Recording
This month, better yet this weekend, we’re doing some recording. We’re doing a handful of songs with Sam from Take92 Studio in Eugene. The tracks will be for a split CD w/ The Independents due out later in the year. As for shows we’ve got a few. Two of which will be with the previously mentioned Independents who are better known as the world’s most badass and only ska-punk-horror band. We’ve also got a trip to Salem and another to Olympia in the works. Lastly, if you live in Portland, try to check out the one on the 10th. It’s a Tuesday but the touring band (Zombeast) seems totally cool and has promised to rock everyone’s face who attends.
Show Journal 2007-03-24
In all of years playing Longview, this was actually the first time we’ve ever played a bar there. Unfortunately it was also the first time we booked a show where there was another show in town happening as well. If you aren’t familiar with the area, the pool of people in Longview that goes to shows is pretty small. Take out the all ages group and you’ve cut out about half the crowd. Then split it in half again for the two shows and you get what we got which was about 20-30 people actually paying attention and wanting to see music. Don’t get the wrong, there were quite a few people in the bar, but most were there to drink, eat Chinese food or watch the UFC night. I’m definitely not complaining though as everyone who stood up front seriously made it a blast. Rick, Cory, Brady, Joel, most of Lung Invasion and a few others we didn’t recognize … I could have gladly played for that small group and been stoked. They were noisy and singing along and made the Chinese Gardens feel like Madison Square Gardens. We even saw Brady’s zombie dance (acts 1 and 2) which is always a plus. We had a totally fun time. Lung Invasion played last and seemed right at home with the increasingly intoxicated crowd. Lights, guitar solos and metal … what more could you ask for? Thanks so much to Nick and Lung Invasion for the show hook up!
Show Journal 2007-03-11
It’s not often we get to play in the daylight hours. It’s much warmer and you can actually drive to and from the show in daylight which is a plus. Unfortunately you can also clearly see when people are not impressed with your band which was the case today. The show was a memorial for our friend Hopper who passed away two years ago. A little sad reason for a show, but still a good vibe for everyone. We were late as hell as usual, no thanks to the daylight savings change which apparently was not advertised in the greater Longview metropolitan area as Dustin managed to not get that memo. We loaded in and went for some pizza which took about 30 minutes to find. We would up missed two of the bands we wanted to see which sucked. We did see one band whose name is escaping me and then we setup and tore through and 8 songs as fast as we could. I think we played well but when you want to see Grounds For Assault a band like us doesn’t impress like it should. Speaking of which, those guys totally ruled the school (literally) and were totally entertaining as well. They definitely ended the show on a high note. Thanks to everyone who made it happen. No thanks to Justin and his two hours of garlic calzone belching.
Show Journal 2007-03-09
I think this was the smallest Bend show I’ve ever been too. It was still fun but it’s been interesting to see how the turnout there has ebbed and flowed over the years. From 50 people with Thrust all the way up to 400 with Dead Even to the huge Misfits show and now down to 50 again. I’m fairly certain the Domino Room’s price gouging has something to do with this. Last I heard it $650 to rent the room for the night. Nice people and a nice club, but it’s no wonder local promoters have to charge an arm and a leg for local bands. Good news is the show was a blast … for what we saw of it. We missed all the openers including Aces Over Kings whom we’ve played with before. We did catch The Roe and they were entertaining to watch. Not often you see an arena sized show in a tiny club. Our set was highlight free but overall pretty fun. I sort of felt like we sucked at the last few Bend shows and this felt like redemption. Of course on the way out I heard two groups of people say this was the worst show they had seen in a long time. Hope they were talking about the show as a whole and not us. (Of course since they stuck it out we couldn’t have been that bad.) Also on the way out some girl wanted to buy a CD and her male friend dragged her away from the merch table explaining that she shouldn’t ever buy CD’s because it’s “the biggest scam there is”. According to him, buying CD’s is “a rip-off”, musicians make “a ton of money” and you should “download your music for free” to fight the system. I don’t necessarily oppose downloading of music, but holy shit, that was the dumbest fucking thing I’ve ever heard. I bit my tongue but was about one comment away from explaining that we pack up our van that we bought on our own, drove 4 hours over the mountain with our own money, setup our gear, played our balls off, and are about to unload it and drive 4 more hours back home … for nothing. Nada. Zero. Zip. That $3 compilation you refuse to let your girlfriend buy (that we paid $2 for) is the only money we’ll be making this evening. Jesus, what a douchebag. Next time in that situation I will stop to ask myself “what would Dave do?” The answer of course would be put him in a submission hold and throw him out the door head first. Note to self, play less Guitar Hero and more Fight Night. You know, just in case. Ok, I’m rambling. Thanks so much to everyone to stayed late as well as thanks to Dan and Bleeding Through productions for a very smoothly run show.
Destination Eugene
Last month was busy, this month is slow. I guess the only thing “newsworthy” is that we’re going to record a couple of songs at Take 92 studios on the first week of April for a split CD due out this summer. Speaking of songs what’s with that SnoCap crap? Glad to see they only posted songs from 1999 on there. Anyway, the only shows this month are Bend on the 9th and Eugene on the 11th. The Eugene show is a matinee show in honor of our friend Hopper who died two years ago. Other than that we are practicing and trying to fine tune the songs for recording. That’s all for now.
