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Montana totally rocked and Spokane was even kind of cool. Thanks to all who attended the shows. Three more shows this week including the big one at the Paris on Friday. If you miss Coldsnap 9 then you are a fool.
Show Journal 2002-12-08
The quote of the trip came from Ben who woke this morning up and proclaimed to 9 other people “I can’t tell if I’m just really sweaty or if I pissed myself”. Priceless. We had another breakfast courtesy of Compact and this time we had more than enough to eat. Full of eggs and bacon we headed to Spokane. It was cold and windy but the views of the Montana mountains were awesome. We watched ‘Glory’ in the van which took up about half the drive. Upon arriving in Spokane we ate at Dick’s hamburgers and spent the better part of thirty minutes making lame jokes about all the way to eat dicks, consume dicks, and taste dicks. Not funny now but highly amusing after 6 hours in the van. Fat Tuesday’s was a weird place. It’s big and looks more like a themed restaurant than a venue. The sound on stage was terrible but the sound out front was huge. We played first to about 30 people including the other bands. Oddly enough it was still totally fun because the other bands were all there standing up front and making noise between songs. Sure most of the noise in question was insults and 4 letter words but that’s what friends are for. Before CS-9 played I asked Derik if they were going to do any more guitar spins for us and all he said was “Yeah, we’re going for the record tonight”. I didn’t know there was such a title to be had but I counted at least 9 spins. Too funny. OTTL was third and although our styles were totally different they were definitely fun to watch. Their singer was very charismatic and kept the small crowd at attention. (By the way thanks to those guys for hooking up this show!) Tonight’s headliner was determined by the size of their banner so by default Compact had the honor of going last. They were trying their hardest to rock but were all thwarted when Dave placed his 11 x 17 hand drawn interpretation of Chris being sodomized by the band members on the stage. The fine piece of artwork was titled “Cum-packed 56” and it was fun watching each member wander by it and totally lose their concentration. That set the mood for their set and we all had a good time watching them. At one point Ben (who has a wireless on his guitar) did a guitar solo from the back balcony of the club. This was extra funny because it’s this huge room and there were maybe 30 people there at most. Too funny. Afterwards we said our goodbyes and headed back home. Three more shows with these bands this week and we can’t wait.
Show Journal 2002-12-07
Woke up quick at about noon just felt that I had to be in Billings soon. Compact 56 made us all breakfast today but by the time Dave and I got there we only had enough for 1 egg each. Chris sold out Dan and told us that he ate our share of the food. He’s unemployed so I am willing to forgive his sins. The tiny breakfast was a good excuse to go to Perkins and get some real food. Afterwards we went back to the house, watched a Pantera DVD for inspiration and headed out to Billings. We were a little sad that the air hockey table was gone but aside from that the Billings show was insane. The crowd was at least three times bigger than our last show there and a lot of people from the Bozeman show came all the way to Billings to see the bands again. Compact was first and sounded huge. The Front was second and although I liked them before, they sounded even better when you can hear the vocals. Derik and I particularly enjoyed their set. For our show tonight we played almost an entirely different set which made it cool for us. Coldsnap was last and this was hands down the best I’ve ever seen them play. Why? Two words … guitar spins. Derik and Eric has mastered the art of spinning their guitars around their bodies in mid song. Sometimes forwards, sometimes backwards and the highlight of them all … “the double spin”. Justin, Dave and I were completely humbled by this display of rock and roll showmanship. CS-9 is from a town just outside of Billings so this was more or less their home town. To the dismay of many people they announced that this would probably be their last show in Billings. We didn’t realize it when we booked these shows but apparently they are breaking up after this. It was kind of bittersweet to see because they are such a great band. For better or worse I’ve seen quite a few “last shows” but this one was one of the best. No one left early and everyone sang along. They got the treatment that a loved hometown band deserved and it was cool to be a part of it. Afterwards us and Compact headed back to Bozeman to the person’s house who’s name I still can’t recall.
