Show Journal 2001-06-21
I think we decided tonight could be known as “the show that almost was.” Here’s the story. Traffic was pretty bad leaving Portland so we ended up getting to the show pretty late. We missed all of the Rhythm Pimps, EPD (who we really wanted to see again) and only caught the last part of Outreach’s set. Fortunately we did get to catch all of Dead Even’s set and let me tell you they rocked. The first time I saw them I was really impressed and now a half year later they are light years ahead of where there were back then. So tight, so good, and oh so many bad ass guitar parts. They rocked the house …literally. So the stage was set for a great 800 Octane show right? Rad opening bands, lots of excited people and a sweaty little basement. So we played the first song it went great. By the second song people were moving and singing. The third song people were moving, cheering, fists in the air and shouting along. The fourth song? There wasn’t one because we got shut down by the cops!!! 180 minutes of driving and only a dismal 9 minutes of playing. It was a totally weak ending to what could have/would have/should have been a great show. Strangely enough none of us were too upset by the outcome. There were a ton of familiar faces there to see us, so that kind of made the evening for us. Cool bands, cool people and hanging out … what more can you ask for? Hopefully we can make it up to everyone in August. Oh yeah, our apologies to the Animal House for being too loud and setting off the alarm next door!
Show Journal 2001-06-08
I’m still not quite sure what to think of this show. The first two bands played well and got a decent response from the fairly active and decent sized crowd. However when we played we drove most of the crowd as far away from the stage as possible or some even as far as outside the club. The weird thing is I’m not too sure why though. I thought we played pretty well. Were we too loud? Too old? Too rock? Too ugly? Too many broken strings? Too many of Dave’s jokes? Too many cowboy hats on stage? Maybe all of the above. We never really clicked with the audience … and it’s always a little strange when it happens. Of course our friends who had seen us before all thought things went ok. It definitely wasn’t bad … it was just … weird. Anyway, K Through 6 played after us and managed to wake the crowd back up and they did a really good job playing. I’m a little jealous because I wish I could play that well at that age! The thank you list for this evening includes Kelvis, Sam, Chris, Robert 2/3 of the Peel sisters, Braxton (!) and K Through 6 for hooking us up with the show.
Show Journal 2001-05-19
We were supposed to play three shows this weekend. One got cancelled, one never got booked and the third was in Salt Lake City which is 800 miles away. We opted not to cancel it and decided to drive that entire 800 miles for just one show. Smart huh? Things started off poorly when Dave’s entire bass amp nearly fell on the ground. I say nearly fell to the ground because the only things between the plummeting bass amp and the ground were my left foot and Dave’s right foot. Yep. The entire 140 pound metal speaker cabinet fell 4 feet to the ground only to land on our feet. We think Dave’s big toe is broken and my foot is so swollen it barely fits in my shoe. Shows always seem so exciting when only half of the band can walk. Injuries aside the drive to Utah was really fun. It went really fast for me and my side actually hurt from laughing so much. (Or was it the beef jerky?) We slept in a highway rest area somewhere in Idaho. The bad news was our sleep period only lasted about an hour because the sun came up and let’s face it, a van with 4 people is really uncomfortable. So in the wee hours of the morning we pressed on to Utah. We got there way early and hung around in Orem for a while. We did some cd shopping, got some lunch and later went to meet up with Aric, his roommates and the other guys from Final Notice. They were all super cool and we hung out with them for a while and then went over to the show. The show was in a really, really, really big skatepark/warehouse. The bands setup and play on top of a huge box ramp in the back corner of the park. It was really weird seeing bands 6 feet above you and 20 feet away divided by a slanted piece of wood. The Ruffians played first to a decent sized crowd and people seemed to like them. Final Notice was next. I thought they sounded great but the crowd didn’t seem to care much. An apathetic crowd is better than no crowd … which is exactly what we got. We had a real slow setup time due to power issues and also since the show was running late we were rushed for time because there was still another band to play after us. We were rushed and frustrated. If you are at a show and have been there for an hour it’s hard to be excited by a band that doesn’t look happy to be there. Also, as we stood on stage sound checking the realization that “we drove 800 miles for this” was setting in fast. We hadn’t played a chord yet and I think we were all totally bummed out. We had 14 songs on our set list and only ended up playing 9. Even a Misfits cover, which can usually jolt a sleepy audience to consciousness for at least 3 minutes fell upon deaf ears. We were done playing after only 20 minutes but it felt like an eternity. It was honestly the longest set I have ever endured playing. Endless Struggle was next and it turns out they had been hording all the fans for themselves. They had a following of about 50 people that were all hanging outside waiting for them to play. They came in followed by all their fans, setup and rocked everyone there. In fact by the end of their set everyone was on stage (the ramp) circled around the band and shouting along. It definitely was a cool sight to see. Their good set numbed the pain of ours enough for me to leave with a good overall feeling about the show. After a few failed attempts at skating the empty ramps we decided to hit the road back home. We had a tempting offer to hang with Aric and the Final Notice crew, but I think we were all just ready to start heading back. We slept about 5 hours somewhere in Idaho and pressed on to Portland. The drive was uneventful at best which is nice after a sketchy show. Watching the world pass by the windows kind of helps you keep things in perspective. Not too many people get to travel as much and see as much as you do when you are a band on the road. Sometimes it takes a bad show and a long drive to remind yourself of that. Crap. I’m getting sappy again. Anyway, thanks to the handful of people who watched us play and had nice things to say afterwards. Also a really big thanks to Aric for setting up the show and offering us a place to stay!
