Show Journal 1998-09-26
Day 2 – Today is the shortest drive of our trip, a mere 200 miles. Today was my first experience with the Army MRE. MRE stands for “meal ready to eat.” Dave acquired them from National Guard. Imagine a fully balanced meal that comes self contained in several air tight green bags with their own water activated heater. MRE’s can last several years without any loss of flavor or nutritional value. They taste bad, but they are saving us money. It was a beautiful day in Missoula, and they had Octoberfest going on. We hung out downtown all day in the park and eventually got in some time on the pool table. We also had really good sandwiches at some liquor store. The show was surprisingly fun. Only a couple of people showed, but the sound was great and the people working there were cool. Dave got a bottle thrown at him by some girl. It wasn’t the hoochie girls though … they preferred throwing their breasts at him instead. The Kevorkian Cannibals were the other band. I figured they would be crusty death metal … but there probably the most unique band I’ve ever seen in my life. Imagine Primus playing at the cantina in Star Wars. I can’t even describe it but they were great to watch and fun to hang out with. That night Bryan and I slept in the van. It was very cold and I had to urinate several times. Every time I got out I had a strange encounter with some sort of weirdo. The first time I got up, there were two rednecks with a prostitute staring in the van. Creepy. The second time was about 3 in the morning and I ran into some drunk Mexican guy who was at our show (and hitting on the hoochies). The third encounter was almost surreal … I relieved myself and when I went to get back in the van there was a weird guy in an orange jumpsuit there staring at me. I get in the van and he’s still looking in the window. Freaky. On the way out of town, we got pulled over for speeding. The cop let us off with the warning that “You don’t ever want to speed in another man’s town.”