Show Journal 2007-03-09
I think this was the smallest Bend show I’ve ever been too. It was still fun but it’s been interesting to see how the turnout there has ebbed and flowed over the years. From 50 people with Thrust all the way up to 400 with Dead Even to the huge Misfits show and now down to 50 again. I’m fairly certain the Domino Room’s price gouging has something to do with this. Last I heard it $650 to rent the room for the night. Nice people and a nice club, but it’s no wonder local promoters have to charge an arm and a leg for local bands. Good news is the show was a blast … for what we saw of it. We missed all the openers including Aces Over Kings whom we’ve played with before. We did catch The Roe and they were entertaining to watch. Not often you see an arena sized show in a tiny club. Our set was highlight free but overall pretty fun. I sort of felt like we sucked at the last few Bend shows and this felt like redemption. Of course on the way out I heard two groups of people say this was the worst show they had seen in a long time. Hope they were talking about the show as a whole and not us. (Of course since they stuck it out we couldn’t have been that bad.) Also on the way out some girl wanted to buy a CD and her male friend dragged her away from the merch table explaining that she shouldn’t ever buy CD’s because it’s “the biggest scam there is”. According to him, buying CD’s is “a rip-off”, musicians make “a ton of money” and you should “download your music for free” to fight the system. I don’t necessarily oppose downloading of music, but holy shit, that was the dumbest fucking thing I’ve ever heard. I bit my tongue but was about one comment away from explaining that we pack up our van that we bought on our own, drove 4 hours over the mountain with our own money, setup our gear, played our balls off, and are about to unload it and drive 4 more hours back home … for nothing. Nada. Zero. Zip. That $3 compilation you refuse to let your girlfriend buy (that we paid $2 for) is the only money we’ll be making this evening. Jesus, what a douchebag. Next time in that situation I will stop to ask myself “what would Dave do?” The answer of course would be put him in a submission hold and throw him out the door head first. Note to self, play less Guitar Hero and more Fight Night. You know, just in case. Ok, I’m rambling. Thanks so much to everyone to stayed late as well as thanks to Dan and Bleeding Through productions for a very smoothly run show.