Show Journal 2001-02-23
I would have never thought we could top the last Bend show. Last time there was a great lineup, tons of people there all in front of the stage and going off. Amazingly this was better. There were still three or four hundred people, except this time they were stage diving, cheering and doing the thing I love to see most, singing along with the words. That’s gotta be the best part of playing live, when people know the songs. The only thing that sucked was the kid who got knocked out cold on the stage monitors. We gave him a shirt though for taking a beating at our show. Aside from the bodily injury it was amazing, our set rocked, the crowd rocked and everything just rocked. Speaking of rock, the other bands were all great. I finally got to see most of Dead Even’s set and they rule. One Last Thing was great as usual (go buy their new cd) and Divit was very impressive as well. A lot of people started to leave while Divit was playing but it was their loss, those guys are rad. Again, super big thanks to Dead Even for setting up another amazing show and promoting the hell out of it. If you live in Bend and were at the show remember that you have those guys to thank for making it happen. Oh yeah, special shot out to Jamie and Tim from Thrust!
Show Journal 2001-02-18
Longview rocks. The people that come to the shows make it one of the coolest places to play in the Northwest! We got to play with the Secretions tonight which was cool since we played a week of shows with them last year. It was good to see Luckie Strike again and see that they are doing well after having all of their equipment and merchandise stolen! It’s always cool to see the Jimmies play, so no surprise there. Thanks to TJ for setting up yet another rad show.
Show Journal 2001-02-17
Tonight’s show was the show that almost was. All of us were completely stoked to finally be playing with Longshot. Unfortunately both of us had so many technical difficulties during our sets that it was hard for either of us to really get into the swing of things. Longshot had the power cut out on them, a bad guitar cord and a broken guitar strap. We also had a power failure, squealing microphones and inaudible vocals. It was a little under whelming for the “crowd” but I think most people still had a pretty good time. There were a few moments where you would forget about all the trouble and realize you were at a pretty good show. Those moments were few and far between but all in all it was still an ok show. Maybe next time things will run a little smoother. Special thanks to Longshot and the people who came back to see us again from the December show.
Show Journal 2001-02-15
It’s been a long time since we played a decent bar show. The last few shows were un-promoted and empty. Thankfully the lineup tonight was really good (and well publicized) so the turnout was pretty good … especially for a Thursday. The Muddy River Nightmare Band kind of got the shaft by having to play early and ended up playing to about 8 people. Quite a few more people lingered in for Lopez to whoop their asses. The place was really full by the time SK and the PAB took the stage. Those guys are so good they just make me feel like quitting. Even though we played last quite a few people stuck around which was cool to see. The highlight of the show for me was about half way through our set when Justin stepped up to the microphone, pulled a pancake out of his pocket and proceeded to wipe the sweat off his face with it. Yes, in case you thought you misread that I did say a pancake. Why was a pancake in his pocket? I don’t know. Why did he decide to rub it on his face? Again, I don’t know. But, yes, it was a pancake. Anyway, after soiling his breakfast treat with sweat he tossed it into the crowd and said “this is for you baby”. It turns out it landed at his sisters feet and Dave was quick to point out to everyone in the crowd that Justin had just referred to his sister as “baby”. Creepy. Thanks to the other bands who played and everyone who stuck around late. No thanks to The Satyricon for not paying any of the bands and not letting Lisa in.
Show Journal 2001-02-10
What a cool party. Too bad it got busted by the cops after only four of our songs.
Show Journal 2001-01-13
Another cool Pine Street balcony show for the records. Nothing too spectacular happened this evening that is worthy of reporting. Just a good solid show with a pretty energetic crowd who seemed to dig us. No complaints here. Gotta make a special mention of the Diablotones for totally amusing us and being fun to hang out with. The whole naked singer thing was kind of pushing it, but we’ll forgive them. Oh yeah, thanks to the girls who made us 800 ball cookies!!!
