Show Journal 2001-05-19
We were supposed to play three shows this weekend. One got cancelled, one never got booked and the third was in Salt Lake City which is 800 miles away. We opted not to cancel it and decided to drive that entire 800 miles for just one show. Smart huh? Things started off poorly when Dave’s entire bass amp nearly fell on the ground. I say nearly fell to the ground because the only things between the plummeting bass amp and the ground were my left foot and Dave’s right foot. Yep. The entire 140 pound metal speaker cabinet fell 4 feet to the ground only to land on our feet. We think Dave’s big toe is broken and my foot is so swollen it barely fits in my shoe. Shows always seem so exciting when only half of the band can walk. Injuries aside the drive to Utah was really fun. It went really fast for me and my side actually hurt from laughing so much. (Or was it the beef jerky?) We slept in a highway rest area somewhere in Idaho. The bad news was our sleep period only lasted about an hour because the sun came up and let’s face it, a van with 4 people is really uncomfortable. So in the wee hours of the morning we pressed on to Utah. We got there way early and hung around in Orem for a while. We did some cd shopping, got some lunch and later went to meet up with Aric, his roommates and the other guys from Final Notice. They were all super cool and we hung out with them for a while and then went over to the show. The show was in a really, really, really big skatepark/warehouse. The bands setup and play on top of a huge box ramp in the back corner of the park. It was really weird seeing bands 6 feet above you and 20 feet away divided by a slanted piece of wood. The Ruffians played first to a decent sized crowd and people seemed to like them. Final Notice was next. I thought they sounded great but the crowd didn’t seem to care much. An apathetic crowd is better than no crowd … which is exactly what we got. We had a real slow setup time due to power issues and also since the show was running late we were rushed for time because there was still another band to play after us. We were rushed and frustrated. If you are at a show and have been there for an hour it’s hard to be excited by a band that doesn’t look happy to be there. Also, as we stood on stage sound checking the realization that “we drove 800 miles for this” was setting in fast. We hadn’t played a chord yet and I think we were all totally bummed out. We had 14 songs on our set list and only ended up playing 9. Even a Misfits cover, which can usually jolt a sleepy audience to consciousness for at least 3 minutes fell upon deaf ears. We were done playing after only 20 minutes but it felt like an eternity. It was honestly the longest set I have ever endured playing. Endless Struggle was next and it turns out they had been hording all the fans for themselves. They had a following of about 50 people that were all hanging outside waiting for them to play. They came in followed by all their fans, setup and rocked everyone there. In fact by the end of their set everyone was on stage (the ramp) circled around the band and shouting along. It definitely was a cool sight to see. Their good set numbed the pain of ours enough for me to leave with a good overall feeling about the show. After a few failed attempts at skating the empty ramps we decided to hit the road back home. We had a tempting offer to hang with Aric and the Final Notice crew, but I think we were all just ready to start heading back. We slept about 5 hours somewhere in Idaho and pressed on to Portland. The drive was uneventful at best which is nice after a sketchy show. Watching the world pass by the windows kind of helps you keep things in perspective. Not too many people get to travel as much and see as much as you do when you are a band on the road. Sometimes it takes a bad show and a long drive to remind yourself of that. Crap. I’m getting sappy again. Anyway, thanks to the handful of people who watched us play and had nice things to say afterwards. Also a really big thanks to Aric for setting up the show and offering us a place to stay!
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