Show Journal 2000-09-01
Day 15 – Thanks to the person who’s house we stayed at (who’s name is escaping me). Also Justin thanks you for the hockey stick. We woke up to find that the SDS girls had written “I Love 800 Octane” on some maxi pads and attached them to the back of the van. We spent most of the morning contemplating revenge. The silliest idea was to cut open fish and attach them to their windshield wipers. It’s not destructive but it certainly would get a “what the hell” kind of reaction. Today is my favorite drive in the country, Denver to Salt Lake City. Awesome views and I especially love Glenwood Cavern. It’s sooo cool. Since there are tons of mountains and we both are driving heavy vehicles both bands agreed to meet at the first rest stop in Utah if we got split up. We did get spilt up and met them there a few hours later. When we met them they told us they were almost out of gas and had been running on empty for about 30 minutes. The next stop was 40 miles away so we drove behind them and waited for the inevitable. By some stroke of luck, it never happened and we managed to get to a gas station without incident. At one rest stop the SDS kids were assaulted by El Santo, aka – the condiment demon. El Santo has many shapes and sizes and throws many varieties of food, yet the familiar mask and feeling of terror are always the same. Later in the day they retaliated by putting jelly in the van’s door handles. (Later in the evening we discovered that the jelly was put there by Justin … do we have a traitor among us?) Unlike our last visit to Salt Lake City, this one rocked. Burt’s Tiki Lounge was a way cool place. SDS had a difficult night because of the hecklers and people who insisted on buying them shots. I guess being an all girl band they get a lot of that. They sounded a little tougher than the previous nights probably because of the atmosphere. People noticed that they played good and they sold a ton of stuff. We broke strings on 3 of our 4 guitars and Justin broke the bridge on the 4th one. That’s normally not too big a deal but this was all in the first 4 songs. Dave told some Mormon jokes while we got new strings and we finally got our stuff together and played what felt like a great set. I think we always play best when we are agitated about something. One guy told us that was the best show he’s ever seen at the Tiki Lounge. Cool. Thunderfist played after us a laid down the rock like they promised to. I though they played well but their singer said “we must sound like toy machines compared to the sonic maelstrom of 800 Octane.” Sweet. It was good to see Erik again and his new band. Hopefully they will make it to Portland sometime soon (hint-hint)! Thanks again the Erik for setting up and show and the place to stay. Sorry for pissing off your roommates!
Show Journal 2000-08-31
Day 14 – This morning was good. The campsite only charged us $10 since we were only there for a few hours. I had a shower this morning and ate the best breakfast burrito I can remember. The band vehicle food wars have begun. It started with our van throwing donuts at their truck. They retaliated with half chewed gummy worms. The van came back firing with coffee creamers. Then the 3 girls came up with the greatest vehicle projectile I have ever heard of. They got a tampon, soaked it in Gatorade and chucked it at the van. It landed square across the windshield much to the dismay of everyone riding in it. Set, point, match. Can anyone top a discolored tampon on your windshield? I don’t think so. We stopped at the ‘Garden Of The Gods’ which is a national park outside of Colorado Springs with a bunch of cool rock formations. I wandered off for a while to take pictures and kept everyone waiting for 30 minutes. Sorry. Since there are two cars and two bands we’ve been switching vehicles and people around frequently. We’ve also noticed that having a female in the car minimizes the frequency of humor based on bodily functions. This holds true unless you are Dave and then you just don’t care about who you are with. Before the show we went out to a restaurant which according to a guy at the club was only “a few block away.” It ended up being almost 20 blocks away and about 2 blocks into it, it started to pour rain on us. Thunder, lightning, downpour. It sucked. We thought Lisa’s spleen broke near the 14th block. We still had time to kill and just hung around the club. At one point before the show Dave went into a porn shop and accidentally made eye contact with two girls who were out dildo shopping. Rather than looking embarrassed or turning away he gave them a big smile and nodded approvingly. How creepy is that? We now refer to it as ‘the porno shop smile’. He doesn’t approve of that. The show tonight was weak. No flyers and no local bands, both of which we were promised to us by the promoter. Who the hell goes to a club known for bands on a Thursday night if there aren’t any bands listed? Apparently in Denver the answer to this question is 12 people. Some were drunks with mullets and the other half were regulars from other local bands. Both groups seemed to dig it and even the ‘Boozehag’ approved. The club was weird, you play right behind the bar and everyone watches from bar stools about 20 feet away. Same Day Service sounded pretty good and was fun to watch. We played ok. Justin played most of one song walking down the bar frightening the patrons. Outside the club we met another drunk who claims to drink his dinner (see day 1). Tonight we stayed with a friend of a friend of Justin’s. The following items were within 5 feet of me during the night … a bag of old swimsuits, a bag of dog food, a cat’s litter box, a panty liner, a bowl with broken glass in in and an ironing board with iron balanced on it. Ironically it was the best night of sleep yet on the tour. Probably because I was terrified of what would happen if I rolled over.
