Destination Eugene
Last month was busy, this month is slow. I guess the only thing “newsworthy” is that we’re going to record a couple of songs at Take 92 studios on the first week of April for a split CD due out this summer. Speaking of songs what’s with that SnoCap crap? Glad to see they only posted songs from 1999 on there. Anyway, the only shows this month are Bend on the 9th and Eugene on the 11th. The Eugene show is a matinee show in honor of our friend Hopper who died two years ago. Other than that we are practicing and trying to fine tune the songs for recording. That’s all for now.
Show Journal 2007-02-10
Talk about old school. Man, oh man, this show was a blast from the past and we ran into just about everyone we had ever seen or met in between 1997 and 1999. No they weren’t there to see us, they were all here to see the Bomf! play their first show in about 8 years. For those who haven’t been with us long, Bomf! is quite possibly Dave and my favorite Portland punk rock band on both a personal and musical level. They were one of the first bands we really hung out with. Lyle played in our band for a short while, I filled in for them on guitar for a few months and we’ve played with Brent and Scotty’s other bands since many times. Needless to say we were stoked when we found out they were playing, even more so when they asked us to play. In fact we actually had a Seattle show booked this night and cancelled it to play. Even if we couldn’t play we would have cancelled to attend. So how was it? Awesome. I walked in the door and saw people I literally hadn’t seen in 6 or 7 years. Crazy. The show started off right with Lopez who are also just as entitled to their wayback credibility award as we are, possibly even a little more. The only word I can ever find to describe them is “gnarly”. Super fast, abrasive, in your face hardcore/punk rock. They also get the prize for the funniest in between song commentary. As for us, our set was good. I’m not sure how it went over with the crowd but we enjoyed the hell out of it. One added bonus is that in all of our trips to the Tonic over the years it was the first time we’ve played to more than 30 people. Sadly, I am not exaggerating. Anyway, the reason for the season was Bomf! and although they all look older (and bigger) they can still lay it down live. Hearing the songs again was great and my face is still sort from the perpetual smile throughout the night. Definitely the most fun I’ve had at a show in a long time. Thanks so much for having us and feel free to look us up in another 8 years guys. Also, thanks to everyone from the old school who has kept up with us as well and gave us a warm reception.
Show Journal 2007-02-09
You think you’ve been to a long show? Try enduring a 10 band lineup sometime. It’s brutal. We missed 4 of them and it was quite possibly one of the longest shows I’ve ever sat through. The sheer lack of attendance after the 10:00 mark made it all the more challenging since the show ran until nearly 1:30 AM. We walked in around 8:00 and about 100 people were going nuts for CLR. There was maybe 20 or so watching us and by the time the last band played (thankfully not us) it was down to about 8 utterly exhausted looking people. We joked at one point we need to start carrying tumbleweed in our gear so we can roll it across the floor at such sparsely attended shows. So why would we even take this show? We felt like we owed Local Chaos a favor since they have gotten us a few good shows over the year. The one cool thing about tonight it that every band we saw was really good. Seriously. Really, really good bands all the way around. I think The Rebel Spell impressed me the most and Full Frontal Assault being a close second. The other strange thing about this evening was I think that we played really well. It was fast, tight and pretty angry sounding. I only wish there were more people in the room as it probably would have gone over better. It was long but all in all a pretty good night.
Show Journal 2007-02-01
I actually had a long show review typed up but after fouling up an upgrade to Windows Vista I managed to lose it during the restore process. Anyway, the quick version is that The Bullies were entertaining to watch. Our set was very fun but not earth-shattering by any means. New Mexican Disaster Squad was fast and good. Only Crime was utterly humbling and awesome to watch. Heavier than we all expected but they still had some terribly catchy moments as well. Seeing all those influential musicians in one band was cool. Thanks to the Hawthorne. No thanks to my computer.
Was anyone in here around in 98?
Kind of a busy month. We have lots of shows coming up, including one with Only Crime tonight and a trip to Seattle next weekend. The biggest show for us is getting to play with Bomf! on Feb 10th at the Tonic Lounge. For those who haven’t know us for very long Bomf! was probably our favorite band to play with between ’97 and ’99. Great band, great guys and great memories. This is their reunion show and to cap it off Lopez will be playing as well. Total trip down memory lane. Can’t wait to throw beer at Brent and reminisce about monster burger at EJ’s. On another topic what you probably don’t know is that we actually did some recording this month. We went down to Eugene for two days to record demos with our friend Sam at Take92 studios. We actually did tracks for 18 new songs. We haven’t really done the demo thing before so hopefully it’ll help us get a solid album. We’re hoping to book the studio time for the “real” recording at some point during the month so stay tuned.
