Show Journal 2000-11-29
Fuck the Paris Theater. We’ve played at the Paris several times over the last few years and it always sucks. We’ve never gotten paid whether it’s 2 people or 200. Local shows sometimes cost $8 on a weeknight and we have never seen a dime. Water costs too much, the sound always sucks and the employees are usually assholes. Fuck the Paris Theater. Despite getting dicked around on a regular basis tonight’s show was the final straw. The Teen Idols are the biggest band to play at the Paris in a few months and there were no flyers, no ads, no promotion and they weren’t even listed on the huge marquee out front of the club. Fuck the Paris Theater. The sound usually sucks at the Paris but tonight it was particularly bad. It started bad and with 5 bands in all it progressively got worse throughout the evening. Squealing mics, shitty monitors, ringing drums, it all kinda sucked. By the time we played the soundguy asked us to turn up our amps because he didn’t have enough mics for 2 guitar amps. How weak is that? So the sound had gone from bad to worse and finally here comes the Teen Idols who I had been looking forward to seeing for several months. They have 3 singers so needless to say vocals are pretty important to them. During the first song 2 of the 3 vocal mics went out. They tried to swap the bad mics around and try another song. That song went ok except this time the “working” microphone stopped working. They made a few jokes about the situation, probably hoping that the soundguy would remove his head from his ass and try to help, but to no avail. They tried to stumble through another song and this time had absolutely no vocals what so ever and had to stop in mid song. Now there were zero working vocal mics. By this point the band was visibly pissed. They asked the sound guy for some more mics or cords and no shit the guy says “can you play with out them?” The band then brought up the rather obvious fact that a club with live music should probably have working microphones and extra cords. Now this is classic, the soundguy says “well you can play without them or you can not play at all.” Fuck the Paris Theater. Realizing there was no other option the band just put down their stuff at this point and gave up. I don’t blame them. Some people were kinda pissed since they did pay $8 and sit through 4 bands only to endure an abbreviated 10 minute set with no vocals. The bass player and singer for the Teen Idols started telling the people in the audience (which was only 30-40 people since there were no god damn flyers) to ask for their money back. As soon as the first person actually asked for their money back the Paris staff immediately went into asshole mode and started forcibly throwing people out. They yelled and screamed at everyone (including us) and they ended up calling the cops. I’m not exaggerating, 6 police cars showed up out front of the club and were ready to kick people out! Fuck the Paris Theater. People who paid for the show and wanted money back tried to explain the story to the police but it was a lost cause. What can they do? I was hoping they could at least serve up an NYPD broom stick reaming for Hugo who manages the Paris. So as it turns out no one go their money back and worse yet, none of the bands got paid. It was no surprise for us (since they haven’t paid us in 4 years) but the Gamits and the Teen Idols are on tour and had a signed contract! Conveniently the owner (and contract signer) was absent tonight. Fuck the Paris Theater. The Teen Idols and Gamits were pretty cool about the whole situation after the show, but as a third party I just have to say how much that sucks. The Paris is the worst club I’ve ever seen. It’s the only club I’ve seen which doesn’t promote, doesn’t advertise, doesn’t pay bands, doesn’t honor contracts, overcharges at the door, and just basically just doesn’t give a fuck about anything. The best observation of the evening was the bass player for Teen Idols mentioning that “they have overpriced water and ice cream for sale but no working microphones.” Fuck the Paris Theater. Oddly enough I feel embarrassed by the show. A handful of die hard Teen Idols fans showed up and paid $8 only to see a 4 botched songs with no vocals and then watch them get pissed at our hometown. It’s really frustrating to see a band you look up to get screwed like that. It sucks for the bands and it also sucks for the people who came to see a show on a Wednesday night and have to endure all that crap. To sum up I guess I just want to say Fuck the Paris Theater.
Show Journal 2000-11-17
Oh man what a killer show. I gotta say up front that I was totally impressed with Guttermouth. I had seen them once before and they were cool, but good grief they rocked tonight. I’ve never seen so many people stage dive for a band. At any given time there was anywhere from 1 to 5 people on the stage dancing around or jumping. Some guy even puked on stage. Punk rock. Even without playing this was a pretty rad show. Our set went over pretty well. We played a little sloppy but we were way more energetic than usual. Even Dave got into the act by jumping off the drum riser. Of course Justin had to one up him and jump off Jim’s bass drum. One really cool thing was seeing people singing our songs. One real cool moment was seeing the guys from My Goldfish Ned in front of the stage shouting along all the words to our songs. What a cool feeling. I should mention that 98 Mute was really tight and really impressed me, but again I’ve got to say that Guttermouth just laid down the rock. One surprising thing was that they were amazingly polite tonight. Well, at one point the singer asked people to beat up some poor guy with long hair, but other than that they were fairly subdued. However, as I write this the rest of my band are out drinking at a strip club with the guys from Guttermouth so I’m curious to hear what stories they have to tell. Thanks again to every one who came out early and have been supportive of us!
