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The new and improved guestbook is operational. Please feel free to add to the stupidity yourself.
Show Journal 2001-07-24
I honestly think tonight was the most fun I have ever had playing. Everything really just seemed to click for us tonight. We played really tight, we had fun and we never really ran out of energy. I guess it’s hard not to be excited playing in front of so many people though. We actually had a pretty decent sized group of fans right in front of the stage signing along and shouting for us! At one point I could see 7 people with our t-shirts on from the stage. Kind of a serious fashion blunder for them but I think it’s cool as hell to see people wearing our stuff! At a couple of points in the set we had a few stage divers and/or people dancing on stage. I love seeing that while we play in big clubs. So cool. Onto the other bands … Anti-Freeze sounded pretty good and were really nice guys. The Guttermouth crowd isn’t too kind to pop-punk bands, but I thought they did well. The Deviates were awesome tonight. They have been on the road for 4 months solid and they were incredibly tight. Awesome set. Guttermouth was Guttermouth and if you haven’t seen them before it’s your loss. Great stage show, endless energy and quite possibly more people on stage at any one time than I’ve ever seen before in my life. Thanks to everyone who came out to support us at a big venue like the Roseland! Also thanks to the Roseland / Thrasher Presents crews. We feel spoiled getting to work with such cool people!
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Huge show news … we are playing with A New Found Glory in Eugene on 8/16! Unfortunately this means we have to cancel our 8/23 show at the Animal Farm. Hopefully some of you Animal Farm regulars will come check us out at the Wow Hall!
Show Journal 2001-07-15
Wow, what a killer show tonight. Every band totally rocked. Kalifornia Redemption played really well and were totally cool guys. After that was The Stryder. Playing after The Stryder was like getting into the ring with Mike Tyson. Well, back before he became an ear eating, butt raping freak. Anyway, those guys sounded great. Very cool. Our set was pretty good. Decent energy with a few sloppy moments. Lots of local fan support though which is great to see! They are learning the words too … perhaps they can teach Dave sometime. After us was the almighty Dynamite Boy. Holy cow these guys rock. Super funny, super energetic, super tight and just fun as hell to watch. I can’t say enough good things about Dynamite Boy. Also, they pulled off an amazing cover of AC/DC’s TNT. Very cool. Oh hell, I almost forgot … in between The Stryder and us we had a guest visitor. Satan himself graced the stage at the Paris theater! He showed up and was about 8 feet tall, glowing red eyes and covered in horns and spikes. Absolutely amazing! I hope we get pictures of this soon because you readers probably think I’m hallucinating. So, anyway Satan hung out for a while on stage, talked about Portland, talked about religion and then told some jokes. Pretty cool to be introduced by the dark lord. Thanks to everyone who came out and special thanks to the people from Portland’s local bands who come to the shows and watch all the bands … No Thanks To You, Fistfull, Straight Edge Bob, Thirty 3 and I Know Kung Fu.
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The booking for our 2001 Tour is well underway. Our tentative schedule is down below … dates are being added daily. If you want us to play in your town on a date we don’t have listed please don’t be afraid to e-mail us!
Show Journal 2001-07-07
Tualafest 2001. Sounds like a bad joke huh? Amazingly there was a pretty good cross section of the Portland punk and hardcore scene represented here today and all for free. Bands played on a makeshift stage in the middle of a basketball court while other people skated on the rather tiny but kind of cool Tualatin skatepark. It was very sunny, very hot and very un-shaded for bands and fans alike. Jack from Fistfull said it best when he commented about the stage “burning through the soles of his shoes.” Of course Dave had the wonderful commentary on stage of “it sucks when you’re fat and it’s hot outside.” Lovely. Despite the rather wimpy PA and nagging technical difficulties for almost every band it was still a pretty decent show.