Show Journal 2007-01-27
If you asked me to sit down and make a list of all the things I don’t want to do while enduring a migraine, playing a show now tops my list. Every step, shuffle and head movement was uncomfortable at best, downright painful at worst. The 100w amplifier right behind me didn’t help matters. I just kept telling myself “25 minutes, I only gotta make it 25 minutes”. Out of instinct I’d find myself forgetting about my ailment and go for the head band only to see stars each time. It’s definitely easier when you pretend those stars are camera flashes from thousands of adoring fans, rather than jolts of discomfort given to oneself while trying to entertain a few dozen people in various states of intoxication. Thankfully all three other bands were very good (definitely a rare occurrence) and the turnout was better than we expected. Despite the headache, it was a pretty good night. Thanks to everyone who stayed up late to support four local bands.
Show Journal 2007-01-19
Slight bummer on the show tonight. Much The Same (aka – the band from Chicago on Nitro Records that we wanted to open for) got in a bad van accident two night ago and had to cancel this show and several others. They are all ok but we were a little bummed as we were excited to see them play. The show must go on and it did. As usual with trips to Longview we arrived inexcusably late and only caught a song or two of the first two bands. I got to see a little more of the Scurvies set who are also on tour but from Alaska. Talk about a drive. Damn. They were pretty cool guys and fun to watch. As for our set, it was pretty good. Since tonight wound up doubling as Brady’s birthday party we let him write the setlist and he hit us with some old ones. Can’t recall the last time we played ‘Get In The Van’ or ‘Roads Less Traveled’ at a show. Pretty fun to bust out some less frequently played material. Highlights included lots of stage diving, Justin’s incoherent rambling and the mystery gasser who must have been situated near the front of the stage. Seriously, how can anyone smell worse that Reid’s? Anyway, thanks so much to all who attended on short notice, thanks to Reid’s and best of luck to Much The Same.
Show Journal 2007-01-06
Kind of a strange evening as we were the lone punk rock band in a sea of metal and hard rock. Everyone was nice enough and the bands were plenty entertaining, but I’m really not sure we presented enough headbanging opportunities for anyone to really enjoy us. A couple of people moved around and we learned some interesting new dances but definitely not the same reaction we saw in Sandy last time. In retrospect I now realize we never turned down from practice volume which would explain why the middle cleared out and people covered their ears and moved to the side of the stage. Anything else note worthy to write about? Not really. I think Del Taco and my long awaited reunion with the del beef burrito was the highlight of the evening for me but then again I’m easy to impress. All in all a good show though and thanks to Nate for having us. It’s still amazing you can still get a better turnout in Sandy with two weeks notice than you can in Portland with two months warning.
Everything must go
We’re just about sold out of almost all of our merch. What do we have on hand? Copies of Rise Again and some devil girl posters. Everything else is offically gone even including ‘The Return’. Good news is that means it’s time for some new merchandise which is long overdue. That should be coming a few months into 2007 so stay tuned. Since it’s the end of the year thanks again for everyone who stuck with us in 2006. We wouldn’t still be doing this if it wasn’t for you. Well, ok maybe we would. Everyone have a good holiday!
Show Journal 2006-12-15
Now that was an awesome show. So many friends we haven’t seen in a while came out of the woodwork that it was impossible not to have a good time. Every corner we’d see someone and think “holy crap I haven’t seen you in years”. Very cool. The show itself was great. Our homies The Civies kicked it off with fast sing along street punk. We played second to a pretty awake crowd. We played ‘The Gambler’ by Kenny Rogers tonight. The consensus afterwards was that the song was a hit for the folks in the bar but a little odd for the all ages portion who might not be familiar with the song or the chain of fast food chicken stores. Fortunately we chose not to play our alternate version called The Nambler or Dateline NBC would have shut us down. The Briggs were awesome. Solid and catchy punk rock songs. They seemed like super nice dudes too which is always a plus. The main reason of course was The Living End and I gotta say they were amazing. I had seen them last time in 99 at The Warped Tour at wasn’t that impressed. In a small theater it was a whole different story. They were incredibly tight, totally entertaining and they just controlled the crowd. It’s nice to see a band used to playing arenas rock a smaller club with even more intensity. Totally impressed. Didn’t get to talk to them at all, but they had a full tour bus and a line of fans waiting to meet them it’s all good. Thanks to Thrasher Presents and all who took the time to watch us!
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