Show Journal 2007-02-10
Talk about old school. Man, oh man, this show was a blast from the past and we ran into just about everyone we had ever seen or met in between 1997 and 1999. No they weren’t there to see us, they were all here to see the Bomf! play their first show in about 8 years. For those who haven’t been with us long, Bomf! is quite possibly Dave and my favorite Portland punk rock band on both a personal and musical level. They were one of the first bands we really hung out with. Lyle played in our band for a short while, I filled in for them on guitar for a few months and we’ve played with Brent and Scotty’s other bands since many times. Needless to say we were stoked when we found out they were playing, even more so when they asked us to play. In fact we actually had a Seattle show booked this night and cancelled it to play. Even if we couldn’t play we would have cancelled to attend. So how was it? Awesome. I walked in the door and saw people I literally hadn’t seen in 6 or 7 years. Crazy. The show started off right with Lopez who are also just as entitled to their wayback credibility award as we are, possibly even a little more. The only word I can ever find to describe them is “gnarly”. Super fast, abrasive, in your face hardcore/punk rock. They also get the prize for the funniest in between song commentary. As for us, our set was good. I’m not sure how it went over with the crowd but we enjoyed the hell out of it. One added bonus is that in all of our trips to the Tonic over the years it was the first time we’ve played to more than 30 people. Sadly, I am not exaggerating. Anyway, the reason for the season was Bomf! and although they all look older (and bigger) they can still lay it down live. Hearing the songs again was great and my face is still sort from the perpetual smile throughout the night. Definitely the most fun I’ve had at a show in a long time. Thanks so much for having us and feel free to look us up in another 8 years guys. Also, thanks to everyone from the old school who has kept up with us as well and gave us a warm reception.
Show Journal 2007-02-09
You think you’ve been to a long show? Try enduring a 10 band lineup sometime. It’s brutal. We missed 4 of them and it was quite possibly one of the longest shows I’ve ever sat through. The sheer lack of attendance after the 10:00 mark made it all the more challenging since the show ran until nearly 1:30 AM. We walked in around 8:00 and about 100 people were going nuts for CLR. There was maybe 20 or so watching us and by the time the last band played (thankfully not us) it was down to about 8 utterly exhausted looking people. We joked at one point we need to start carrying tumbleweed in our gear so we can roll it across the floor at such sparsely attended shows. So why would we even take this show? We felt like we owed Local Chaos a favor since they have gotten us a few good shows over the year. The one cool thing about tonight it that every band we saw was really good. Seriously. Really, really good bands all the way around. I think The Rebel Spell impressed me the most and Full Frontal Assault being a close second. The other strange thing about this evening was I think that we played really well. It was fast, tight and pretty angry sounding. I only wish there were more people in the room as it probably would have gone over better. It was long but all in all a pretty good night.
Show Journal 2007-02-01
I actually had a long show review typed up but after fouling up an upgrade to Windows Vista I managed to lose it during the restore process. Anyway, the quick version is that The Bullies were entertaining to watch. Our set was very fun but not earth-shattering by any means. New Mexican Disaster Squad was fast and good. Only Crime was utterly humbling and awesome to watch. Heavier than we all expected but they still had some terribly catchy moments as well. Seeing all those influential musicians in one band was cool. Thanks to the Hawthorne. No thanks to my computer.
Was anyone in here around in 98?
Kind of a busy month. We have lots of shows coming up, including one with Only Crime tonight and a trip to Seattle next weekend. The biggest show for us is getting to play with Bomf! on Feb 10th at the Tonic Lounge. For those who haven’t know us for very long Bomf! was probably our favorite band to play with between ’97 and ’99. Great band, great guys and great memories. This is their reunion show and to cap it off Lopez will be playing as well. Total trip down memory lane. Can’t wait to throw beer at Brent and reminisce about monster burger at EJ’s. On another topic what you probably don’t know is that we actually did some recording this month. We went down to Eugene for two days to record demos with our friend Sam at Take92 studios. We actually did tracks for 18 new songs. We haven’t really done the demo thing before so hopefully it’ll help us get a solid album. We’re hoping to book the studio time for the “real” recording at some point during the month so stay tuned.
Show Journal 2007-01-27
If you asked me to sit down and make a list of all the things I don’t want to do while enduring a migraine, playing a show now tops my list. Every step, shuffle and head movement was uncomfortable at best, downright painful at worst. The 100w amplifier right behind me didn’t help matters. I just kept telling myself “25 minutes, I only gotta make it 25 minutes”. Out of instinct I’d find myself forgetting about my ailment and go for the head band only to see stars each time. It’s definitely easier when you pretend those stars are camera flashes from thousands of adoring fans, rather than jolts of discomfort given to oneself while trying to entertain a few dozen people in various states of intoxication. Thankfully all three other bands were very good (definitely a rare occurrence) and the turnout was better than we expected. Despite the headache, it was a pretty good night. Thanks to everyone who stayed up late to support four local bands.
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