Eric's Show Journal - posted on April 25, 2010 by

Show Journal 2010-04-25

It had been a long time since we’d traveled more than an hour to a show. After last summer’s fiasco of breakdowns and cancellations we have been a little gun shy about booking out of town shows. Even though it was a Sunday night bar show I think we were all stoked to get in the van and get the heck out of dodge. The romanticism of rolling into the sunset was short lived when the aroma of the mildewed and moldy roof extension hit my nostrils. The overall ripeness was quickly forgotten after Dave confessed the van has been acting “strangely” on his drive over. How so? Well, when he hit the brakes it “made clicking noises” and then the battery light and speedometer would “just turn off”. Awesome. Needless to say my seatbelt was securely fastened at all times. After the van’s mysterious behavior had subsided (we’re assuming it was a bad connection somewhere) the ride up was actually kind of pleasant. Sunny, warm and relaxing. The lazy spring day haze I was in could have very well been the early warning signs of black lung from the roof fungus, but for those few hours it was pretty nice. We arrived to Sea-town, hooked up with some friends and had some tasty Mexican food. From there we were off to the club and met up with more friends and settled in for the show. The Pistol Whipped Prophets made it clear after about 20 seconds this was not going to be your average band or your average set. The music was a super distorted bass and drum combo that was sort of punk rock with a stoner rock fuzz to it. The singer had one of the gnarliest vocal howls and growls I’ve heard quite some time. Although we listen to punk and play music that resembles it, bands like this reaffirm that we have no business calling ourselves punks. Tattooed, bloody and abrasive they were unlike anything else I’ve seen or heard in a while. Very cool. We were up second and it was pretty decent. We played pretty well, I just wish there had been more people to see it. I had to remind myself that it was a bar show on a Sunday night so that was to be expected. Hell, I wouldn’t have come if we weren’t playing. Having said that I should thank Bryan, Al, Zac and Kevin for spending their evening with us. Anyway, after we wrapped up, The Them took the stage and although the crowd was sparse it was nice to see them on their home turf. They seemed quite a bit more confident than the last time we saw them. I thought they played a little tighter as well, perhaps since it was the last show on their tour. Good job by those guys. Thanks to the Funhouse and The Them for getting us on the show!