Show Journal 2006-05-06
Interesting show tonight. Everything looked promising enough when we arrived as we spotted Breathe Fire outside with a crowd of people around them after wrapping up their set. When the first band has an excited crowd you know it’s going to be a good night. The Mediks were up second and sounded great but as well as they played everyone just kept leaving until there were about 20 people left inside. Weird. The Sun was up third. They are not a punk band. Not even close. They have an album on a major label (Warner Brothers), are on a national tour, have a light show, a fog machine and matching white outfits. They actually had a pretty decent sound to them and under different circumstances I might have actually enjoyed them. Tonight all I saw was a band that started setting up at 8:40 and got off the stage at 9:40 when there were two more bands to play that had to be wrapped up by 10:00. Their set was short but the set up and break down time was ridiculous. Leaving the stage before their set to play 5 minutes of warm up music on the PA and change clothes was not the best idea considering their slot in the lineup and time constraints. Big show headlining a major venue? Sure. Playing 3rd of 5 at the Melrose Grange in Roseburg, OR? Not a good idea. Technically they were good and everybody loved them but all I could see was a band who took way too fucking long and took themselves way too seriously. They signed autographs all night long and outsold every other band 3 to 1 so maybe there is something to be said for the rock star approach? Perhaps we should take notes. Like I said, any other night I would have been pleasantly surprised. The Vacation was up 4th and played 70’s style full on ‘rock out with your cock out’ rock and roll. I was surprised when I discovered they weren’t actually touring in a fleet of Trans-Am’s. They sounded pretty solid and people were definitely into them. We played last and it felt like amateur hour. Why were we playing after two singed bands on a national tour? God only knows. I guess the set was ok. Chelsey rocked the mic, Dave insulted the crowd but no matter how hard we tried we couldn’t look comfortable playing in front of the greenhouse wall painting. The drive home was quick as we played “would you rather” for the last two hours of the trip. I’ll have you know Dave is very good at that game and actually got a few “neither” responses out of us. Thanks to Carlson for putting on the show and having us down there. Despite my prior whining we really do appreciate it. Next time can we play before the bands on Warner Brothers? Seriously though, thanks to everyone else who stayed late to watch up play!
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