Show Journal 2000-08-30
Day 13 – Today was more hanging out in Norman. We watched some skate videos and eventually left for Denver. We got a late start because Lisa from Same Day Service had to visit the doctor only to learn that she might have a bad spleen. How tough is that? Risking your health to go on tour! We’re impressed with Lisa’s desire to play but don’t buy into that “no heavy lifting” thing one bit. It’s still very hot and Nintendo passes the time. We camped out in an RV park somewhere in New Mexico. After two weeks of not shaving Dave now looks like a redneck
Show Journal 2000-08-29
Day 12 – Today we hung out in Norman. The show tonight was on the University of Oklahoma campus on top of a parking garage. We passed out almost 700 handbills during the day to promote the show. Maybe it was the heat or the excitement of being in Norman (ha-ha) but Justin was ruthless with them. He chased down bikers, hid in trees, sat in the middle of crowded walkways and got in just about everyone’s face and told them to go the show. The highlight was when he chased down a bike and stuffed a flyer in his backpack. Man, it was damn hot today. The show tonight was kind of odd. We played on the top deck of a four story parking garage. It’s kinda cool because you are under the stars and the garage is sloped so everyone can see. It’s weird though because the sound on stage is bad and since it’s free people come and go while you are playing. We finally got to see Same Day Service play which is good since we’ll be spending the next 5 days with them. They rock and everyone in Norman knows it. I wish we didn’t have to follow them. Our set was kind of sloppy but still kind of fun. During the last song Justin jumped from the ledge of the garage (remember, it’s 4 stories) and just about scared the hell out of me. I told him he was an idiot for doing it, but secretly I was very impressed. Mike finally got to see us play after 2 years of waiting. He said he liked it which was cool but really seemed to liven up when we re-introduced him to Dave’s impression of the World’s Tallest Woman. Oh, by the way we still want to say fuck you to Music Dimensions to the last two years of cancellations.
Show Journal 2000-08-28
Day 11 – The night in the truck stop was pretty rough. It was way too hot and very uncomfortable. This probably had to do with the fact that Justin kept kicking me in my sleep. More about Justin. Justin eats a lot of junk food. Every stop we make he comes back to the van with a large bag of food and drinks. Amazing. I get fat just watching him eat. Chips, drinks, candy and he still weighs 145 lbs. We stopped in Memphis today to eat grilled peanut butter and banana sandwiches at Graceland. After a few souvenirs and a few photos in front of The King’s house we pressed on. We finally saw a Love’s truck stop which was the home of our favorite beef jerky from last year. The jerky sucks now and tastes bad. I am no longer a fan. We brought along our Nintendo 64 this year and 3 of the 4 of us are hooked on the game Rogue Squadron. We still suck at it though. It was brutally hot today. Due to the extreme heat we ended up blowing out a tire in the middle of Arkansas. I’m just glad it was the back tire and not the front! We did had a full size spare with us but our jack had broken the week before tour so we were kinda screwed because we couldn’t jack the van up. Amazingly we could get a cell phone signal and managed to call for a repair truck. We waited about an hour outside in the 105 heat. Leo’s towing service got us back on the road and we thank them for it. We stopped at a WalMart and got a new tire since the spare we have isn’t rated for heavy loads. We probably should have gotten a jack but we didn’t think of it at the time. The bad news was the tire change took almost 2 hours. WalMart time is slow time. I walked laps through the building out of sheer boredom. After the tire change we were back on the road. Once we were moving again we all cheered up a bit. I tell you nothing brightens our spirits like picking on one another. Jim missed a turn, well actually several turns and ended up taking us on a 30 minute detour through Little Rock. We ridiculed him for well over an hour. After the torment subsided we stopped at a Taco Bell and on the way out Jim missed the turn onto the interstate. That mistake cost him another hour of poor driving jokes. I think it’s karma since he had been picking on Justin’s driving skills the night before. We made it into Norman late that night and stayed with the girls from Same Day Service. I think we started off on the wrong foot with them because when they went to bed we started watching our video tapes from the road. We were laughing so hard, actually I was laughing so hard I kept them up all night laughing at all the dumb stuff we filmed.
