Show Journal 1999-02-19
Ashland is a long way from Portland. In fact it’s almost 300 miles. It really sucks when you drive all the way there to find that the show has been cancelled. It sucks even more when your friends in the band Bomf! also drove that far only to get shafted too. Seven hours in the van, no sleep, no show, no money, no fun.
Show Journal 1999-02-18
Tonight’s show was lame. Nothing more, nothing less, just lame. Thank god for Belvedere for rocking us all.
Show Journal 1999-01-26
Not one, not two, not three, but eight bands played tonight. It was a record release party for a new comp we are on put out by Last Chance Records. Witch Throttlegush and Topsider seemed to be the biggest crowd pleasers but everyone played well. The whole thing went pretty smoothly too … it actually finished right on time. Thanks to Brent and Kelly for making it all happen and thanks to Xan for putting on the show. Buy the comp and re-live the magic (in less than an hour).
Show Journal 1999-01-23
Tengoku Jack. Tonight’s show was all about Tengoku Jack. If you haven’t heard of them they are a “drastic rock band” from Japan. First off they are nice as hell and very cool. Secondly they rock … and they rock really hard. Getting to play with these guys was a treat for all of us. Our set went really well … but once again it was all about “the Jack.” Watching the singer cover himself in candle wax was definitely one of the wildest things I’ve seen a band do in a long time. It was just one of those night where everything clicked and it was great. I wish them all the best on their trip back to Japan and I can’t wait for them to come back over to the states again. However there is one small downside … neither Tengoku Jack or 800 Octane will forgive Kevin for missing the show!
Show Journal 1999-01-20
Tonight’s show was ok. Nothing bad happened but likewise nothing wonderful happened either. If you have read past reviews, you probably already know what I think about Bomf! and Tenpin. They rock. See … there, I said it again. The Damsels were pretty cool too. I don’t know what they will think of this, but they kind of reminded of the Jesus and Mary Chain. That’s a good thing. I guess it was the hollow body guitars. Anyway, I think the most exciting thing this evening was me having to use the bathroom in the Satyricon. There’s nothing that gets the adrenaline flowing quite like risking communicable disease.
Show Journal 1999-01-16
I’m starting to like Tri-Cities better these days. The last few shows there were so-so, but this one was great. Fine Print were nice guys and of course Dustin hooked us up (as always). Tonight’s great quote was from Bryan. Some guy in the crowd kept yelling for us to play the Ramones. Every song ended and he started in … “play the Ramones, play the Ramones.” After about three rounds of this Bryan stops and says “Ok, how about this, I’ll bend over, you stick a quarter up my ass, and I’ll be your fucking jukebox.” It was beautiful. Reading it again now it sounds dumb, but man was it funny. It sure shut the guy up for a while.
Show Journal 1999-01-02
Redemption for our terrible new year’s eve arrived in the form of a show at EJ’s. It was cool to play with Moral Crux again, since they are such nice guys. I also finally got to see Lopez play which was pretty rad, because those guys rock. Of course the Automatics were good, but that goes without saying. All the bands were rad, but the best part of this evening was that we had Dave’s mom in attendance. Dave’s mom was right up front, 800 Octane shirt in effect and cheering her son on. This was fun to see, but if she knew everything he was singing, she would call him a wretched toad for the rest of his life. This evening also marked the first live appearance of the turdburglar, which in no way should be confused with the hamburglar.
Show Journal 1998-12-31
If tonight’s show was any indication of the year to come, we are in deep trouble. I thought it sucked. Some people said we did really good and claimed to have fun, but I don’t care. It sucked. Rather than a traditional show review I’m going to go for a top 10 list. Tonight’s category … “Top 10 things that Sucked Ass About our New Year’s Show” 10. Watching the crowd dwindle from a hundred happy people to a dozen violent drunks 9. The thick layer of sludge on anything that touched the floor 8. Having to start at 2 in the morning 7. Joe from the Silver Kings 6. Getting drilled in the head with empty beer cans 5. Getting drilled in the head with full beer cans 4. The annoying little man who insisted on hitting me with his sweatshirt 3. The sensation of a microphone stand being knockced into your teeth 2. The ratio of people spitting on us to people not spitting on us was 1 to 1 … And the number one thing that sucked ass about our new year’s show was … 1. Realizing that I could have been watching Dick Clark from the solitude of my living room
Show Journal 1998-12-19
The bad omen of the previous night’s show cast a black cloud over us again this evening. During the afternoon it started snowing in Seattle. By afternoon it turned to ice and by night time it was a genuine mess. The three other bands we were supposed to play with all cancelled and chose to stay at home. Not us though … we had to at least make an attempt to get to our waiting legions of fans in Fife, Washington. The deal was we agreed to try driving for 30 minutes … if it sucked we would turn around, if it was good we would keep going. Sounded good huh? Well, we made it about 5 blocks before we got snagged up in an a nasty mess of traffic, hills and ice. After sitting here and enduring all of the first Coolio album we chose to turn around and submit defeat to the weather gods. Turning around sounds simple enough but what you don’t know is that in an enormous van, filled with people, band equipment and 4 balding tires, turning around actually involves two hours of sliding, pushing, cursing and praying. In the end we ended up piling 8 people into a car which could take us back home. No show, no rock stardom and absolutely no fun for 800 Octane.
Show Journal 1998-12-18
The Rendezvous is a weird place. The restaurant is gross, the bar is seedy, the bathroom is raunchy and the stage is weird. Imagine a skinny theater with lounge seating and then attach a restaurant to the side of it. Very strange place. Anyway, a bad omen was in the air tonight. The band that was supposed the promote the show and put up flyers never showed. I won’t mention any names, but it wasn’t Ample and it wasn’t Section One, and because of their negligence hardly anyone showed up. If that wasn’t enough Section One’s bass player never showed up and they were forced to cancel as well. So it was just us and Ample playing in this weird little club. It still turned out to be pretty fun despite the low turnout. The show had it’s moments (the kitchen sink!), but the highlight of the whole night was the tale of Dave’s encounter with a homeless man in the bathroom who proclaimed “I only have to piss but once a week .. and when I do… there ain’t no stopping me.” After that he proceeded to urinate all over himself and the bathroom floor and walls.
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