Show Journal 2001-05-06
Pretty rad show tonight. All of the bands tonight were really, really good which is a blessing when you have 6 bands playing. The crowd was really cool tonight too. They stayed late and were loud and energetic for all of the bands. The coolest part of the show for us was getting to play with Same Day Service again. They went on a few shows of our tour last year and it was really good getting to see them play again. Our set went really well as it usually does in Longview. Fortunately for us (and unfortunately for him) most of the memorable moments tonight involved Justin falling. Highlights include 1) Justin tripping and falling on his guitar cord 2) Justin getting smacked in the head by Dave’s bass and then falling and 3) Justin stage diving and then falling. Thanks to everyone who stayed late and to TJ for hooking up the show.
Show Journal 2001-04-27
Oh my god what a rad show. If we are doing the scale of 1 to 10 thing again this was easily a 10. Loud, crowded, energetic, with great bands and all in the cozy confines of a basement. I can’t even put it into words, it was just beautiful. We thought we would be off to a rough start after wrestling with Dave’s bass amp. If you aren’t familiar with Dave’s bass amp it is huge. Tall as a grown man and as heavy as a grown man holding 200 pounds of concrete. It’s also 1600 Watts. My guitar amp could induce hearing loss in a large club and it’s only 100 Watts. Dave’s is 1600 Watts and in a basement. So anyway, he turns his amp on and the power went out. Oops. Flip the breaker, turns the amp on … same thing. Bummer. We ended up borrowing Compact 56’s bass amp and want to thank them for it. Speaking of which Compact 56 ruled. Despite their own technical difficulties they laid down the rock with the greatest of ease. Interesting fact you don’t know … we decided that next time we play together our singers are going to fight to see which one of us gets to play last. Kind of a like a coin toss, except in this case someone is bound to get sodomized. Here’s another good highlight to report … Atom and Mark from Dead Even were at our show … again! I’d like to give a shot out to Jamii and Melisa for driving down to see us, but Atom and Mark deserve the mad props. Bend, Eugene, Portland, Bend, Portland, Eugene. Those guys are just way too cool for words. Thanks to Tempting Fate and EPD, the Animal Farm for setting up another rad show and to everyone who stuck around and had fun. Also thanks to the guys who helped us sing Astro Zombies!
Show Journal 2001-04-20
Back to Anderson after almost a year. Our past shows there had been absolutely incredible and we were dying to return. In fact we were so excited we drove all the way from Portland to Redding (about 7 hours) just for this one show. The show was supposed to start at 6:00 but there was some mix up about the start time so it ended up starting around 7:30. The first band finished playing and then everyone was forced to sit and wait 45 minutes for the drummer of band number three. How is this possible? Band number two was using the drum set of band number three so everyone there (including band number four) had to sit around and wait for the arrival of the drum set. Eventually it finally arrived and life was good again. In fact life was real good because Hand Over Fist rocked so hard that it was almost scary. Those guys ruled. The bad news was that due to the delay they had to cut their set short which was a shame since they played so well. Hand Over Fist was cut short, but Spent was the band that really got screwed tonight. They were told they could only play 10 minutes since they held everyone up. Ouch! They ended up playing a few extra songs but the thing that really sucked for them was that they had to play without their second guitar player. Rumor has it he was at the show at one point but he never returned to play so they had to play without him. Note to Justin … please don’t ever do that! They pulled it off ok and I thought they sounded pretty good. Due to all of the delays a lot of people had taken off by the time we played so the crowd was down to about 25 or 30 people. The crowd size was a little disappointing but I think we all still had fun. Rumor has the low turnout was due to two factors, 1) a huge car show in Redding and 2) the fact it was 4/20 and people wanted to “party”. Speaking of which at exactly 4:20 on 4/20 we were in Weed, CA getting gas. Crazy huh? Anyway, back to the show, we played three songs and then just started taking requests for the rest of the show. It’s always cool when people know your songs. The drive back to Portland kind of sucked, but there was one memorable moment. At one point Justin asked Dave to hand him his coat and Dave handed him a box of doughnuts. You know you are driving way too late at night when you blur the line between clothing and junk food. Thanks to everyone who stuck around to see us play and extra thanks to Brent for busting out the ‘Clerks’ shirt!