Show Journal 2002-12-06
No sleep till … Bozeman. We actually left for this show on Thursday night. We drove a little past Spokane and slept at a truck stop we have stayed at 4 times before. I was actually able to fall asleep in the roof of the van tonight which was a first. Usually I just lie awake listening to Dave and his window rattling snoring until I can’t take it anymore and begin driving. Day 2 of the drive was uneventful at best. We watched movies and several hundred miles of snowy Montana mountains pass by the window. We got to the club early and met up with Compact 56 who’s drive had not been nearly as peaceful. Apparently Ben drove 99% of the trip without ever stopping to sleep. He said at one point he was so tired he thought he heard an explosion in the engine. There is tired and then there is “I think the van blew up” tired. Amazing. We were all pretty stoked to meet up with CS-9 again because we had played with them quite a few times before over the past 2 years. In fact they recently added a new guitar player who happens to be none other than Derik from STFS who we did our summer tour with. Even more surprising still was when Adam from STFS walked into the show carrying his bass! Apparently he would be playing these shows as CS-9’s new bass player. It totally caught us all off guard and we were all stoked to see him again. Dave started in on the ‘dirty hippie’ jokes almost immediately but we all realize that is Dave’s twisted sign of affection. To make the STFS reunion complete Damon even came out to the show. I don’t think I got a chance to say more than 5 words to him but it was totally appreciated and good to see him again. One question though … where was Bill? The show itself was cool. STD opened up and oddly enough I actually recognized them as they had attended out last two Montana shows. Pretty solid set from a fairly new band. The Front was next and although you couldn’t hear their vocals they were fun to watch. Compact was 3rd and dropped their full contact rock bomb on the unprepared Montana crowd. Adam and Spinelli they took the whole “crowd interaction” thing a bit too far and played most of their set in the midst of pretty tough looking circle pit. I kind of enjoyed seeing them play to a crowd that had no idea who they were and watch them slowly win them over. We played 4th and it was damn cool to see people signing along to our songs so far from home. Definitely as good as … perhaps even better than our last show in Bozeman. Coldsnap was last and I was glad we didn’t have to follow them. They ruled plain and simple. After the show we all went out to eat but I had such a raging headache I ended up sleeping in the van while everyone dined on greasy breakfast foods. Apparently some dude was staring Justin down in the restaurant. I guess they didn’t like his kind in those parts. Afterwards we went to crash at a friend of Chris’s who’s name is escaping me.
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Our December mini tour is approaching quickly and I can’t recall a time when so many people have asked us “Are you crazy? Do you know how cold Montana is this time of the year?” Yes, we know how cold it is there. Wanna see the current weather? (I swear there were some single digits on there yesterday). We are definitely stoked to be playing these shows with Compact 56 and Coldsnap 9 as they are both good friends and great bands.
Show Journal 2002-11-30
How was Redding you ask? Dave lost his voice within 10 minutes of starting the set. I cut my hand open. Justin fell off the stage. Dan’s drum stool broke during the last song and he fell to the ground. Definitely one of the more fun shows we’ve had there! Thanks to Chad and Brad for having us play. Even more thanks to all who bailed on their families to come see us play!
Show Journal 2002-11-23
After 5 years in Portland we finally made it to the Crystal Ballroom. How was it? Put it this way … on a scale of 1 to 10 this show was a 253. Seriously. All four of us agreed it was the most fun we’ve ever had at a show. Our set was so much fun to play I almost felt guilty. The sound was amazing, we played well and the crowd … oh my god … the crowd was so rad. They bounced when we bounced, they rocked when we rocked, they shouted when we shouted and people even crowd surfed for most of our set. Awesome feeling to see so many people into our music especially after playing last night to 20 people! I was kind of amazed at the response because we had people coming up to us all night who had never heard of us before who wanted to meet us, talk music and hang out. Too cool. The other bands? Slick Shoes rocked. Bigwig was outstanding. I wasn’t sure if the Bosstones would live up to their reputation as a great live band but they did. I heard the opening chords “the impression that I get” and I was sold. They were so damn good. Serious thanks to everyone who helped out, hung out and made this such a great night!
Show Journal 2002-11-22
Damn fun show tonight except that all of the fun seemed to be at other people’s expense. First was the belittling of Dan. Well, that really hasn’t stopped since we added him to the band. Then there was the insulting of Rick which grew more and more abrasive throughout the evening and eventually culminated in Dave chasing him outside the venue and throwing him to the ground. There was a fair share of good natured smack talking between us and Rhythm of ’84 during both of our sets. At some point during ours Justin was violated by the headstock of Dave’s bass on stage. At another point during load out someone was “humped” by a guitar cabinet. I guess there was a show tonight too? A fun time was had by all and Rick learned the hard way to never to raise his hand at Dave again. Thanks to Darin and Tim for setting this thing up and even more thanks to the small percentage of people who actually stayed to see all the bands.
Show Journal 2002-11-17
Tonight’s lineup was almost a repeat performance of Friday’s show except in Portland. The turnout was extremely low but everyone seemed to be in a good mood. From the looks of it everyone seemed to enjoy all the bands which is kind of rare. Paint By Numbers rocked tonight and everyone knows it. They’ve gotten so damn good since we last played with them. Plus I am currently obsessed with the guitar part in the song ‘Bully’. Knockout and Near Miss both sounded much better tonight and seemed much happier than the previous outing in Longview. Our set was cool, people stood up front, sang along and generally made it fun. One funny moment was during load out when I spotted the guitar played from Near Miss walking with one of our t-shirt boxes towards the staircase. By the time I turned the corner I heard our box of merchandise rattling and bumping down a flight of stairs. The guy was laughing hysterically and announced that he had just thrown Knockout’s merch down the stairs. He had a good laugh until the box turned sideways and rather than seeing Knockout on the side of the box he saw 800 Octane written in huge letter. He shouted an obscene word and quickly turned around only to find myself and Dan standing right behind him staring at him. He turned bright red and apologized about a dozen times over the course of the night. The look of horror on his face was priceless and we all got a good laugh out of it. Thanks to Rick, Conor, Alex, Dan and crew, Jeff and all at the Meow Meow.
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Check out the results of our Destroy Swank contest from the eyes of a participant!
