heard them and was very impressed. The Deviates were on fire at this show. It was great to see them in their hometown crowd and their set was bordering on inspirational. So much so that we ended up listening to their CD 3 times on the way home. After the show we had to bail to start the haul back to Portland, so we said our goodbyes and headed out. We made it about 2 hours out of L.A. and slept at a truck stop that we have stayed at on two previous outings. It was really cold damn cold that night and we could see our breath in the van. The drive home was long. There were two snowy passes we had to cross and it rained for the last half the drive. I think we watched about 4 or 5 movies on that drive. Nothing too noteworthy to mention except that we learned a) the back seat causes people to have gas and digestive problems and b) when someone needs to go to the bathroom Justin is very slow to get out of the way. Thank you’s go out to The Deviates for asking us to play and making this so easy for us, The Line for being cool guys and rocking so hard, the staff at the Troubadour for being cool, Ty for coming our early, Robert for the chicken wings and the Doggfather for coming along for the ride and being part of the fun.
Show Journal 2001-12-10
Pretty cool show tonight. Since it was a Monday the turnout was kind of low but the crowd seemed pretty attentive and into the music the whole time. About the bands … Thirty 3 was great tonight. We practice just down the hall from them so it’s nice to hear them play without the muffling of a door. Jet Lag and Downway both really impressed me tonight. I had never heard either band and was totally surprised by both. Downway especially kicked everyone’s ass with their super fast and very catchy songs. Our set was o.k. We played a lot of new songs and it’s always hard to gauge everyone’s reaction to them. You think you’re playing them well, but you look and no one is moving, but then you realize no one know the songs. Well I suppose most people don’t think about that kind of crap on stage but I do so there you go. Anyway, we ended our set pretty strong so all was well. A few thank you’s go out to Jeff for setting up the show, Erica for having a birthday, Dan for doing nothing in particular other than asking me to mention him and lastly thanks to the guy who sang ‘Still The Same.’ The biggest thank you goes out to Meg and Paula who drove from Redding, CA for the show! 800 miles to see us play! Wow! We hope you got home safely and enjoyed ‘Condescend’!!!’
Show Journal 2001-11-17
Have I mentioned before that Longview rocks? Of course I have! I say it every time we play there. Tonight’s turnout was kinda small compared to previous Longview shows but still bigger than most Portland crowds. That says either really good things about Longview or really bad things abut Portland. The show tonight was really long but still pretty solid. The Lolligaggers were first and surprised us with 3 Misfits covers complete with the Danzig-esque howl. Nobody Wins was second and let me tell you I thought they rocked. Very energetic, very catchy and very good. A lot of people left when they played because the PA was so loud but those with earplugs were treated to a great set. Stunt Monkey was third and sounded pretty cool. Mostly I was impressed with their assortment of merchandise ranging from shirts to temporary tattoos. Longshot was 4th and I think this was the best I’ve ever seen them play. Once Chris Tucker stopped talking and Nate returned to the microphone they played an absolutely incredible set. The show tonight was billed as “800 Octane vs. Longshot” and I think they served us a TKO. So finally, four hours after the whole thing began we finally got to play. Also, after sitting motionless for 4 hours we decided to relieve Rick of his merchandise duties to enjoy himself while we played. In Longview fashion the show was great. “Bomb, Bomb, Bomb” continues to be a crowd pleaser and most of the other new ones went over nicely as well. We had 3 songs tonight featuring guest vocals!!! The guys from The Laxatives sang Day of the Dead, Brady sang … err … screamed all of Still the Same, and two members of Almost Heroes sang Berserker. I just want to say that I love the fact that people know the words to our songs well enough to want to come on stage and sing them. Without sounding cheesy it really means a lot to know people like your music so much. Anyway, all in all the show tonight was great. Thanks to TJ, Mocephus, Longshot, Out of Touch, and everyone in Longview!
Show Journal 2001-11-10
Oh my god what a fun show! We had been looking forward to this one for weeks. Usually when you do that it’s a let down but not a chance tonight. This show was so much fun for us to play I can’t even put it into words. Pretty big crowd and just like all the past visits they were going off to the music. Half our set was new material and thankfully everyone rocked out just the same. For the older songs we even had a few people on stage singing along which is awesome to see because a) they know our songs and b) it keeps Justin from talking so damn much. Big thanks to Kaddisfly for helping us get on this show, big apology to Hydroponic for missing their set, thanks to Lacey for helping us sell stuff, and lastly a big collective ‘boo’ to Grey is Grey for having to cancel. Oh yeah, I would personally like to thank everyone who ate Justin’s doughnuts … that’s what he gets for not loading stuff in the van! Thanks again to everyone who stayed late and had a good time. Hopefully it won’t be 9 months next time.
Show Journal 2001-10-20
Ok, I take back what I said about the Ash Street last month. We actually had a very receptive and very enthusiastic crowd tonight. I thought we played great and what can I say … it was just a really, really fun show to play. We played a new untitled song as well as our newly crafted punk rock opus entitled “Bomb Osama Bin Laden”. All Out was up after us and those guys can still rock like no one’s business. I haven’t seen them play in quite some time and they seem like twice the band they were before. So much energy, so much personality … they rock. I Know Kung Fu was up next and as a homeless man in Chattanooga once said “everybody know that y’all turned it out”. They sounded great tonight … mostly because they played Logan’s Run and man I love that song. Interestingly enough this was the 4th time we’ve tried to book a show with ‘the Fu’ and this was the first one that actually came through, so I must say that I am still amazed. Hopefully the curse has been lifted. The Catholic School Girls were up last as I’m not sure what to say. Fast, loud, aggressive, large shirtless men with a bubble machine and toilet paper launcher. They put on a great set. All in all a very good show. Only time will tell if the Ash Street is this kind to us again.
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