Show Journal 2001-01-12
Holy crap, what a rad show! We arrived late and walked in the door only to find about 350 kids absolutely going off to No Excuse. It’s so cool to see so many people going crazy for smaller local bands. That doesn’t happen it too many towns and I always think it’s so cool when a small town like Bend has a good music scene. So anyway, we’re walking in and No Excuse announces they are playing their last song. We ended up setting up right away and were on stage in a few minutes. Our set was amazing … definitely one of the best we’ve ever played. There were so many people with so much energy, it was great. People were just mashed against the stage shouting along with the words they already knew or could figure out. Stage diving, circle pitting, knocking stuff over, you name it. I am actually kind of surprised we lived through the set though. The entire right hand side of the stage was made of 3 sheets of dry wall with carpet on top. I jumped up during the second song, came down and sank about a foot down into the carpet. After the song we looked under the carpet and sure enough I put a 3 foot wide hole in the stage. By the end of our set the entire right hand side of the was broken through and I was playing on a suspended piece of carpet dangling over the floor. It was like playing on one of those moonwalk things. The drum riser was also a spectacle of modern engineering. It was a wide flat piece of wood with supports in the middle, meaning that it wobbles and leans when you get near the edges. In a practical sense that means if any of us stand on the drum riser for more than a few seconds you can spill the entire drum set onto the floor. We has 3 close calls tonight, including one where the drum set lurched forward, tapped Dave in the back and fell back into place. Justin had some stage issues tonight and ended up toppling over onto the ground after tripping on a monitor. Of course his side of the stage was solid and functional, he’s just extraordinarily clumsy. All the broken stuff just made the show that much better and seriously it was one of the most fun shows we’ve ever had. After us the Secludes came up and showed Bend what’s up. They got the same energy as us and the first band and I think they probably had as much fun as we did. After that we packed up and drove through the blizzard like conditions and unplowed roads on Mt. Hood to get home. Super big thanks to No Excuse for setting up the show, the hall, the stage and the PA … it’s hard not to have a good music scene with people like that setting up shows.
Show Journal 2000-12-16
Back to the Rat Skellar after nearly 2 years. Unlike our last visit there was actually a crowd tonight. A pretty rowdy one at that judging by all the fights. The show was cool, we got to hang out with Greasecutter and Burnout again. Shows are always so much more memorable when you like the people in the other bands. Our set was ok, no projectiles this time and minimal beer spitting. In the course of our last 2 songs Justin managed to break a string on both of his guitars (!) and lose his guitar strap not once but twice. I find it amazing how many ways one can mess up a guitar on stage. It was kind of fun watching Justin play the rest of the set completely motionless in fear that something else would break. One strange moment this evening was when Greasecutter’s singer insisted that someone other than Dave play bass on a song. Rather than offering Dave’s bass to the increasingly drunk crowd Justin volunteered to play bass on the song so we played ‘Radio’ with one guitar, Justin on bass and Dave singing. Pretty strange. Loading out in the snow and putting chains on the van was kind of a drag but what do you expect when you play on top of a mountain?
Show Journal 2000-12-08
Wow, after a year and a half we finally made it back to Seattle. I guess it was worth the wait since this was probably our best show at Gibson’s to date. The crowd was 1) present which is sometimes not the case at Gibson’s and 2) very receptive to our music. The only downer for the evening was that our set get cut to 25 minutes which kinda sucks since we drove 3 1/2 hours to get there. Still it wasn’t too big a deal given the good atmosphere. Also, it was cool to see the Jimmies again. Of course next time Justin offers to buy them a pitcher of beer, he should check the prices first! Thanks to all of friends who ventured out in the cold to see us.
Show Journal 2000-12-07
Dammit … this is two shows in a row with absolutely no promotion from the club. We had this show booked 2 months ago and they didn’t run one single ad in the paper. The promoter is a nice enough guy (and a good guitar player) but he’s gotta be one of the most absent minded promoters in town. Since there were no ads, no flyers and the headlining band cancelled yesterday I guess it’s no surprise that only 5 people came out tonight. After the first band started the bartender actually asked if we wanted to go home instead of playing? Shouldn’t he have asked us this before we loaded in? I can think of a dozen things I’d rather do than move 500 pounds of crap up and down a set of stairs in 30 degree weather. Despite the typical Tonic Lounge bullshit the show was ok. I thought we were pretty tight until Justin broke a string and then proceeded to break the world’s record for seeing how many times you can say ‘fuck’ in a 5 minute period. Eventually we got back on track and finished off the set without incident. In fact our set was topped off by Jim’s harmonica rendition of “I’ve got the 5 people came to our show blues.” Seriously though, thanks to the 5 of you who did stick around and also thanks to the Tonic for finally spelling our name correctly on the marquee.
Latest Photos