Show Journal 2013-06-07
1997 was the first time we played a show with Moral Crux. At the time we were a three piece, we barely knew anyone in Portland and hadn’t even written half the songs from ‘The Kelvis’ yet. I can remember several distinct thoughts from that show, including “I hope these people like us” and “Moral Crux is going to smoke us.” Tonight? Same concerns. We’ve only played Katie O’s once before and in my head it was dark and dingy dive bar with bad sound. This evening it was well lit, good sound and there even seemed to be an unusually positive vibe in the room tonight. The positivity may have been in my own head though, as I was elated not to be playing last again. Black Delaney was up first. I missed their set but Justin and Dustin said they were 1) from Eugene and 2) they both liked them. Brigadier was second and they were pretty solid. They had a very polished sound to them that made them immediately likable. We played third. The set seemed good. Not much movement, but not too many people running for the door either. No real surprises except that we did unearth the song ‘On My Side’ for the first time in many, many, many years. The set was short, fast and we were only subjected to one round of Dave’s “jokes”. We usually practice our songs. It may be time to practice his jokes. Moral Crux was the reason for the show and after all of these years they’ve still got it. I’m pretty sure the singer is part vampire as the dude never seems to age. He also looks as if he could be directly related to our past drummer Jim, but that’s another story. Their set was good. The songs were as catchy as ever as just as energetic as the first time we saw them. The cover of Sonic Reducer was pretty excellent as well. All in all a good night.