Show Journal 2002-07-17
Today was Jim’s birthday. We were supposed to play a show in Govt. Camp with the Civies tonight but sadly we were stopped by a broken water pump somewhere in Gresham. Not only did we miss tonight’s show but we were forced to cancel tomorrow’s Redding show as well. I hope my birthday is better than Jim’s.
Show Journal 2002-07-16
Oh … my … god … Strike Anywhere was incredible tonight. Easily the best band performance I’ve seen in ages. Absolutely amazing. As Ice-T would say I am completely and totally on their jock. Seriously if you like hardcore/punk/emo or anything in between go look at their website and see if they are playing near you. I promise you will not be disappointed. Speaking of amazing bands … Rhythm of ’84 … I don’t even know where to start with these guys. They are so spectacular live it’s almost discouraging to watch them play. So talented and so good. Thirty 3 sounded great tonight as well. The pink sailor outfits were a little unorthodox but we’ve come to expect the bizarre when it comes to Thirty 3. We played third and since we are the greatest band on Earth every one was humbled by our presence. Hardly. Truth be told I’m not sure if our set was good or not because I was so traumatized by facing the public with my disgusting leper-like sunburn I couldn’t make eye contact with anyone in the crowd. All in all a great show. Thanks go out to Crys, Mocephus, Lee, Ashley, Michelle and her cookies, the anonymous Huffy riders, all the assorted members of local bands who came out and especially to everyone who was respectful of the Eagles Lodge.
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Just got back from Warped Tour and I gotta say it was pretty cool. The $3 Mountain Dews were a bit excessive but the sheer number of good bands more than made up for it. In local show news we are playing with H2O at the B Complex on July 30th!!!
Show Journal 2002-07-14
We finally got to play the Warped Tour and you know what … it was actually pretty cool. We left on Saturday afternoon and drove straight to S.F. through the night. We did see a pretty large wildfire which was kind of cool. We arrived to the venue around 5:00 AM but they weren’t allowing extra vehicles in the lot so we were instructed to park outside the gate along the street. After about 2 hours of sleep we woke up to meet our Ernie Ball contact person and load in our stuff. Since we were playing on the Ernie Ball stage we were given special “Ernie Ball VIP passes” which kind of equates into being a second class citizen at the show. You can’t go backstage, you can’t park in the band lot and you have to use the main gate to go in and out. Kind of a pain the ass for an all day event but I kept reminding myself it was free. The venue was totally cool … it was on a pier on the water beside the Bay Bridge and you had a perfect view of the city. The first few hours of the show were cool, Justin and I wandered around and watched tons of bands. I think the highlight was seeing Hot Water Music … after seeing them live I have a new found appreciation for that band. Awesome place to hang out! Around 2:00 we went to set up and play. Oddly enough we ran into a group of people from Portland there! They were following the Warped Tour for a few days and were just as surprised to see us as we were to see them. Quite a few people stopped to watch us which was very encouraging. Some people even moved which was very nice to see. We sold quite a few CD’s despite not having a merch booth and felt good about our set. We watched a few more bands (most notably The Line) and after an hour or two we were all pretty burnt out on seeing bands so we decided to pack it up and head back. (Speaking of ‘burnt out’ I have never been so sunburnt in my entire life. As I type this I have a bright red face with swollen blisters. I am not happy.) All in all the day was good but the drive home totally sucked ass. About 30 minutes outside of S.F. we decided to stop at In And Out Burger. We couldn’t find it and ended up driving on a road parallel to the interstate for a few miles to a Burger King. We got some food, started driving and after about 30 minutes realized we could see the Sacramento skyline. In a cruel twist of fate it turns out the turn towards I-5 was at the exit where the In And Out Burger was. There is nothing as discouraging as starting a 11 hour drive and realizing you just added an extra hour to it. The rest of the drive was grueling … we kept having to stop to take naps because we couldn’t stay awake. Thanks to my sunburn I was driving with swollen eyes. Well, despite the miserable drive the whole experience was great. Thanks to everyone who traveled to see us including Stephanie from Redding, Angela from Portland and extra huge thanks to Kevin, Sam, Al and Chris for traveling from Seattle!
Show Journal 2002-07-05
Yet another good Longview show for the books. We finally got to hear The Laxatives which was cool since those guys ALWAYS come to our shows! The Amazombies were up next and they were awesome. Jim and I listened to their CD on the way home and determined that it is also awesome. The Daryls were up third. Fast, funny, catchy and clever, you just gotta love those guys. Last was Dirt Bike Annie and holy mother of rock … they were awesome! They have elevated the art of synchronized rock star moves and poses to the greatest of heights. They sounded huge too. Our set was fun as usual. Guest vocals, crowd singing, what more could we ask for? The quote of the night was overheard outside the club and goes like this “my love for you is like diarrhea … I just can’t stop it.” Thanks to all the Longview regulars, Darin and crew, TJ, and the guys from Shoot For Friday and Countdown to Life.
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Happy 4th of July. We aren’t doing anything particularly special but we do have piles of new 2002 Tour pictures posted. Most have little or nothing to do with music but that’s half the fun. Check them out and then remind yourself that Kevin is the man.
Show Journal 2002-06-29
Well the Widmer Dock Rock actually kind of rocked! It was a big show sponsored by KNRK featuring 5 local bands who had previously appeared on the morning show. The venue was interesting … the stage was actually on the loading dock of a brewery! Pretty cool setup, nice weather, what more can you ask for? All the bands were very good today and it was a nice change of pace to see some different styles of music. Plus all of the bands were all really cool. We didn’t see any rock star attitudes that you might expect to find at an event like this and everyone was totally friendly. As for the performances most of my props are reserved for Longshot who absolutely tore through their set and left people begging for more. They are so good they make me want to quit. The show had to be wrapped up by 9:00 and since everyone was running late we were only allowed to play 15 minutes. We managed to squeeze in 6 songs and I think everyone seemed to have fun. Big thanks to the KNRK for finally taking notice of the bands in their back yard. There are plenty more good ones out there to choose from so they’ve got their work cut out for them. Thanks to all out friends who came out!
Show Journal 2002-06-26
Today was our second time on the morning show and it was much more laid back since we knew what to expect! Daria and Gustav were on vacation so Nik and Dan were the hosts of the show today. We watched ‘Fast Times At Ridgemont High’ on a huge projection screen to pass the time between music segments. It worked out that every time there was nudity on the screen someone on the NRK staff would walk by, do a double take and then stare at us disapprovingly. I’ll be surprised if Josh isn’t sued for sexual harassment by creating a hostile work environment.
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Big thanks to everyone who voted for us in the KNRK / Widmer’s Dock Rock showcase! Because of your votes we get to play this cool sounding show. Too bad it was determined by voting … it would have been cool to see all of the bands play.
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We came back from tour to discover we are playing on the San Francisco stop of the Warped Tour! We are on the Ernie Ball stage which should be kind of fun. Oh yeah, we should have some pictures from our Midwest tour with STFS up in the next week or so.
