Show Journal 2001-08-16
I apologize in advance for a somewhat generic show review. Nothing terribly exciting or noteworthy happened tonight. It was just a good, well ok … great show with New Found Glory. As usual in Eugene tons of familiar faces came out to see the show (Compact 56, EPD, Paint by Numbers, Barry, Hopper and the Mullet) which made it extra fun. I think we recognize more people in Eugene than Portland sometimes. A lot of people seemed to be into us when we played which was cool given the size of the club. The high point for us was at one point during ‘Kelvis’ I looked out and there were at least 100 people were bouncing along to the music. It was sooo cool to see. (Well at least until New Found Glory played and got about 500 people bouncing up and down!) Still though you gotta start somewhere. Speaking of which New Found Glory were pretty cool to see live. It’s amazing how energetic they are live. Also, their cover of ‘Never Ending Story’ rocks! Thanks to everyone who came out early to see us, thanks to Dan and Mike for the show and Lisa for selling our stuff. No thanks to Justin for having the crowd clap along to our song out of time with the song.
Show Journal 2001-08-11
Man what a good show. I was a little disappointed that the outdoor thing didn’t happen but at the same time I’ll play at Reid’s any day. The fog machine allows the Pit Stop to surpass all venues in coolness. I’ll spare you the individual replay of all the bands but will mention that Allister probably kicked the largest portion of ass that night. Our set was pretty good. It was hot as a mo-fo up there and I think I lost 5 pounds in sweat before the first song. We had 3 guest vocalists during Berserker which was kinda cool. Something very creepy about high schoolers singing the 3rd line of Berserker though. Tonight was the debut of Justin’s brand new guitar amp which sounded amazing until the guitar cord got smashed and rendered the amp incapable of producing sound. Luckily the problem was just a $20 guitar cord rather than a $1000 Marshall amp head! Still there were a few minutes of panic. Thanks to all who came and cheered and made us feel like a big important band in front of the actual big important bands. Again, thanks to TJ for the hook up. No thanks to Brady for choking on his big joke telling opportunity!!!
Show Journal 2001-07-28
Yet another awesome Eugene show. The guys in EPD did a great job of setting up this show … solid lineup, decent venue, ok sound, good promotion, etc. The only bad part was the directions. In fact we ended up driving around for an hour in Eugene but they got enough crap from the other bands so I will spare them any further embarrassment. Plus, if they are nice enough to set up a show and ask us to play … who cares? By the way during that hour we decided that if we ever make it big and sell millions of records we are going to move to Arkansas. More specifically we would like to move into neighboring houses on a dead end street and as Dave puts it we’ll spend our days “drinking beer in the morning, slashing each other tires and basically just not giving a fuck about anything until we go broke”. Sounds good to me. Back to the show. We missed Self Inflicted because we were still lost. Sorry guys. Gray is Grey was cool … really cool. We know Jamie and Tim from the Thrust days and they are still cool as ever. Pretty heavy music and very cool to watch. They don’t sound like anyone else and it’s very refreshing. Tempting Fate was good as always. Their guitar player is amazing, so they always have my vote. Rocking songs don’t hurt either! EPD sounded better than ever before and put on a good show. I think they had the biggest crowd of the night but since they put on the show they deserve it! Outreach wins the award for toughest sounding band of the show. They completely rocked and I’m glad we didn’t have to follow them. Paint By Numbers started off strong but got hit with the broken PA in midset. Due to the technical difficulties with the PA and slow load in’s it took almost 2 hours to get from the end of EPD’s set to the beginning of Dead Even’s. It was beyond anyone’s control and not that big a deal but it ended up sucking because Dead Even had to cut things short. Seems like that happened the last we played together as well? Despite the spotty PA performance I thought they rocked tonight. They will probably disagree but it was a very short and intense set and fantastic to watch. Boy those Mexican wrestlers sure can play guitar! We finally played at around 9:45. The show started at 3:00 and I thought for sure people would have bailed out after 6 bands but everyone seemed to stay around until we were done. That was very, very cool of the crowd and that is why we love playing in Eugene. We got to play a few more songs than usual and people seemed to know the words to most of them. For example the song ‘Holiday’ was never released (it’s only on mp3) and I swear I saw at least 5 people singing along with it. Good thing because Dave’s voice sounded like he had gargled battery acid by the end of the set. Somewhere Scotty Potty is smiling. Never mind. Our special thanks go out to Arne, Conor, Kyle, Dead Even and every one that came out to support the local bands. Super big thanks to EPD for setting up this great show!