Show Journal 2000-11-03
So this is probably going to be our last show at EJ’s ever since it’s supposed to close next month. Bummer. So how was the final show for us? Average at best. We had a few problems at the beginning of the set including a broken string and a guitar amp that stopped producing sound. Because of that I think we came across as a little irritated on stage tonight. I’m not sure but I think that made it a little unentertaining for the crowd. It’s too bad because it felt like a really energetic set (I always think we play better when we are a little pissed off) but still a few songs ended in complete silence from the crowd. Like I always say, a bad show at EJ’s is still a good show. Anyway, thanks to everyone who stayed up late and also a shout out to The Regulars.
Show Journal 2000-10-21
Three weeks ago we played to 1000 people and tonight we played to 30. Back to reality for 800 Octane. I guess on paper it was a good show. We played pretty well despite the fact that half of us are sick. One interesting event worth mentioning is that we got an official noise complaint from the neighbors who live around the club during our set. The Tonic has bands every weekend of the year and we were the first one to get a complaint this year. As Dave always says “if you can’t play good, play loud.” Part of me thinks the noise complaint is kind of cool in a real punk rock sort of way but part of me wishes someone would tell us when we are playing too loud. We can’t ever tell because we all wear ear plugs. Well, all of us except for Dave. In fact, way back in the day Bryan and I used to have a running bet about when Dave will actually be deaf. If my guess holds true he’s only got 3 years left.
Show Journal 2000-10-06
In the 6 years we’ve been a band I always go to big shows and wonder what it would be like to play on a huge stage with some huge touring band. How would it go? Would the crowd like us? Would we sound good? Would we be nervous? It’s always seemed like we were just one step away from being up there. In the beginning I just assumed we weren’t good enough to play the big shows. Then for a while there I started to think we deserved to be up there. After enough years of hollow talk and empty promises it started to feel like these bands are on a different level and we just aren’t good enough. By some strange twist of fate we finally got a chance to prove otherwise. We managed to get a slot on a sold out show at the Pine Street Theater opening up for Face to Face and Saves the Day. Needless to say we’ve all been pretty damn excited about the whole thing. That’s close to 1000 people on what’s probably one of the bigger punk shows of the year in Portland. So how was the show? After all the years of watching, waiting and wishing I’ve got say it was everything I hoped it would be and more. There must have been something in the air tonight because we actually had a pit going by the second song which is almost unheard of for an opening band in Portland. From there it was just like I hoped it would be … people liked the songs, they moved, they danced , they cheered, and the other bands seemed to dig it as well. We even had our first official stage diver tonight! The best part of tonight for me was when we finished our set and everyone kept cheering and yelling our name. It was the first time I honestly felt that all those crappy nights of long drives, no fans, no money and people looking to screw you over was all worth it. If we hadn’t played so many crappy shows I could never have appreciated that moment so much. What’s funny is that I’m talking like we just conquered the world. In reality it’s probably back to our usual circuit for who knows how long again. Still though, for one night all of the arguments, headaches, miles and sleepless nights were all worth it.
Show Journal 2000-10-01
Back to Longview again. You drive 30 miles and get 10 times the crowd. Go figure. Real good show tonight. We finally got to play with The Eyeliners which was totally cool. We’ve seen them several times and crossed paths in the past so it was nice to finally be on the same bill. The whole show was pretty cool but I think The Jimmies impressed us the most tonight. Could their drummer rock any more? People really seemed to dig us again tonight which is always encouraging. A couple of people said they saw us last month and wanted to see us again! We got to sign a bunch of stuff and even a few body parts. (Ok just some arms, but that body part thing sounds way more exciting) Thanks to TJ for setting up the show and thanks to the Longview music scene … again. Oh yeah, joke of the night … the singer for The Jimmies (who is a Longview native) offered the commentary “Longview is a great place to come for the terminally ill … every day here lasts a freaking eternity.”
Show Journal 2000-09-30
Interesting story … the show tonight was put on by Emily who was a girl we actually met on tour in Chattanooga of all places. At the time she introduced herself to us and said that she had seen us play in Portland before. She also said that she was going to have a big party with a few bands and wanted us to play. We were thinking “yeah, whatever” but a few days ago she actually called us and asked us. Pretty cool. It’s been ages since we played a party so I was kind of nervous about it. I think the last one was that god awful new years 1998 party. Usually parties have bad sound, too many drunks and you never get paid for your effort. Oh … wait a minute. Anyway, the party was totally cool. It was nice to see and hang out with the Burning Cindy’s again. I wish more people would have watched them. Our set went pretty well and everyone seemed really into it despite the cramped space and incredibly loud room. There’s always a special place in my heart for nights when you see a pit break out in a living room. We got to play encores tonight which was really cool. I think we played 5 more songs than our set list had. A few people came up afterwards and said it was the best show they have ever seen at a party. They probably just don’t get out much but we’ll take it as a compliment. Thanks to Emily for the chance to play, thanks to Pete and Paul for coming out and thanks to the drunk guy who “sang” backup vocals for the last 10 or so songs.