Show Journal 2001-06-30
I thought we had a really good show tonight for about an hour. During that hour a pretty big crowd rolled into the Pine Street, we set up, we played what I thought was a really good set, and had lots of people tell us we sounded great while we loaded off the stage. Everything was fine and I was feeling good about life … and then Tiger Army played. Those guys we so good I can’t even put it into words. I have never seen a band so genuinely excited to play a show and the crowd totally ate it up. They had everyone screaming for more after every song. They sound like a mix of super fast rockabilly mixed with the Misfits. This makes perfect sense when you see them using a stand up bass along with the drummer from Samhain. Easily the best show I’ve seen in over a year. I was glued to the floor and cheering with the every song as if I had never seen a band like this before. Then again I suppose I haven’t. I’d ramble on more about how great they played but it would only belittle our performance ever more. The Amazing Crowns played last and it was immediately obvious why they are consistently rated the best live band in the US. Super energetic, consistently funny and very entertaining. I figure if they can make me like rockabilly they must be doing something right. The energy and excitement level of the crowd was a little lower for them than Tiger Army, but they still put on an amazing set. Thanks to the Bend/Dead Even posse, Ben from Compact 56, Chris N. and everyone else who came out early.
Show Journal 2001-06-29
If you don’t live in Longview you missed a totally rad show tonight! All the other bands tonight played very well. The Daryls were amazing! We played with them in Seattle a while back and I thought they were ok then, but tonight they just rocked. I guess we had to see them in their element. Props to the Wannabes too! I think their song ‘Round and Round’ is the catchiest song I’ve heard in ages. I find myself singing the chorus for hours on end. And holy crap, the Groovie Ghoulies rocked tonight! I had heard them plenty of time before but never actually seen them live. They were so good, so energetic and so much fun to watch. I was totally impressed. The Longview crowd was amazing tonight as well. Energetic, active, singing along, everything … too bad they don’t live in Portland. I swear I even saw an 800 Octane guitar pick ear ring. It’s so cool to see so many familiar faces at the shows there. Amazingly they haven’t tired of Dave’s jokes yet … although the Octopus joke might have driven a few people across the line. One real cool surprise was an appearance by Marty from the 1997-1998 Marty’s Garage days! Thanks to Rick and Emily for coming along for the drive and selling our merchandise, a shot out to Attom and Mark from Dead Even for making the pilgrimage to Longview, and also huge thanks to Brady for kissing our asses.
Show Journal 2001-06-21
I think we decided tonight could be known as “the show that almost was.” Here’s the story. Traffic was pretty bad leaving Portland so we ended up getting to the show pretty late. We missed all of the Rhythm Pimps, EPD (who we really wanted to see again) and only caught the last part of Outreach’s set. Fortunately we did get to catch all of Dead Even’s set and let me tell you they rocked. The first time I saw them I was really impressed and now a half year later they are light years ahead of where there were back then. So tight, so good, and oh so many bad ass guitar parts. They rocked the house …literally. So the stage was set for a great 800 Octane show right? Rad opening bands, lots of excited people and a sweaty little basement. So we played the first song it went great. By the second song people were moving and singing. The third song people were moving, cheering, fists in the air and shouting along. The fourth song? There wasn’t one because we got shut down by the cops!!! 180 minutes of driving and only a dismal 9 minutes of playing. It was a totally weak ending to what could have/would have/should have been a great show. Strangely enough none of us were too upset by the outcome. There were a ton of familiar faces there to see us, so that kind of made the evening for us. Cool bands, cool people and hanging out … what more can you ask for? Hopefully we can make it up to everyone in August. Oh yeah, our apologies to the Animal House for being too loud and setting off the alarm next door!
Show Journal 2001-06-08
I’m still not quite sure what to think of this show. The first two bands played well and got a decent response from the fairly active and decent sized crowd. However when we played we drove most of the crowd as far away from the stage as possible or some even as far as outside the club. The weird thing is I’m not too sure why though. I thought we played pretty well. Were we too loud? Too old? Too rock? Too ugly? Too many broken strings? Too many of Dave’s jokes? Too many cowboy hats on stage? Maybe all of the above. We never really clicked with the audience … and it’s always a little strange when it happens. Of course our friends who had seen us before all thought things went ok. It definitely wasn’t bad … it was just … weird. Anyway, K Through 6 played after us and managed to wake the crowd back up and they did a really good job playing. I’m a little jealous because I wish I could play that well at that age! The thank you list for this evening includes Kelvis, Sam, Chris, Robert 2/3 of the Peel sisters, Braxton (!) and K Through 6 for hooking us up with the show.
