Show Journal 1999-05-04
Our legacy of opening for international bands continues. First we played with a band from Japan, then a few months later Canada and tonight we opened for a band from Australia. I guess it’s our smooth continental sound. Eddie Would Go was the Australian band in question and they totally made it a fun evening. They were funny, their songs were catchy, and they were just plain old cool to hang out with. We wish them the best of luck on the rest of their tour. Our set went down pretty well too. The doggfather said it was “amazing.” I wouldn’t go that far, but if Nate likes it then it had to been OK. One really cool thing that kind of surprised me was that we got an encore. Everyone wanted to hear us play ‘Radio.’ That means people have actually been listening to our CD, and better yet they actually knew it well enough to realize it was about hanging out at EJ’s. It was a pretty cool feeling to know that people pay attention to what you are doing.
Show Journal 1999-04-23
Zak’s Fifth Avenue again after only 144 hours. Here’s an interesting twist … when we walked in the sign said tonight … “Metal Night.” How we wound up playing on metal night I’ll never know. Anyway the show went pretty good, and we tried our best to give the metal fans a chance to throw up the ozzy sign and cheer for satan. We had to bail early and missed the other two bands but they both seemed like nice enough people, so I’m sure they did ok. Seeing as they were actually metal they couldn’t have gone wrong.
Show Journal 1999-04-17
Thank God that Seattle was a better show than tri-cities. Once again we played with the duo of Ample and Section One. Just like the last times they both still rock. Speaking of rock this was our first return to Zak’s since our big Seattle debut there last year at Hemp Fest. Finally that image can be wiped clean from my memory. Anyway, the show tonight went really well. The sound was good, we played well, blah blah blah. Best of all though, Bryan was able to play despite slicing off almost an inch of his finger the day before at work. Perhaps it was the mysterious powers of the Wing Dome which propelled him to such greatness. Hopefully some of the people will come back when we play there again in 6 more days.
Show Journal 1999-04-16
Ok, it’s time for some Jeopardy. The category is “Boring Shows in Small Towns.” For $200 dollars … “The number of people including the owner and soundguy at the last 800 Octane show.” I’m sorry your guess is too high … the correct answer is “What is 8.” You win nothing … thanks for playing punk rock Jeopardy.
Show Journal 1999-04-10
Good points about tonight’s show … The Watts, FSU and the fog machine positioned between my legs. Everything else sucked.
Show Journal 1999-03-26
Tonight’s show was a whirlwind of lameness. We arrived at 9:15, watched the other band finish up, set up, played and were done and packing up by 9:55. Including the owner and other band there was about 15 people there in all. They were all there to see Shallow, who is as far from punk as you can get, so I wasn’t surprised when they quickly shuffled out the door during our set. One guy actually stood up for about two songs, but he sat down, taking our last shred of enjoyment with him. On a more positive note, Shallow (from Kansas) were pretty good and fun to hang out with. I wish we had shown up earlier to see more of their set.
Show Journal 1999-03-18
Well as much as I hated to see it happen, it finally arrived, Bomf!’s last show. If you haven’t heard me rant and rave about them before, hands down, Bomf! is one of the best bands I’ve ever seen. All of their songs totally rock and more importantly they are by far some of the coolest people you will ever meet. We first met them back in July of 1997 and since then, I can count the number of local Bomf! shows I’ve missed on one hand. They play their music in a way unlike anyone else … they are aggressive enough to make you want to go out and break things, but at the same time you want to stand along side your friends and shout out every chorus along with them. We’ve been fortunate enough to spend a lot of time with them over the past two years, and we will miss them. It’s not like they are dropping of the face of the earth, I know we’ll still be in touch, but mostly I am going to miss their music and their shows. Thank you Bomf! for showing us what it’s all about.
Show Journal 1999-03-05
The Rat Skellar is a little club up on Mt. Hood. All the times we had been up there we didn’t even know it existed. Pretty cool little place with good pizza. Our set was ok … not too many people there but the soundguy seemed to like it. Afterwards he came up and said “man that was … uhh … loud.” I guess that’s compliment. The Secludes set was a little more interesting. They had their own cheering section in the corner of the bar that threw beer cans, made spitballs and yelled at them the whole set. Despite the occasional wayward projectile it was a really fun show.
Show Journal 1999-02-27
Today we drove through the rain and snow (literally) to Boise to play at Keith’s Basement, which exactly as the name implies … is a basement. Why would we drive that far for a house show? The last time we were there was on our tour and it was a blast and we had been itching to return. It’s funny because everyone there think the Boise scene is lame, but for us it’s a welcome change. People just cram themselves into this little basement and watch each and every band, local or out of town. Not to mention a lot of people show up. It was cool to see SFL again … we played with them last time through. Summerjack was the other band and they too were very good. After the show we sat around with Keith and watched videotapes of the Tom Green show and listened in horror as Bryan introduced the Boise locals to the finer points of the donkey punch. Thanks to Keith for the place to stay and to the Mrs Butterworth crew for leaving up pancakes!
Show Journal 1999-02-26
The first stop on this weekend’s excursion was Richland , WA. If you’ve read any of these other reviews from Richland (or have been there) you know it doesn’t have a real strong music scene. Well guess what … it still doesn’t. But what it lacks in size in makes up for in character. They work harder at promoting their scene harder than anyone we’ve run into in a long time. Heck they record the shows there and give out promotional CD’s of them. How cool is that? Also, we’re starting to recognize the people at the shows there, which is pretty unusual. We also managed to get re-acquainted with Count Chocula … the Bosnian drunk. The show went fine and afterwards Dustin let us stay in his mobile home. Don’t laugh just yet, the thing rocks. It easily sleeps 6 people. Of course we don’t have any groupies yes, so only room for 3 was needed.
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