Show Journal 2010-06-19
What an odd night. First off, there were actually people in the Tonic Lounge for a show we were playing at. Yeah sure, most of them left by the time we played but there were a lot of people there for a while. I’ve long maintained a theory that shows at the Tonic are great as long as we aren’t playing. I can’t fullly reverse my theory, but I can at least begin to question it. The first band was pretty good, I think. I say that because all I could hear was vocals and the bass drum. The guitars players genuinely looked like they were shredding but I couldn’t hear a note of it. Bummer. Burnout was up second and it was very good to see them again. We played a number of shows together between 2000 and 2002, so it was sort of a trip down memory lane for us. Despite not playing regularly anymore they sounded great. One detail I had forgotten about Burnout shows was the high following of annoying skanky girls they attract. I’m not talking rocker-chick skanky, or crusty punk skanky, but more like one-drink-away-from-being-in-a-Girls-Gone-Wild skanky. These girls are easy to spot. They are slightly overdressed, a little too much makeup, you could say they are packed a little too tightly into their clothes (and perhaps spilling out in a few places), they make persistent cries of “woo-hoo”, throw up the devil horns because they think you are supposed to do that, and the tell tale sign of the coming apocalypse is when one by one they all decide it’s a good idea to stand up front and try to slamdance until they 1) fall down or 2) get bumped too hard and a fight ensues when their evenings gentleman caller. Fans are fans though, and Burnout did play to a packed room. A very nice surprise for me was their covering of ‘Round and Round’ by The Wanna-Be’s. I have had a copy of that song on my iPod forever and have been coming back to it over and over for years. It was nice to see it played and played well. The third band was nuts. I don’t want that to sound bad, I’m just not sure how else to say it. It was two guys that would basically loop their tracks on stage (guitar, bass, drums, keyboards) and then play over their music while mixing the loops in and out on the fly. It was pretty nuts because you could literally watch a song be constructed and deconstructed, while not losing its groove. Very entertaining. We were up last and there were all of 5 people on the floor when we sound checked. Eventually people trickled in, but it was maybe a third of what Burnout had watching. The good news is that one third was four times as many people as we usually play to at the Tonic so it was still a win for us. Our set was a little scattered and went from tight to sloppy within the same song. We played New Song #2 for the first time in years, which was fun for me. There were some rowdy folks up front and at the end of our last song a fight broke out. The cause? A drunk girl “dancing” got bumped into. Surprise. All in all it was a pretty entertaining night.
Many moons have passed
Saturday night we are playing with Burnout at the Tonic Lounge in Portland. It’s been what, 8 years or so since we both shared the stage? Old dudes for the win!
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!
Show Journal 2010-04-24
The show was short and sweet with two good bands opening up and a decent sized crowd of many familiar faces. As much as I enjoy getting to play on a big stage with bright lights and massive sound systems, a cramped and poorly ventilated garage is just as much, if not more fun. Unfortunately I missed Bad River, but Dave reports they were very good. I did witness Almost Is Nothing, and I must admit they were pretty awesome. They were very metal and I would dare say their lead guitar player was one of the better guitar players I think I’ve ever seen. Very cool stuff, especially at a range of 10 ft. At a normal show we would have been a pretty mismatched bill, but in the tiny garage it was all good. Before we knew it we were up and played a short and sweet set. No noise violations and no one stepped on Justin crippled foot. The only downer was loading out through the mine field of urine, vomit and feces. At least two of those materials were out there, but we aren’t sure which. Another secret best left in the tall grass beyond Thunderdome. All in all it was a pretty good night. Thanks Joel!
Northbound and down
This weekend we’ve got shows in Longview and Seattle. If you live on the northern I-5 corridor stop by and say hello.
Show Journal 2010-04-16
I feel like it’s been forever since we’ve played a show. We’ve certainly gone longer without playing a live (usually when a drummer spontaneously combusts) but this gap between shows felt like an eternity. During the past three months Dave was out of the country for nearly a month, Dustin has been playing shows with his other band, Justin has been back in school and I wound up getting married. With distractions and excuses like those not only will we maintain our title of “world’s most boring band” but we may have raised the bar, particularly in the domestication category. Additionally, in the weeks leading up to the show we had spotted a few “those guys are still around?” messages online. Yes, yes we are. We used to strive to be the best we can as a band. Now we are just trying to outlast the others. Anyway, given the slow lead up to the show and the lack of hype I expected to play poorly to an empty room. At about 9:00 it was looking very possible. Thankfully some folks started rolling in and life was good. It was cool hanging out and getting to play again. The Stims cancelled due to a double booking, so we got to see 48 Thrills first. They joke they turn down shows to play with us. The funny thing is we do the same because they are always fun to watch. Another solid set from those guys. The Them from Seattle was the reason we were here and also the reason we took this show. They had a pretty good mix of styles. It was sort of like the Misfits meets the Dwarves but with a slightly less serious stage presence. They were fun to watch and I’m glad to be playing with them again next week on their home turf. We were up last and nothing too particularly exciting happened. Good show, good people and a good night. Thanks to all who attended and also to The Them for asking us to play.
Linkage
After what felt like forever, Requiem is finally on Pandora. Speaking of internet activity, have you looked us up on Facebook yet? Become a fan. It’ll make you feel good.
Again? Really?
Justin with another leg injury? Can someone hook the man up with some prosthetics?
Finally, some shows
At long last we’ve finally added two shows with The Them in April. Also, we got links to these two videos that we wanted to share that feature our tunes. The first is desert motorcycle riding and the second is some backcountry ski/snowboard/snowmobile action. Pretty cool. Thanks Tim!
Show Journal 2010-01-09
All I knew about this shows when it got booked is that it was with Toxic Zombie. Later when I went to check out the flyer you can imagine my surprise when I saw we were booked with a sideshow act featuring The Enigma and Serna Rose. The last time I saw The Enigma was during the Jim Rose Circus Sideshow but at a Lollapalooza which was before the band had even started. The venue was pretty nuts as it was a giant movie theater with a balcony. I caught the tail end of the first band and got to watch most of the Toxic Zombie set. In typical Longview fashion things just ran slower and slower as the night progressed and it was almost 11:30 by the time the Show Devils began to setup. Their sideshow was pretty interesting. Highlights included a condom being passed from nose to mouth and then mouth to nose, a drill going into a nose, sword swallowing, blindfolded chainsaw use and even a stomach pumping of sorts. Pretty crazy. We finally setup around 12:45 and literally had to endure 10 minutes of microphone troubleshooting. When you are on stage with no working microphones every minutes feels like five. We finally started at 1:00 on the dot. Did I mention this was an all ages show? Yeah, awesome. We played pretty well and despite the sound problems on such a wide stage it was actually pretty damn fun to play. We loaded out, a few of us took turns on “the party bus” and then we headed out. A serious thank you to anyone who hung out that late to watch the show.
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