The Mayor of Tri-Cities returns
Long ago we used to joke that Dave was the Mayor of Tri-Cities. We could go anywhere and someone would recognize him. Sadly his reign of power has long since ended due to the fact that our last show there was in Dec of 2007. It’s been a long time so please gather up your fellow constituents and head out to Ray’s tomorrow night for some rock and roll. Let’s get Dave back in office!
R.I.P. Frankenstein
Damn. You put someone’s picture on a shirt and they go and kill themselves. We hope David Carradine suicide had nothing to do with our usage of his likeness. Anyway, props to the man. RIP
Fire up your motors!
New shirts are finally available. Designed by The Kelvis and printed by Ink Brigade, these are our tribute to the movie Death Race 2000. Very limited numbers. Cost is a lucky $13 which includes shipping. If you have a PayPal account you can even order online. For more details check the merch page.
Show Journal 2009-04-24
We don’t put this stuff on flyers or on the website, but we really needed this show to be good. Our last 3 shows were fine excuses to get out of the house but as a band, especially one that has been playing so long as us, they were completely dismal and totally depressing. All were plagued by equipment failures and worse still a complete and total lack of both of interest and attendance. They’ve been bad enough that I find myself thinking “why do I still do this?” Tonight’s show was why we still do this. I’d love to claim it was some huge packed affair with hundreds of people (like the surge in Bend shows circa 2001), but it was not. What it did have though a dozen or so folks up front absolutely losing their minds to our music. It’s been a while since we’ve seen and felt that and it was a welcome change. There were plenty of people in the place who probably didn’t give a shit about our set, but the few that stood up, sang along and cut loose really made the whole night worthwhile for all of us. We must have had 20 people says “yeah, I saw you guys back in 2001” or “my band used to play with you guys in 2002”. Most came up afterward with compliments and a few said we were just as good now as we were back then. To an outsider it probably wasn’t anything spectacular, but for us it was a minor redemption of sorts. As for the rest of the trip it was pretty good. Aside from Dustin’s breakdown on the way to van the trip was uneventful. Last Stand sounded good and Kill The Kids were great as usual. Hands On Throat were pretty excellent and really surprised us with their energy and unique sound. Good stuff. Many thanks to the folks at Players and to Marty for hooking up the show.
Yes, it’s 4/20
Would you believe many years ago we actually found ourselves in Weed, CA on 4/20 at 4:20pm? Ironically we were stopping for gas, soda and junk food. Go figure. Anyway, later today when you done eating cheetos and discussing what it would be like to be weightless take a second and look us up on Facebook. As of typing this we’re at 36 friends which is pretty sad. The number of friends really should be higher than the number of drummers we’ve had.
Show Journal 2009-04-18
It’s 12 hours later and I’m still not sure what to make of this show. It didn’t suck, but it definitely wasn’t great either. Some good points were the fact we were playing at Dante’s, Visqueen was amazing, Kleveland did in fact rock, doughnuts we’re consumed (maple bacon bar!) and by end of the night there were a lot of freaking people in the crowd. On the bad side, we played first and early to a bunch of seated folks, Justin’s guitar stopped producing sound and Dave was playing on borrowed gear which didn’t quite sound right. A surprising number of folks said they enjoyed it so I shouldn’t complain but these last two shows have just seemed “off” in almost every regard. The highlight of the evening was our new van. It’s actually the same van we’ve had since 1996 but after spending two hours removing mold from the inside and peeling back its protective layer of moss and mildew from the outside it looked and felt like a whole new ride. Anyway, thanks to Lisa and Dante’s for having us and also to the folks that arrived early to check us out.
Saturday night redemption
So, our last bar show was literally attended by about 6 people. We’ve set the bar (no pun intended) pretty high and are shooting to double that total tomorrow night at Dante’s. Be part of the cool crowd and show up early to rock. Even more reason to attend are the two headliners, Visqueen and Kleveland. Both are stellar bands and will rock your face. Aside from the music you have drinks, pizza and doughnuts all within a 300 yard radius. Good times. Remember, we’re up first so arrive early!
Tonight Reid’s, tomorrow the world
Tonight we’re playing at Reid’s Pit Stop in Longview, WA with Accidental Gun Death and 5 other bands which you can see on the flyer below. Hard to believe it’s been over a year since we’ve been back. Scarier still is that this will be our 20th show there. Hopefully it will not suck. Also, for the first time in a long time we’ll have new shirts at this show. Check it out if you live in the area!
Uhhhm, never mind
So we got an e-mail late this afternoon to tell us the show tonight is canceled. There’s some long excuse about city inspectors and building changes. The good news is we no longer have to endure a 7 band set. The bad news is there is no makeup date in sight. Ughhh.
Show Journal 2009-04-08
Its odd how I’ve reached the point I can enjoy what by all means was a pretty terrible show. One of the bands cancelled, Dave’s bass couldn’t produce sound reliably for more than 5 seconds and outside of band members and their immediate friends there were less than 10 paid attendees. So the crazy thing was it was actually still a pretty good time. It’s always fun to play at the Ash Street because the sound system is great and Heather is the coolest booking person/sound person in town. The reason we took this show was to try and help support Creepsville 666. We’ve know at half of them from their former lives in the Billings, Montana band Coldsnap 9. It’s been many, many years since we’d seen them so it was cool to play the same place again after all this time. They sounded pretty great and it’s cool to see they can write good hooks in any style. Particular props for their unusual yet still totally rocking cover of Where Eagles Dare. I certainly wish more people were there to see them but that’s Wednesday night for you. It was also nice to finally say we’ve played with No Secrets Between Sailors again. We’ve had 1 degree of separation from them for the past few years so it was good to actually be at the same show again. They seemed to have a reasonably good time playing and on a low energy night like this it makes all the difference. Thanks to the proud few who stuck out the otherwise slow night. Apologies to Tizzle, well, just because.
Random Photos