Show Journal 2004-08-14
Another late night and strangely action packed evening at Reid’s. Malignant was up first and sounded pretty good with the full volume of Reid’s at their disposal. Much heavier sounding than the Astoria show last month. I missed the second band because I went for food at Wendy’s and 10 minutes later paid the price in the Safeway bathroom. During this time I got a call from This Day’s End who’s van had broken down a few miles from Longview with most of their gear in it. Jim wound up having to drive our van over to them, pick up all their stuff and haul it back over to Reid’s. Because of the vehicle mishap BXF ended up having to play 3rd. It was Kellee’s last show singing for them and we were all admittedly a little sad to see her go as we’ve played a lot of shows with them over the past year or two. It was a pretty solid send off and definitely the best show I’ve seen them play yet. This Day’s End set up next and played a pretty frantic and energetic set of screamy hardcore. It’s gotta be tough concentrating on playing when you have no idea how you are going to get home. We were up next and I think this could have quite possibly been the most fun I’ve had playing this year. Not the biggest show we’ve ever had in Longview but definitely one of the most enthusiastic. There were people all over the stage, moving around in and out of the crowd and it seemed like a ton of people knew the words. It was hot, loud, a little rowdy and totally fun. Thank you Longview. Eyekon was up last and surprised me. Why? Normally if you asked me to watch white rappers from Longview I’d just smile and say “no thanks”. I took a chance and seriously I thought they were pretty damn entertaining. Who knew? Thanks to TJ for the show hookup and all who stayed late.
Show Journal 2004-08-13
I’ll try to keep it brief … Checkpoint Charlie was first and although they were good musicians they were musically a little out of place with the lineup. Streetlight Cardiacs were second and I thought they rocked. If only I could have played that well 10 years ago. We were third and nothing too spectacular to report from our set. White Hot Odyssey was last and is now one of my new favorite bands. During their first song I thought “what the hell is this?” and almost left. The second song I’m thinking “ok, this is kind of amusing” and ventured closer to the stage. By the third song my opinion was that “oh my god this rules”. What did they sound like? Imagine MC5, Turbo Negro and T-Rex being performed by a band in matching skin tight white shirts (with white sweatbands) being fronted by what was quite possibly the stereotype of the words greatest and simultaneously most androgynous front man ever. Tight pants, medallions, jewelry, puffy white shirt, powdered white makeup and a powedered white curly magistrate style wig. Crazy, crazy, stuff. The lyrics were straight out of the 80’s hair band genre with songs about sex, rock and roll and more sex. If you don’t appreciate music before 1980 you won’t get it. Fortunately 3/4 of our band is old and we were highly amused. Thanks to the WOW Hall for the hookup!
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We’re in the process of booking a brief west coast tour with our friends in Thirty3 for late September. If you can help with a show or want to see us play in your town get in touch with Dave via e-mail or through MySpace.
Show Journal 2004-08-06
It’s nice to play shows where all the bands sound different but everyone is still appreciative of each others music and set. Hollowpoint kicked it off with a good mix of punk, metal and a little hip hop. They’ve come a long way since last time we saw them. SWIL was insane to watch. Probably one of the most entertaining sets I’ve watched in ages. What style of music do they play? Well .. uhmm … all of them. Their guitar player is insane. Not in a looney way but in a mad skills kind of way, complete with face melting solos. Too much fun. The Brewed lived up to their name by offering up a beer soaked punk rock set complete with the singer vomiting into a pitcher before the last song. Good times. Our set? A little weak but seeing the other bands still hanging out and enjoying themselves was a blast. Thanks to the Rat and everyone we met tonight.
Show Journal 2004-07-30
Never thought I would visit Svensen, let alone play a show there. Due to some nasty traffic we ended up arriving late and showed up just as Malignant started. Turns out the whole show was running about an hour behind which is never a good sign. After watching for a bit Dave, Justin and myself decided to wander over and eat at the local restaurant which I’ve also added to my “things I never thought I’d do in Svensen” list. Sat around for a bit and came back over to catch the tail end of the Ted Dancin’ Machine set. Nice to finally see them play after crossing paths all this time. BXF was next and rocked. I’ve seen them about a dozen times over the past 6 months so I think I am qualified to comment on their performance. We were up last. We played three songs and were informed we only had time for 3 more. Hmmm. Drive two hours in traffic, watch other bands for 3 hours, play 20 minutes, then drive home. Swell. The promoter already got an earful from Dave so I’ll spare everyone from the rant about how annoying that shit is. Anyway, the abbreviated set was still fun and it was nice to see everyone rock out even if only for a few minutes. Thanks to the message board crew, our friends from Longview, people from Astoria who came to check us out again, the gnome dancers and Chris Miner. No thanks to the chicken strips or the lack of a door in the bathroom.
Show Journal 2004-07-22
This was our first show in Hillsboro, but amazingly not our first time playing in a bowling alley. We were able to get Bound To Break and The Rivals onto this show at the last minute as their show in Oregon had fallen through and it was a good move. Both were pretty entertaining to watch and seemed to be pretty cool guys. I will say that it was ironic that both had shirts for sale at their merch tables. (Sorry, had to go there) Paint By Numbers were third and despite the hour long set up time they did pretty well. It seems that as they get skinnier and skinnier they get better and better. It seems to be the reverse for us. Go figure. Lopez was fourth and I gotta say those 20 minutes were the most fun I’ve had watching a band in years. I think their punk/hardcore/rawk mixture fell on mostly deaf ears but we were all impressed with the music and stage antics. One highlight was the singer managing to knock the disco ball off the ceiling and catching it with one hand without missing a note. The funniest moment however was when he took it upon himself to blind everyone in the front of the audience (and later his band) with the incredibly bright stage light. Eventually they turned it off on him but the damage was done. It had been years since we played them and they can still rock like no one’s business. We played last and took requests. We wound up playing some songs we actually haven’t ever played live yet including ‘Roads Less Traveled’ and ‘Destination: Space’. It should be noted we saw the hand clapping and approved. Also as a request we busted out ‘ULS’ tonight, which we hadn’t played live since ’98. It was fun but now it will be retired for another 6 years. Thanks to everyone who showed up and more thanks to those who got lost and still showed up.
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Curious to hear our new album? If so then tune into gimpradio.com this Sunday at 8:00 CST. They will be playing our new album “Rise Again” from start to finish. In addition they will also be playing stuff from some of our other favorite bands. Thanks in advance to Lucas and Erica for the effort!
Album Review
800 Octane is a local band straight out of Portland, OR. They’ve been together since 1994 and they’ve released four albums so far.
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Huge thanks to everyone to hung out late to watch us play at the Warped Tour. Now cross you fingers to see if Justin’s guitar can be repaired!
