Show Journal 2006-01-07
Salem? Are you ready to rock? The answer is hell yes. Salem is ready and very willing to rock. It’s possible this show has made it into my top 10 best shows list. When we pulled up we saw a somewhat empty and very well lit coffee shop that did not look ready for a show. Our last all ages show in Salem (way back in 1998) was also in a well lit restaurant in the downtown area so we expected the worst. They said we could load in downstairs and once we saw the cramped, dark and already warm basement we knew we’d be just fine. The Hornswogglers were up first and oddly enough we had met two of the members of their band before. The bass player had broken his arm at a show in McMinnville and the guitar player had seen up in Spokane once. Small world sometimes. They sounded pretty solid and we were impressed. Sister Ray was second. They weren’t really my thing so I won’t say anything. They seemed nice enough and the Beatles cover was pretty good. Kill The Kids ended up using our gear because they had a bunch of stuff ripped off the night before in San Francisco. While we were loading amps down the stairs we heard a guy talking to a group of girls headed out the door. Here’s the conversation as best as I can recall. “Where are you going?” “We’re leaving now” “You don’t want to see 800 Octane?” “No, we don’t like death metal.” Death Metal? How did they know we were playing all Morbid Angel covers tonight? Anyway, Kill The Kids tore it up. Their hometown fans are insane and go absolutely nuts. Very refreshing to see such a response for such a deserving bunch of guys. They can seriously rock and we’re looking forward to playing with them again in Bend. Our set was pretty damn good. We had one crummy moment where the PA cut out so we had no vocals at all. While waiting for them to fix it a couple people asked for ‘Day Of The Dead’ and said they’d sing along. So we played it and they did. Sometimes I don’t think we deserve the people that like our band because to play a song with no vocals and still have people go nuts is beyond cool. Big thanks to Kill The Kids, Andy, The Sip, Ritchie Von Dead and everyone else who stayed late.
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