Lose some, win some
Seems that The Briefs show for Jan 6th has been cancelled due to a problem with the venue. We’re hoping TJ and the folks at Suckerpunch Recods will have it resceduled sometime soon. Good news is we have a ton of other local shows coming up.
Show Journal 2005-12-16
Always loud and always rowdy, Astoria shows always rock. We actually left on time tonight but got stuck in traffic and basically idled from downtown PDX all the way past Vancouver. That means we missed both Absence Of Grace and Buck 90. Apologies to both of those bands for missing your sets. We did get to see Accidental Gun Death and they were in rare form tonight. Between the inability of their gear to contain the rock and their physical encounters with the crowd I’m sure they have a bunch of new fans now. Our set felt pretty solid and everyone up front seemed to dig it. Dave still has all his teeth so that’s a plus. On the van ride home we run over a chicken carcass and learned that Justin’s burps smell like cheese, despite not eating any for days. Thanks to Chris for setting up another smoothly running show and thanks to the other bands.
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We’ve got lots of upcoming shows after the holidays. Also, we finally have re-prints of our Spine shirt in all sizes … including Smalls and Mediums!
Show Journal 2005-12-08
When did the Ash Street become the most consistent bar in town to play? Always people, always rowdy, always fun. Accidental Gun Death opened the show and was terribly amusing as well as terribly rocking. The singer Jamie tends to move around a lot. Standing near the front of the stage I was worried that he would fall off in the piles of drums and equipment. I asked myself “how would I react if someone fell off the stage and nearly killed themselves?” Would I help? Would I have to call 911? About two minutes into their set I learned the answer to this question is stand motionless and just smile. Jamie did land on his feet but took about half of Scratch’s drums out with them. Too funny. Scratch was pretty cool but primarily because they covered DFL and for some reason DFL amuses me. Plus who knew Jed had a band? We played six new songs tonight. Despite Dave’s claims that “we might fuck this up” they all went off without a hitch and we were relieved. My Goldfish Ned played last and it was a little bittersweet because it was their last show and 11th anniversary. I couldn’t help but wonder what our last show would be like. When will it be? Where will it be? Who will show up? We’ll be pushing 12 years real soon so it was cool to see another band that started about the same time we did and was right here in the exact same place at the same show. (Stranger still is that two of AGD’s members have been playing over 10 years as well.) Very, very solid set by the Ned tonight and I kind of wished we had gotten to play with them more often. Turns out they will still be making music, just under a different name and different songs so maybe that’ll happen. Thanks to Heather and the Ash Street. Apologies to Dustin for the speeding ticket and parking ticket.
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Seems one of the members of Portland’s own musical tribute heroes ‘The Misfats’ has featured us in his podcast which can be found here. Let’s hope it does not suck.
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Wow, thank you to everyone we met in North Bend. I think you just made our month.
Show Journal 2005-11-11
North Bend rocked our world last night. After a few so-so shows in a row it was nice to have ‘a little kick ass’ in our world again. We had never been to North Bend/Coos Bay before and it had the following: a big venue, nice staff, pretty good sound, real good lights, a good promoter and most importantly a large crowd that completely embraced a band they had probably never heard of. I’m hoping the positive reaction was because we played well, but I suspect everyone was amped up enough on their own that Justin could have held a microphone to his ass and someone would have started a pit. Well I guess any one of us could have been holding the mic to their asses, but Justin would be the one most likely to actually do it. Unfortunately because of some traffic in Portland we missed Core 13 and about half of Vern’s set. The ones we did meet from those bands seemed cool enough and that goes a long way with us. We loaded up and played about 15 minutes after arriving. I was still shaking from the cold since Justin somehow managed to mess up the van window. How you ask? I have no idea. He rolled it down and then announced that it wouldn’t roll back up. Dave eventually fixed it but we had to drive 4 of the 5 hours with the front window down which led to near hypothermia in myself and Dustin who we sitting in the back seat. Thankfully the show was awesome. People tried to sing along with every song they could figure out and had a pit going for most of the show. I couldn’t have asked for anything better so thanks to everyone who listened to us with an open mind and enjoyed themselves. I didn’t see too much of Words Fall Short since we were meeting so many people but they sounded pretty damn tough. Lunaractive was the band of the night and they tore the place a new one. They had everyone singing and moving the entire set which was pretty impressive because that was a lot of people to keep moving. I’m admittedly a little jealous since they have their stuff together so well and a relatively young age. Props to them for sure. Also, I’ve got to say they are definitely one of the nicest bands we’ve ever run across. It’s refreshing to see a younger band with so many fans that doesn’t have an ego about themselves. I know we were grateful of the large crowd and it seems they were too. All in all a good night. Well until the Jalapeno Potato Chips and the toxic fluids of Rockstar soda met in my stomach somewhere between Eugene and Wilsonville, but that’s another story. Thanks so much to everyone at the Port Events Center, Ethan and Lunaractive, and the other bands who we met and didn’t meet, and extra thanks to Patrick for putting on one of the smoothest running shows we’ve played all year.
