Show Journal 2003-11-22
I apologize in advance for the length of this review. Unless you have a real vested interest in this show you might consider skipping it. So, finally a full CD and release show for Thirty 3. Seems like every time they put out a recording it’s a 7″ or some limited EP that I can never get a hold of because they made like five of them. I go to the shows and I ask but they never have one available. I see them outside of shows and ask for one and still would never get one. Despite being friends with them for nearly 3 years, practicing down the hall from them and seeing them play probably 20 or 30 times I had no recordings to show for it. Needless to say I was pretty stoked to actually have a CD in hand for once and I must confess it sounds amazing. The lyrics are great, the guitars sound huge and the album is deceptively catchy. Since this was a CD release show and Thirty 3 likes to do things differently the original plan was that some of the bands were going to dress up in costumes. There were promises of bands dressed as ninjas, pirates and even cowboys. In an effort to be completely offensive we chose to dress up as bums. We jokingly said we were supposed to be “failed musicians” but yeah ultimately we were just bums. We’ll get back to that in a bit. Huge turnout tonight which was great to see since the tre tre boys had been busting their ass to promote it. First up was Blue Turns White. Disgustingly good musicians. No costumes though. The Dead Unknown was second and played a damn burly set of metal/hardcore. Totally impressive. However, no costumes. Our homies in Countdown To Life were third. Before their set they were ushered outside for a moment and the crowd was secretly given life size masks that featured each of the bands faces. When they started to play everyone put on or held up their masks. It was hilarious. They were a little bewildered for a minute and then amused. Thirty 3 thought had the best of them until Danny offered to save people money by burning a copy of their new album. Again, no costumes. So we went and got ready by putting on our bum attire. I can’t describe each costume individually but between the four of us we had 6 coats, 4 sets of high tops and/or boots (at least 2 of those were missing toes), 3 sets fingerless gloves, 2 flannel shirts, 1 beanie, 2 hats, 1 skanky looking santa claus hat, 1 sweater, 2 long haired wigs, 1 tie dye t-shirt, 9 blacked out teeth, 2 sunday edition newspapers spread across the stage and 4 faces smeared in dirt and black makeup. Looking back it’s probably a good thing we didn’t have time to carry out our plan to put Justin in a wheelchair. I kept asking Dave and Justin “do I look like a bum?” Dave said “I know how to tell” and proceeded to curl up in a ball on the floor by the wall and only uttered the phrase “god bless you” for the next 10 minutes. We loaded on stage and were met by mostly blank stares. Only a few people seemed genuinely amused and most of them were standing on the stage. Best line of the night was Dave who during the soundcheck asked for “more change in the monitors” while Justin just muttered and groaned in the background. There were several things I’d like to mention mostly for myself so that I can remember this evening. 1) It was damn hot wearing two coats. I mentioned it to Jon later and he responded “dude, I could have told you that”. 2) Despite being cleaned those clothes smelled bad when warmed to body temperature. 3) About three songs into the set my mullet wig/beanie flew right off my head during a vicious fit of head banging. Oops. 4) At some point while jumping I cracked the stage in front of my amp. I’m guessing it was probably the extra 10 pounds of clothes. 5) I think only the people in the front saw this but early in the set Rick came out from the crowd and curled up to take a nap in front of the drum rise under some newspapers … while we were playing. Also, while doing this Justin attempted to pick his pockets. 6) Dave stayed in character most of the set and proclaimed “god bless you” at least 8 more times. 7) Someone repeatedly sang “who let the bums out” whenever it got quiet. Geez, I can only imagine what the people who had never seen our band before were thinking. We got a kind of lukewarm reaction at first but I think if I saw 4 people dressed as bums on stage I would just stare too. We played some new songs and as a gift to the message board regulars (for their big 1 year anniversary) we played what will probably be the retirement of Safety Dance. Last up were the stars of the night Thirty 3 and thankfully they actually stuck to the theme and dressed up … as cowboys!!! They sounded amazing. Hands down the best I’ve ever seen them. Now that I actually have a CD to listen to and know the songs they are twice as much fun to see. I am genuinely happy for them and am in some strange way proud of them for finally getting such a good a CD out and hitting the road more often. They are one of our favorite band musically and personally so we were flattered they asked us to play. Man this review is long. Big thanks to everyone in attendance including the people who have seen us lots of times as well as the people who stuck around even though they might not normally listen to a band like ourselves. Special mention to ‘Hobocephus’ (the ‘b’ can also be changed to ‘m’), Hopper and Eric for driving up from Eugene only to have their car towed and miss the whole show, and thanks to Ang for showing up dressed in full on bum attire even through we hadn’t changed yet! Huge thanks to Thirty 3 and all the other bands for making Portland proud of itself again. (Footnote: For the record we do acknowledge that homelessness and poverty is a legitimate problem in this country. Over the years we have played many food drives, benefit concerts and charity shows. Having said that I do think being able to have a sense of humor about these things does have it’s place too.)
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