Show Journal 2005-10-13
Wow, what a weak show. Given the solid lineup I was expecting more than, oh, twenty people. Nope. The high water mark was about 18 people watching at one time and it sure as hell wasn’t for us. The Illegal Guardians were interesting. The singer was very, very, very young and far cooler than anyone reading this was at that age. Why? Two words. Shiny jacket. Also we discovered that the “1,2 Freddy’s coming for you” song is particularly creepy when sung by an actual kid. The Manholes were up second. I really wanted to like them but I actually had to leave the room during their set. Their drummer Colin is one of the coolest guys on Earth and the main reason we took the show. He does more to promote music than anyone you’ve ever met in Portland. Anyway, after waiting ten minutes between bands they ended up asking us to borrow a guitar amp, a power cord, two guitar cables and Dave’s bass … none of which had even been hinted at until they were on stage. It’s a little rude but they seemed like nice enough guys so we obliged. Then over my shoulder I hear “it’s 800 Octane and Smegma’s fault no one is here”. What the fuck? Then I hear it again. Are you serious? You’re complaining about us while you’re borrowing our stuff? Fuck you. Then the asshole says it once more while he’s looking at me. Hey I’m sorry the show sucked, but you can eat my ass since it’s your show too. (Sorry Colin, we know you tried.) After an indeterminable period of wailing and sucking Wednesday Night Heroes finally took the stage and totally stole the show, which was pretty easy because the bar was so fucking low by that point. Super energetic punk kind of like Dropkick Murphys meets The Unseen. Very cool. We were all impressed and a pit even broke out. This was more impressive since the singers fly was “open for business”. Our set was ok. It’s never easy to rock for a dozen people and I’m not sure we did. We did play the revamped version of ‘T-Minus’ for the first time ever which I guess was ok. Smegma was last and was very, uhmmm, interesting. I can definitely see why they are the reigning lords of all that is experimental in music. It was kind of like improvisational jazz for punks. It was nice to see Mike Lastra up there as he recorded our Kelvis and Get In The Van albums. Thanks to Colin for setting up the show, and Jason and Tizzle for sticking it out.
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