Show Review
“800 Octane’s first trip to the Wow Hall, Eugene’s main All Ages venue, in over two years was long overdue. I have seen several shows at the Wow Hall over the past few years, as well as several 800 Octane performances – yet never have I seen a crowd respond quite like this. The band came a short 100 miles from Portland to the Willamette Valley college town to play in front of approximately one hundred screaming fans. Several songs from the bands breakout album “The Return” were shouted along with by members of the Eugene faithful, and a few true fans even sang along to new tracks off of the bands most recent album, “Rise Again.” After two albums with the same drummer, Jim decided it was time to move on from 800 Octane, which opened the door for Dustin. This was my first time experiencing the new rhythm sounds and I was very impressed by the technical advances that the band has taken by adding Dustin on drums. As usual, 800 Octane was right on and thrived off of the crowd’s enthusiasm. Dave’s vocals were right on, as were the guitar stylings of Eric and Justin. After 11 years and 427 shows, they’ve done more than most punk bands can say for themselves by not only surviving for this long, but also improving as time goes on. Keep rocking!” (Crave Magazine / Alex Cook)
Show Journal 2005-10-29
364 days later and I once again find myself standing in the cold as Dave throws large handfuls of fake blood at my face. Justin looks on making obscene jokes about unspoken Japanese sexual practices. It’s about 45 degrees out. The blood is sticky, it tastes bad, it’s in my eyes and it’s starting to run down my shirt. I start to look back at my life and wonder exactly which choices have led me to this moment. Maybe I should have listened to my guidance counselor? Maybe I should have tried harder in school? Inexplicably the words “pour some on my head” come out of my mouth and in saying this I confirm that sitting at home discussing politics isn’t anywhere in my immediate future. Doing the kids homework? No thanks. Dressing up as a bloody skeleton and making people cover their ears? Now you’re talking. We kind of took a chance this year playing some place new for Halloween. You never know what to expect with a new town and a new crowd for a show. There was a crowd though and that’s a step up from the last two shows. Aside from a very small handful of people (PJ, Stephanie, Reid and the LAHF guys) I don’t think anyone had heard us, or had any idea what to expect from our set. When we walked up ready to play you could just see the “what the hell is this” expressions. People seemed to respond ok and despite the lengthy show times most everyone stayed awake and alert for the evening which we are thankful for. It’s also worth noting that Larry and His Flash rocked it hard this evening and it’s unfortunate we had to wait two hours until our set. Our set was pretty cool. Nothing earth shattering but definitely better than average. Thanks to Reid, Ang, The Meat Market, Larry And His Flask and the other bands.
Show Journal 2005-10-28
Tonight wasn’t exactly the raging Halloween extravaganza we were expecting, but when you have four priest costumes, free food, a big screen Atari, and you only have to drive two miles to get to the show it can’t be that bad. Lots of people showed up throughout the night with some great costumes but by the time we started playing they ran for the doors. You would think at least the folks from Team Zissou would have had some earplugs in their kits? We took the remaining crowd of 50 to about 10 in a matter of minutes. In retrospect our new song ‘Destroy Tokyo!’ might not have been the best opening choice for the unsuspecting ears of the PSU crowd. Just for the record it should be noted that it is damn hard to rock in priest attire. The fabric doesn’t breathe and acts like an oven. No wonder priests can’t keep their robes on, because I can tell you first hand that the shit gets hot. It also makes moving quickly a problem because you can really bend at the knees. I felt like a penguin waddling around on the stage only without the nice tuxedo. Thanks to Papa Ike and the Trainwrecks, KPSU, Alex for the show hookup and very special thanks to Dorothy for bending over to fill out the costume paperwork.
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