Show Journal 2001-07-26
Reality check. Tuesday we played to 800 people, Wednesday was about 500, tonight was about 40. We knew going into it that it wouldn’t be an earth shattering performance but who cares when it’s your friends there to see you! Speaking of which we did see quite a few familiar faces which was cool. We haven’t played many Portland bar shows in recent months so it was kinda nice to have a change of pace. Stink and Linger were pretty cool to watch … lots of covers including my favorite L7 song. Our set was ok. It started kind of rough when Justin’s guitar amp inexplicably died in mid song. That stuff is so frustrating to deal with on stage. The rest of the set was cool and we pulled out a few of the older songs. SK and the PAB were great as usual. Their guitar parts and weird timings are getting more and more complicated and yet catchier every time I seem them. They are all fantastic musicians and really could be the rock and roll saviors they claim to be. Thanks to Scott for the show and a special shot out our super hardcore fans that couldn’t get in but watched the show from outside the door!
Show Journal 2001-07-25
Dude … Chico ROCKS!!! Man we had a good time playing in Chico!!! I had no idea what to expect but everything was perfect. Great club, great sound system, great promoters and an amazingly cool crowd. Everyone we talked to tonight was very down to earth and very friendly. Our set had a kind of rocky start due to some technical issues (wiring, strings, monitors) but after 3 or 4 songs everything started to fall into place. Eventually a pit started, people started cheering, Justin’s shoe fell off and then life was good. I think we finished pretty strong and we got a very enthusiastic response from the crowd. Antifreeze rocked much harder than last night and were treated like rock stars by the crowd. The Deviates kicked everyone’s asses all over the place. They were so tight and energetic it was frightening. I was impressed beyond words. As if the show couldn’t get any better tonight it was the last show on Guttermouth’s tour and they absolutely rocked. That was easily the most fun I’ve ever had seeing them play. Their set was crazy … there were tons of people on stage, flying stuff (cups, bras, shoes) throughout their whole set, and even a few flashers from the audience. Wild, wild set and a pleasure to watch. The highlight was when this really young kid got on stage (he had to be less than 10 years old) and Mark put him on his shoulders and gently passed him to the crowd where the kid surfed the crowd for a few minutes while everyone screamed and cheered him on while Guttermouth launched into another song. I can’t remember seeing so much energy in a room before … especially not at a punk rock show! Thanks to the other bands for letting us open up these two shows and to Justin and Medina for helped this come together for us. Most of all thanks to everyone who showed up early and gave us their support … it’s so encouraging to see when you play in a new town! We can’t wait to come back!
Show Journal 2001-07-24
I honestly think tonight was the most fun I have ever had playing. Everything really just seemed to click for us tonight. We played really tight, we had fun and we never really ran out of energy. I guess it’s hard not to be excited playing in front of so many people though. We actually had a pretty decent sized group of fans right in front of the stage signing along and shouting for us! At one point I could see 7 people with our t-shirts on from the stage. Kind of a serious fashion blunder for them but I think it’s cool as hell to see people wearing our stuff! At a couple of points in the set we had a few stage divers and/or people dancing on stage. I love seeing that while we play in big clubs. So cool. Onto the other bands … Anti-Freeze sounded pretty good and were really nice guys. The Guttermouth crowd isn’t too kind to pop-punk bands, but I thought they did well. The Deviates were awesome tonight. They have been on the road for 4 months solid and they were incredibly tight. Awesome set. Guttermouth was Guttermouth and if you haven’t seen them before it’s your loss. Great stage show, endless energy and quite possibly more people on stage at any one time than I’ve ever seen before in my life. Thanks to everyone who came out to support us at a big venue like the Roseland! Also thanks to the Roseland / Thrasher Presents crews. We feel spoiled getting to work with such cool people!