Show Journal 2000-08-27
Day 10 – This morning we listened to ‘Get In The Van’ by Henry Rollins again for inspiration. It’s starting to get really hot and I miss the 80 degree Oregon summers. The show tonight was weird. We got stuck playing after several bands, one of which was a Christian hardcore band. During the other bands we met a girl named Emily who actually lives in Portland and had seen us play the week before we left. A lot of people left before we played but seemed to wander back in towards the end of the set. Strange. The sound tonight really sucked ass. Constant loud feedback the whole show. I pity the people who didn’t have ear plugs. The guy who put on the show was pretty cool to hang out with before the show but ended up fucking us on the money when we were done. He claims to have “already paid someone in your band” and kept asking “are you sure you didn’t get any money.” Yeah whatever. Hello, we’re 3000 miles from home. I don’t know if he was serious or not and we were so pissed we just didn’t really care. We did sell one CD that night so we at least got $10. Despite the whole money issue I still want to thank him for setting up the show tonight. We pressed on past Nashville during the night and slept in another truck stop.
Show Journal 2000-08-26
Day 9 – Back to Boone again. I’m surprised we made it there because Justin later confessed his hands kept slipping off the steering wheel when he was driving because he was so sleepy. Boone was weird. It’s been two years since we’ve played there and 4 years since we lived there. Needless to say no one really knows us anymore. We are just another out of town band playing there. That’s ok because it’s starting to feel like just another town on tour. It was really strange being there without Bryan. It was odd introducing Jim and Justin to everyone. I wonder if it was weird for them? Today was my birthday and we went out to eat at my favorite restaurant called Makoto’s. I really don’t feel 27. Anyway, we met a guy at the record store who asked us if we were 800 Octane. We said yes, and he told us we were the first show he ever saw. Pretty cool feeling. The show was ok. The place is kinda crappy compared to the Fireside and 7th Street complete with bad sound, terrible lighting and a bathroom located behind the drums. Playing with and hanging out with the Karloffs and Agent Ink made it all worthwhile despite the blank stares from the crowd. I wish we had more time to hang out, but I’ll take a few hours with my friends any day. Thanks to Heather and Jake for making the pilgrimage to see us. Thanks to Rob for the quick visit as well. Also I guess I should thank Matt for the place to stay. It was good seeing him again after all this time.
Show Journal 2000-08-25
Day 8 – Our show tonight got cancelled but I really didn’t care. We got laundry done, got an oil change for the van, ate real food and watched Top Secret with Dave’s mom. We finally got some clear skies today but it wasn’t very warm. At one point I got to take a nap outside by the pool. It was a good day.
Show Journal 2000-08-24
Day 7 – I used a trucker shower this morning. It was nice but I just couldn’t bring myself to take off my shoes. Justin was the smart one for purchasing some Baywatch brand flip flops. Since we had the day off and time to kill we went to Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio. As I write this Cedar Point currently has the worlds tallest and fastest roller coaster. It’s called the Millennium Force and it rages. It has a 310 ft drop and goes 90mph. Amen. It was such a good day. I totally forgot we were on tour, it was just us hanging out with friends and having a blast. After riding every roller coaster in the park we ended up stopping at the world’s slowest Steak and Shake. Still tasty as ever though. Just so you know, the road construction in Pennsylvania sucks because it lasts for 200 miles. On the drive we bastardized the Bob Marley song ‘we jammin’ into ‘pa jamas.’ I won’t elaborate right now but it was very funny at the time. We stayed at Dave’s mom’s house tonight in real beds.
Show Journal 2000-08-23
Day 6 – Back to my old hometown … Chicago. We got to play at the Fireside Bowl which was cool since I had actually seen a show there before. The bad news was we were second of eight bands. Yes, eight bands. That part kinda sucked. Thankfully quite a few people were around to watch our abbreviated set. The quote of the night was when Dave announced “you can come closer to the stage … I may be fat but I’m not going to eat you.” Not very classy but it actually worked. A few kids sheepishly walked up to the front and seemed to be relieved that the large bearded man was in fact not hungry. Justin continued his quest to jump off every stage clearing the 3 foot drop and the huge monitors at the club. After our set we packed up and drove downtown the eat pizza at Gino’s East. Mmmm. Justin and Jim stopped at Hooters to get shirts and stickers. Apparently some pictures were taken. After taking the scenic route through “the asshole of Chicago” (and also by way of lower Wacker Drive) we drove onto Ohio. One of the highlights tonight was misplacing the tap light and searching for it by pressing on everything. The van passed 100,000 miles tonight. I can actually remember when it passed 20,000. Another truck stop night. Jim shared with us his desire to attend a trucker only strip show where you put dollars in their beards. Jim also taught us the noise Justin would make if a trucker came and violated him in the night.
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