Show Review
Did I even need to say that 800 Octane stole the show? These guys rocked with such intensity that it was almost impossible not to feel the music in your heart (not literally, of course). Justin was jumping around as usual, and somehow playing to perfection in the process; and Dave’s voice struck a chord with the whole audience, I’m sure. Octane is a show like no other, and they’re really fun to hang out with. I swear, this is the nicest band we’ve ever played with, and I can’t wait for our next show with them in Bend. (Sam / EPD)
Show Journal 2002-06-02
We played ‘Day Of The Dead’ acoustically tonight on NRK. It all sounded fine and dandy until Dave inexplicably decided to do an Elvis impression during the breakdown and comment on Justin’s guitar solo in a “king like” voice. I swear I could hear the collective groan of every band in Portland that wouldn’t dare do anything like that on the air.
Show Journal 2002-06-01
Finally after a year and 5 cancelled shows we finally got to play in Eugene again. Was it worth the wait? Damn right it was. The show was in a high school but it didn’t really feel like it … big stage, huge PA, lights, etc. First up was the Boston Dock’s Oister Boys. I’m not quite sure what to say about them. You’ll just have to see them and formulate your own opinion. They played ‘Sex and Violence’ by The Exploited so that was good enough for me. After them was Monkee Torture. I’ve been wanting to see them for a long time and I was not disappointed! We’ve known Glenn for a while but had no idea he was such a bad ass guitar player. The highlight for us was their rendition of “What Would Baron Von Torture Do” … very metal and very cool. They totally rocked and if you live in Oregon do make a point to go see them. Up third was the band behind the whole show … EPD. They’ve been doing quite well recently with a few huge shows in Eugene w/ Face to Face and a few other bigger name bands. The big shows have been rubbing off on them and you can tell they have gotten tighter as a band. The music was dead on, their sound has gotten bigger and better and my god their drummer (Chase) has gotten better by leaps and bounds. It’s cool being able to see bands improve over time. We were up last and in traditional Eugene fashion we had a shaky start when we blew the power during the third song. I thought it was going to be a repeat of our last Animal Farm show but as they say on talk shows it was “all good.” On a side note it seems that everywhere we go in Eugene Dave’s bass amp blows the power. It weird. I think it all the hippies there conspiring against loud music. After a few songs, people started to get into it and the rest is history. Big thanks to EPD for hooking it all up, Glenn just for being Glenn and our street team people for helping out.
Show Journal 2002-05-31
We were warned that shows in Salem were pretty crazy but good lord I had no idea. We got to the bar and it was just a bunch of people watching basketball. I’m thinking “how fun is this going to be”? Iknowkungfu played (very well I might add) to about a handful of people. Cool to see but certainly not wild and crazy like we had heard. (They did play ‘Logan’s Run’ though and I’ve been singing it since). I’m not sure how the next band ended up on the show but they were kind of a rock/hippie/grunge mix. I’ll try to bow out gracefully and just say that it was definitely not my thing. Again the crowd was totally subdued. So about 12:30 we start to play. The first song went ok and a few people wandered in to watch us play. The second song was ok but people looked a little bored. As we played the third song we were suddenly assaulted by the CSG toilet paper machine! The device I speak of is a modified leaf blower that can shoot a roll of toilet paper in excess of 25 feet and dispense a whole roll in about 30 seconds. Man let me tell you … when the T.P. starts to fly in Salem people lose their minds! The few curious onlookers turned into about a dozen yelling, excitable and sloppy drunk fans that were throwing stuff, breaking stuff, falling over stuff and making our night enjoyable. The bar has a ceiling fan above the stage which quickly became the focal point for all toilet paper activity. When a stream of paper goes into the fan it swirls around entrapping whoever is below it in a toilet paper cocoon. During one song it wrapped around Dave’s head and he exclaimed to everyone that he felt like he was wearing a turban. Speaking of which … Dave was in rare form tonight. At one point he proclaimed “this song goes to you guys who are over there trying to pick up hogs at the bar”. I thought for sure someone was going to come over and kick his ass but then I realized … how seriously can you take someone wrapped in toilet paper? Oddly enough though a few guys sitting at the bar casually wandered over into the main room so as not to be confused with the “hog chasers” that Dave referred to. Anyway, more wildness followed and we had a great show. After us some friends of the CSG (who’s name is escaping me) played about 4 songs. After that was the mighty Catholic School Girls. Our crowd interaction almost seemed uninteresting compared to theirs. They already have a wild show and their hometown crowd makes it all the better. We only got to watch the first half of their set because we had to get back home. Thanks to CSG and ‘the Fu’ for hooking us up with the show!