Show Journal 2001-07-15
Wow, what a killer show tonight. Every band totally rocked. Kalifornia Redemption played really well and were totally cool guys. After that was The Stryder. Playing after The Stryder was like getting into the ring with Mike Tyson. Well, back before he became an ear eating, butt raping freak. Anyway, those guys sounded great. Very cool. Our set was pretty good. Decent energy with a few sloppy moments. Lots of local fan support though which is great to see! They are learning the words too … perhaps they can teach Dave sometime. After us was the almighty Dynamite Boy. Holy cow these guys rock. Super funny, super energetic, super tight and just fun as hell to watch. I can’t say enough good things about Dynamite Boy. Also, they pulled off an amazing cover of AC/DC’s TNT. Very cool. Oh hell, I almost forgot … in between The Stryder and us we had a guest visitor. Satan himself graced the stage at the Paris theater! He showed up and was about 8 feet tall, glowing red eyes and covered in horns and spikes. Absolutely amazing! I hope we get pictures of this soon because you readers probably think I’m hallucinating. So, anyway Satan hung out for a while on stage, talked about Portland, talked about religion and then told some jokes. Pretty cool to be introduced by the dark lord. Thanks to everyone who came out and special thanks to the people from Portland’s local bands who come to the shows and watch all the bands … No Thanks To You, Fistfull, Straight Edge Bob, Thirty 3 and I Know Kung Fu.
Show Journal 2001-07-07
Tualafest 2001. Sounds like a bad joke huh? Amazingly there was a pretty good cross section of the Portland punk and hardcore scene represented here today and all for free. Bands played on a makeshift stage in the middle of a basketball court while other people skated on the rather tiny but kind of cool Tualatin skatepark. It was very sunny, very hot and very un-shaded for bands and fans alike. Jack from Fistfull said it best when he commented about the stage “burning through the soles of his shoes.” Of course Dave had the wonderful commentary on stage of “it sucks when you’re fat and it’s hot outside.” Lovely. Despite the rather wimpy PA and nagging technical difficulties for almost every band it was still a pretty decent show.
Show Journal 2001-06-30
I thought we had a really good show tonight for about an hour. During that hour a pretty big crowd rolled into the Pine Street, we set up, we played what I thought was a really good set, and had lots of people tell us we sounded great while we loaded off the stage. Everything was fine and I was feeling good about life … and then Tiger Army played. Those guys we so good I can’t even put it into words. I have never seen a band so genuinely excited to play a show and the crowd totally ate it up. They had everyone screaming for more after every song. They sound like a mix of super fast rockabilly mixed with the Misfits. This makes perfect sense when you see them using a stand up bass along with the drummer from Samhain. Easily the best show I’ve seen in over a year. I was glued to the floor and cheering with the every song as if I had never seen a band like this before. Then again I suppose I haven’t. I’d ramble on more about how great they played but it would only belittle our performance ever more. The Amazing Crowns played last and it was immediately obvious why they are consistently rated the best live band in the US. Super energetic, consistently funny and very entertaining. I figure if they can make me like rockabilly they must be doing something right. The energy and excitement level of the crowd was a little lower for them than Tiger Army, but they still put on an amazing set. Thanks to the Bend/Dead Even posse, Ben from Compact 56, Chris N. and everyone else who came out early.
Show Journal 2001-06-29
If you don’t live in Longview you missed a totally rad show tonight! All the other bands tonight played very well. The Daryls were amazing! We played with them in Seattle a while back and I thought they were ok then, but tonight they just rocked. I guess we had to see them in their element. Props to the Wannabes too! I think their song ‘Round and Round’ is the catchiest song I’ve heard in ages. I find myself singing the chorus for hours on end. And holy crap, the Groovie Ghoulies rocked tonight! I had heard them plenty of time before but never actually seen them live. They were so good, so energetic and so much fun to watch. I was totally impressed. The Longview crowd was amazing tonight as well. Energetic, active, singing along, everything … too bad they don’t live in Portland. I swear I even saw an 800 Octane guitar pick ear ring. It’s so cool to see so many familiar faces at the shows there. Amazingly they haven’t tired of Dave’s jokes yet … although the Octopus joke might have driven a few people across the line. One real cool surprise was an appearance by Marty from the 1997-1998 Marty’s Garage days! Thanks to Rick and Emily for coming along for the drive and selling our merchandise, a shot out to Attom and Mark from Dead Even for making the pilgrimage to Longview, and also huge thanks to Brady for kissing our asses.
Latest Photos