Show Journal 1996-12-10
(Added Oct. 2001) – This was the last 800 Octane show in Boone before we all headed off to Portland. I didn’t get to play this one and gladly relinquished the honor to Greg who had been filling in for me at practices and shows throughout the year. Since it was a somewhat special occasion for our band everyone dressed in costumes. Dave dressed up as Elvis, Greg was an Insane Clown, and Bryan in typical Bryan fashion opted to dress up a Bruce Jenner. I can’t recall what Paul dressed up as. Does anyone remember? Looking back this was the end of a lot of things. This was Paul’s last show in the band and well as the end of Greg’s filling in on guitar. We didn’t know it at the time it was the end of our old sound. The following month we moved to Portland as a 3 piece and have never sounded the same since. What’s really funny is that we had about 30-40 good solid songs and I think we currently only play 2 or 3 those any more. Amazing how quickly things can change.
Show Journal 1996-09-27
(Added Oct. 2001) – I recall this show being kind of lame. Probably because I had commuted from Chicago to play it. Go figure. The ASU Pub was always good, but never great. I do remember Paul playing his new guitar at this show.
Show Journal 1996-08-29
(Added Oct. 2001) – What’s interesting about this show is that The Drapes were from Portland and eventually became the Blue Ribbon Boys who Jim played drums for! Small world sometimes.
Show Journal 1996-08-16
(Added Oct. 2001) – This was another show that Greg played for me. I do remember Dave telling me that it was really hot when they played.
Show Journal 1996-06-07
(Added Mar. 2002) – Greg played this show so I couldn’t tell you the first thing about it. I do recall Ghetto Blaster having a funny album where every member of the band was pictured behind the drum set.
Show Journal 1996-05-26
(Added Mar. 2002) – This is classic. The WE Festival was (maybe still is?) a big showcase with tons of bands, films, art, etc. We were offered a slot playing at a house that was supposedly going to have a big draw. Tons of unscheduled bands showed up and bullied there way onto the show and to we finally began to set up around 5 in the morning. 5 in the morning!!! So we are plugging in amps, setting up drums, and out of nowhere these kinda strung out looking tattooed dudes come over and ask if we can play with our equipment when we are done. It’s 5 in the morning, we still haven’t played yet, there are about 20 people left in the place and these guys want to play a set after us with our stuff? No fucking way. Bryan ended up telling them no and they wandered off upstairs. A friend comes over and informs us that the people we said no to were some of the guys from the band Buzzoven and that they are pissed. Great. The heaviest freaking band from NC is pissed at us. So we start to play and guess who comes back downstairs? The guys from Buzzoven sat in the back while we played and threw cans, pizza boxes and other crap at us for most of our set. Eventually they went upstairs and waited for us by our van. We finally finished playing and began to pack up all the while realizing we are a few short minutes away from getting our ass kicked by Buzzoven. Long story short, they didn’t actually do anything. They just mumbled under their breath and stared us down. Still it was a pretty tense load out with them right there. We were all a little bummed too because Buzzoven was a pretty big band and not only did they not like us … but they wanted to kick or asses too. Oh yeah, we loaded out in the daylight.
Show Journal 1996-04-27
(Added Oct. 2001) – This wasn’t really a show but more of an open mic night at a dorm. I recall lots of blank stares from a sitting audience mostly consisting of my friends.
Show Journal 1996-04-20
(Added Oct. 2001) – I couldn’t play this show because I was living at home in Chicago saving money and getting ready to move to Portland. Therefore this marked Greg’s first show as my fill in guitar player. I do know that Chapel Hill usually sucked for us to play in. I can only assume more of the same.
Show Journal 1996-04-05
(Added Mar. 2002) – We wrote a song about the show. Can anyone figure out which one it is?
Show Journal 1996-02-18
(Added Oct. 2001) – This was upstairs on a balcony in a clothing store. They didn’t pay us but instead gave us each $50 store credit! I bought shoes. Dave’s mom came to this show and Dave was careful to mumble the bad words. I also still recall that this store had the worst staircase ever. It was three stories high and straight up from the street. Each section was narrower than the one before it and eventually got so small that you couldn’t stand two people across. Dave permanently dented his shin on his bass amp outside this store while rolling it at high speeds.
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