Album Review
800 Octane is a very high energy band live and you can see this high energy on their CD which totally shows that they are not fake whatsoever. The singers voice is one of the main factors keeping them in a field of their own, and keeping them original. I can not compare them to any other local bands or even non local bands at the time. 800 Octane can be well classified as an “Super Rock Punk Band.” With lyrics ranging from girls to bullets to the brain. An easy vocal band meaning a good band to sing along while jumping threw the pit at their shows. They redid two of their old songs for this CD, “Day of the Dead” and “New Song #2” Which were a good amount of spice to get this CD going. 800 Octane is definitely a live band but, this CD does them justice, a good amount of justice. I would suggest buying this CD as soon as you can. If you like “Punk Rock” you will love this CD. Well done guys. Score : 9 out of 10 (Matt / Punkin’ Around)
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So what’s new? Not too much. We’ve had tons of great shows over the past two months and we’ve been selling lots of the new CD’s. Most people really seem to like it which is encouraging for us. (Speaking of CD’s we are down to our last 25 copies of ‘The Kelvis’ … better buy one soon!) I can say that we are looking forward to getting out of the Northwest for our one week “tour” in June. The midwest has always been good to us, so we’re excited to go back even if only for a few days. We’ve got a few appearances on various comps in the works, plus we are putting the wraps on our first 7″ which should come out later in the summer. Thanks to everyone who keeps up with us!
Show Journal 2002-05-25
Cool show tonight. It kind of felt like a repeat performance of the CD release show but that’s a good thing. Rhythm of 84 totally rocked tonight. Perhaps more so than last time. Seeing OTR was cool since they are on our label (never thought I would be able to say that). Fast, tight, solid … very cool. Spare Lead sounded good as usual and NTTY was equally incredible as well. Our set was fun for us. Lots of jumping around and lots of guest background vocals which is always a good thing. It’s cool that people know the lyrics to the new CD already! As good as the show was, the highlight of the evening was watching the video taped breakdance battles on the lobby! Priceless entertainment! Not much else to say except big thanks to everyone who came out and made this a good show for everyone!
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We appeared on NRK’s Blackjack Radio this evening and did a quick interview and played a song from the new CD (which was cool because we ran into Krist Novoselic there). Interestingly enough we were asked to come back and play acoustically on June 2nd sometime between 7:30 and 8:00. We think this should be highly amusing for two reasons … 1) since 1994 we’ve only played acoustically once and it was only for 30 minutes in front of a very intoxicated audience and 2) no one in this band has ever owned an acoustic guitar so our skills range from bad to terrible. Be sure to tune in to hear us sink or swim!!!
Show Review
Next up was 800 Octane. This Portland crew has built up quite a local following, and it seems like they always manage to secure a good turnout at their shows. Their great sound, and catchy lyrics draw new fans to every show, and tonight they put on a great one. Their set list was a killer mix of stuff off of their latest release, The Return, and several of their older tunes. Including crowd favorites like ‘Berserker’, ‘Day of the Dead’, and ‘Get In The Van’. And they gave props out to their street team, which is always cool. (of course they forgot to mention the FIRST person to hang flyers for this show in town, who shall go unnamed) Overall this was a great show, and all of the bands gave everything they had to please the crowd. (PJ / Kick Back Punks)
Show Journal 2002-05-18
I’m going to cop out and give another abbreviated show review. First things first, Iknowkungfu rocks as a 3 piece! However, they should learn that a CD release show is no good without new CD’s! The High and Mighty have a very, very, very good guitar player. CSG were insane as usual. Words really can’t describe them so I won’t attempt to. You just have to see them to understand! Thanks to all who came out for Justin’s birthday surprise and also to everyone who paid to see us play but thought we were playing third and missed us!
