Show Journal 2003-07-05
We got a real late start on the way to Bend and missed the first band. We did see Syris and they were kind cool. Sort of a new school / technical / stoner rock thing. Definitely different but that’s fine with me. Third up was our friends in Spare Lead. Very solid set and quite honestly it was probably the best I’ve ever seen them play. People were moving so they must have been rocking someone other than me. SDS was definitely the hit of the evening and they totally stole the show. A full set of moshing and stage diving impressed us all. I actually have a picture of a skinhead stage diving to them from this show … classic. Mad props to them for laying down the rock. Much like sex with a one legged hooker our set was difficult at first but ultimately rewarding. We had lots of technical stuff go wrong including broken guitar strings, un-tunable instruments and even a knocked over guitar amp. We barely manged to hold it all together but somewhere during our last song the stage turned into complete chaos. I can’t even describe it. People everywhere, jumping up and off the stage, only to be eclipsed by someone standing next to Dave shouting “you guys fucking rule” at him. A wild ending to say the least. After the show we headed back to PDX to get in a good 2-3 hours of sleep before the Warped Tour. Oh yeah, Jim got a real bad speeding ticket in Sandy. $305. Once again it sucks to be Jim.
Show Journal 2003-07-04
Atomic Records is one of our favorite places to play so we were a little skeptical to play some place other than the beloved record store. Would the new place live up to high expectations? The venue (Ray’s Golden Lion) was a little weird because it’s stage is sort of off center in the room. It did have some perks which included two raised dancing stages with poles and more importantly a big stage with an even bigger sound system. (I did kind of miss having people two inches from us while we were playing though.) Absent Minded was first and sounded pretty good with some cool guitar parts. SDS was next and sounded great as usual. People seemed to enjoy them but no one was really moving which made us a little nervous. After about 30 seconds of our first song we realized the show was going to be just fine. Normal Richland chaos ensued for the rest of our set and we loaded out with gigantic smiles on our faces. Our lesson learned tonight was that it’s the people that make great show and not the venue itself so props to Tri-Cities for rocking. After the show we headed over to Denny’s and watched a Richland local (anonymous for his protection) willingly drink Dave’s evil concoction made of syrup, jelly, tobasco, ketchup, salt, sugar, coke and a few other items likely to make your stomach churn. Mmm mmm good. Thanks to everyone who skipped the fireworks and family stuff to see the show. Next time we’ll pick a day that isn’t a holiday! Oh yeah, shameless CD plug … on the drive up we listened to the new Dave Attell CD called ‘Skanks For The Memories’ and laughed so hard it was embarrassing. If you like slightly crude and somewhat disturbing humor I couldn’t recommend a better CD. We just about wrecked the van when we got to the track which revolves around getting a hernia from trying to take a crap too fast. I know … too much information.
Show Journal 2003-07-02
God bless the Solidstate. You can have a pretty small turnout and it still feels packed. Do that at the Paris and it feels like you are playing in an empty barn. (Granted that barn actually has a stage but that’s beside the point!) Anyway … totally fun show. The Civies were first and man they’ve gotten good. Not that I thought they sucked before but they really impressed me this time around. The Altarboys were lots of fun to watch as well. I wasn’t so fond of Nate wearing a mini skirt but beggars can’t be choosers. SDS played next and man it was nice to see them again. We did a week of our 2000 tour with them along with a few shows here and there (mostly here) over the past few years. Not much to say that hasn’t been said before … rock solid poppy punk. I can’t speak much for their acquired taste for day old pizza but that’s another story. Three more shows with them this weekend so hopefully I can dig up something less generic to say about them over the next few days. We played last and decided to take requests for our set which actually ended up working out pretty well. No one requested ULS, Shabba Time or anything from Swank so we had it easy. Not too much crowd activity but everyone seemed to be paying attention and only minimal yawning was observed. Big thanks to Jessica for hooking us up at my new favorite all ages venue in Portland!
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Good news
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Our July 4th Richland show has been moved to a new and larger venue! It’s now at Ray’s Golden Lion which is apparently just a few hundred feet from Atomic Records. More importantly though the show now starts at 8:00. Since it’s July 4th who’s bringing the fireworks? We’re ready for our Great White tribute! (yes, that was in poor taste). Also, be sure to check out our other shows in Bend and Portland as we don’t have anything else booked until September.
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We’ve got three shows with our friends in Same Day Service from Austin, TX coming up in July. If the name sounds familiar we played a week of our 2000 tour with them. Also, we’ve got some new patches and new stickers on the way so keep an eye on the merchandise section.
Show Journal 2003-06-21
Uhhh … hmmm … not too much to say about this one … solid bands, good pizza, nice people, and good music. Sometimes an uneventful evening is the best kind. Thanks to Conor, Evin and all our friends in the other bands!
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Where’s the message board you ask? Gone. Too much drama, too much rambling and too many complaints from posters and non-posters alike. If you still need a fix check our links page for an alternate message board where some people hang out. On a different note thanks to everyone at the Longview show last night. That was one of the best times we’ve ever had playing!
Show Journal 2003-06-14
8 months is too long to go without a Longview show. I had almost forgotten about the crowds and shows there. The locals there don’t realize it but Longview is the mythical land where people actually come to shows, don’t care about what genre of music you play and actually try and have fun at shows. Those are several qualities that this hometown of ours often lacks. Rumor has it tonight was the biggest show of the year and in all the times we’ve been to Reid’s I would say that seemed about right. 2 Men Dead rocked. I’ve never heard such a huge wall of sound come from two people before. Himsa was incredible. I just sat there thinking “there is no way they can get heavier than that last song”. Then the would play the next song and it would be heavier. Then I’d say “ok, really there is no way it’ll get heavier than that last song” and then it would. Incredible. If you like your music fast and loud they should be your new favorite band. As always Countdown ripped it up. Their shows in Longview are consistently some of the best shows I’ve ever seen. I am a huge fan of their band anytime they play but watching them play in their hometown just magnifies their energy and sound about 10 times. It’s insane. It’s makes me feel old. It makes me feel inadequate. It’s makes me want to start a circle pit. Somewhere in the middle we actually played some songs too. I felt like we were the comic relief in a sea of hardcore, noise and anger but alas we all had a great time. First off I should take a bow for not jumping on Dave’s broken ankle tonight. What’s weird is that after some discussion we came to the conclusion that in all these years I hadn’t ever landed on Dave’s ankle until last week. Go figure. We played 3 new songs tonight and they all seemed to go over well. It’s always great seeing people attempt to sing the words to songs they have never heard before. It’s even funnier when that person is Dave. All in all a good night. The only real disappointment was after we left when we tried to go to Jack In The Box and our van wouldn’t fit in the drive through. Being teased with the fresh fragrance of fried fast food is especially cruel when you are very hungry. We had to wait until we got back to Portland before finding an accessible drive through. In a stange last minute decision I opted for fish and chips and they were actually quite disgusting. Just thought everyone should know that. Again, big thanks to the CTL boys for hooking us up with this show.
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Mad props, big ups, much respect and any other expression you want to throw in to thank Lyle for filling on bass last week. You can find Lyle playing drums for The Muddy River Nightmare Band in a dive near you. Anyway, Dave’s going to try to go it alone and return to bass duties this weekend in Longview. I can’t believe it’s been 8 months since we played there. Looking forward to seeing all our homies again!