Show Journal 2001-04-13
I’ll try to keep this brief but there was way too much to write about. First off the show was a benefit for a Richland skate park. Dusty’s, Atomic Records and the kids in town did an amazing job of promoting the show and it was huge! Well over 300 people were at the show which was totally cool compared to our usual Richland bar crowd of 40-50. The show was in the ballroom of the Red Lion hotel. It was a nice, big, swanky place with tables, chairs, chandeliers, etc. Not the typical setting for a punk rock show. The Creeps who I had never heard of before played first and absolutely rocked. They reminded us a lot of The Dwarves and the crowd went nuts for them. Yelling, dancing, circle pits and enough ozzy signs to last a lifetime. After that they raffled off some skate decks, cd’s, shirts, etc. Juba played second and got an ok reception. They were great musicians, but unless you are playing full speed it’s hard to follow an act like The Creeps. Anyway, a few more giveaways and then we finally got to play. I’ve got to say that on a scale of 1 to 10 this show was easily an 11. We had so much fun playing I couldn’t believe it. The crowd (which stuck around late) really seemed to dig it. People were mashed against the stage, dancing or standing on the stage, jumping off the stage and shouting along the whole time. Set highlights included Dave hitting Justin in the face with his bass, the guy with the prosthetic legs exclaiming “I almost broke my leg off” after a stage dive, and the random dudes taking their shirts off on stage and then dry humping each other in front of Justin. However the highlight of the evening (and perhaps my entire year) was when some kid climbed up on a chandelier in the middle of the floor and started to swing the whole thing back and forth. More impressive still this was smack dab in the center of the ballroom floor and hovering above a huge pit. It only lasted a few seconds before he got pulled down and kicked out but the memory will last a lifetime. The dude risked life and limb for punk rock. I was speechless. I thought our set felt great, we got to play extra songs and I think that was the most energetic we’ve ever been on stage. It’s hard not to be with such and enthusiastic crowd. About the skate park … the show pulled in $1400 for it! Thanks to everyone who came to the show, and especially everyone who passed out flyers and helped promote it. Also super big thanks to Dustin from Atomic Records for hooking us up on the place to stay and for just being the coolest guy around.
Show Journal 2001-04-07
Items of interest at tonight’s show. Very large crowd including lots of people that I work with. Justin managed to lose his shoe in a song. I nearly decapitated Dave with a guitar pick. We played two new songs, one went well, one didn’t go so well. People seemed to dig us and we signed lots of stuff, especially shirts. Dave and I left after our set to go see Dead Even at the Paris who rocked. We returned to catch Homegrown and they rocked too. After the show I accidentally packed up the RX Bandits bass drum. Oops. Those are the highlights. Thank you for reading.
Show Journal 2001-02-25
Kind of a low turnout tonight but I think the people who came got a pretty rad show. I missed Burnout’s set but I can only assume that they rocked. They usually do. Spare Lead was fun to watch and played pretty well. Their guest MC stole the show when he opened their set with his rendition of Rappers Delight. Good For Nothing was pretty darn cool as well. They sound way different and considerably better than last time we saw them. The only thing that sucks about them is that they make us feel old and slow. Oh wait, we are old and slow compared to them. Anyway, they kicked ass and their drummer rules. Our set was good and lots of fun for us to play. The coolest part of the night for us was the appearance of the 2 guys from Dead Even … again!!! They saw us in Bend on Friday, drove to Eugene to see us play on Saturday and then drove all the way up to Portland to see us tonight. Now, here’s the hardcore part … their car broke down about two miles from the club, so they ran to the club to catch our set. Did you hear that? They ran. Damn, that has got to be the coolest thing I’ve ever seen anyone do for us. Those guys rule! Don’t get me wrong, the girls who made us cookies are pretty high on the cool scale, but these guys broke their car for rock and roll. Thanks to Pine Street for putting on the show despite the low turnout. It’s a welcome change to see a club taking one for the local bands.
Show Journal 2001-02-24
Basement shows are always cramped, hot and incredibly loud. This one was no exception. Polar opposite from last night’s show, but still a lot of fun to play. Compact 56 rocks hard. Excuse me, they rock very, very, very hard.. Totally rad show by them. Our set was good but it went by pretty quick. Since it’s a house we were supposed to be done by 10:00, but since there were 3 bands before us we didn’t start until 9:45. We burned through a couple of songs as fast as we could and thankfully the owners of the house let us play an extra 15 minutes. We got to play a cover tonight (Astro Zombies) and also unveil a new song. Not too much else exciting to report on this show. Thanks to the owners of the Animal House for letting us play late and also thanks to the people who came all the way from Portland and Bend. Also, a special mention to the guy who saw us at Thee O back in ’97!
Latest Photos