Show Journal 2000-09-16
First things first … tonight’s show wasn’t really a “local punk showcase” as advertised. In fact it was actually a contest between 6 local bands to see who gets to open up for Good Riddance next month. I’m not knocking contests or anything but I think this one was total bullshit. First off you weren’t actually judged by how well you played you were judged by how many people you brought in. At least one of the bands tonight brought in half of their high school class so no matter how well we or the other 4 bands played we all had already lost the “contest” before anyone even played. The other thing that sucks is that the Pine Street Theater usually has between 5 – 10 good punk shows a month. Shouldn’t all 6 of us get a chance to play there at some point? Anyone who knows Portland knows that probably won’t happen. In fact I can probably list off about 30 – 40 really good bands in Portland that deserve a chance to play there. They always argue that we “don’t have enough of a draw.” If you gave some of these bands a good slot on a big show and I’ll bet we would all have a draw in no time. Anyway, politics aside the show was actually pretty fun. The band changes were all pretty quick and it certainly didn’t feel like 6 bands which was nice. We finally got the see Looking for Link who gave us a tape back in ’97 and has been eluding us since. Also we got to see Thirty-3 who practices down the hall from us and totally rocks. The Deadlines were the big surprise for me. Imagine the Misfits and the Murder City Devils complete with fire and blood. Somehow we ended up playing after them but I think we held our own. By the time we played all the high school friends of the other bands were long gone so from what I could tell every one still there was really into us or really into seeing a new band. In fact we even had a few guys who saw us with All come out and hang out the whole night just to see us play. I think we caught a few people off guard with the new and improved version of our show which evolved on tour. Most of the people who had seen us before weren’t used to seeing us jump around so much and seemed impressed which was cool. I like it when we get compliments for things that come naturally. Anyway the show was fun and I want to thank everyone who stayed the whole show (4 hours!). I still think the contest thing was total crap but it was still a fun night.
Show Journal 2000-09-03
Day 17 – Well, as much as I hate to see it coming it’s the last drive of the tour. This morning we had to say our goodbyes to Same Day Service and wish them good luck. They are playing one more show in Boulder on the way home I wish we could be there to see them play. Hopefully we will see them again soon. As a parting gesture Dave left a few more stink bombs in their trailer. Best wishes to Maggie, Sarah, Naomi, Lisa and her spleen. They are a really good band and worth a listen to. I wish we could play all our shows with them but they would get sick of us soon enough. The drive home was pretty uneventful. Lots of laughing and reminiscing. I guess to wrap it up the cool thing about tour this year was how smooth it went and how fun it was. Most of the shows went good, we played great, we got gas money at almost every show and managed to laugh pretty much non-stop for the whole trip. In the end the painometer finished a little over 7000 miles. Can’t wait until next year.
Show Journal 2000-09-02
Day 16 – I realized this morning I am out of boxer shorts and socks. I confessed this to Dave and he confessed to having the exact same problem. We found it particularly odd that we were both out of boxers and socks so we decided that either the girls are up to something or Jim is stealing them for himself and befouling them with his odor. We ate breakfast at Denny’s and went to K-Mart so Dave and I could pick up some new boxers. Going commando without a shower is a very, very bad feeling so thank goodness for the blue light special. Oh yeah, I saw a 300 pound version of myself in Denny’s today. Everyone laughed because the person looked exactly like me in the face. I was not amused and just found it to be really creepy. It was cold today and mostly overcast. We drove through a very ominous looking storm in Idaho which made you feel like the sky was caving in on you. Dave put a stink bomb in the SDS truck which was absolutely hysterical. We watched in horror as Lisa chased Dave around the parking lot hitting and kicking him yelling “I hate you Dave.” Tonight in Boise we went downtown to eat and we met two people on the street who had seen us play with All last month in Portland. Weird. It feels like the tour is just getting started and here it is the last show of the tour. Same Day Service sounded great tonight. They sounded pretty aggressive and played really tight. So tight in fact that at one point we thought it killed Lisa. We played with Napkin who was from Portland. We had never seen or heard of them before but we knew a lot of the same people … very strange. Thanks to Keith for hooking us up with the show … again. Keith is the man. That’s the 5th time he has totally set us up with a show and crowd. Amen. Since it was the last night of the tour we all splurged and got hotel rooms. No broken TV’s, no holes kicked in the wall and no mud sharks. Just a quiet evening with SDS and 800 Octane (aka – the world’s most boring band).
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