The Rain Tour

We've been out driving around the Pacific Northwest for a few days now, doing a short 7 gig mini-tour. First stop was Seattle where we stayed with our friends in the stellar punk rawk band Cookie, who also have a side project called Heartbreak U.S.A.. Their house has been converted into a Bed & Breakfast style rental home (without the breakfast part) that's outfitted in kitsch '60s and '70s stylings and is called "The Shag-a-licious Suite." It's cheaper than any hotel you'll find nearby and way cooler. If you ever need a place to crash in Seattle we all give this place a big thumbs up.




The gig that night was at the High Dive, an above standard club with a nice staff and a hipster clientele. We had a good show and met some nice humans including the members of the two opening acts The Kindness Kind and Andy Wirth. The next day we crawled out of the Shag-a-licious crash pad and went to Ballard, a small neighborhood with a huge Scandinavian population. At Olsen's we stocked up on a couple of hundred bucks worth of Norwegian geitost (goat cheese), skinkost (pureed ham and cheese that you squeeze out of a toothpaste tube), and " sjokolade", which is how Norwegians think "chocolate" is spelled.

JR's in Everett, Washington was the next stop. We played for a bunch of people who apparently dug it a lot. A ton of merch was sold and a lot of hands were shook before we rolled back to Seattle early in the morning.

The Wonder Ballroom in Portland, Oregon was great. We opened for Frank Black and then went out into the audience and watched his set when we were done. Of course they were great. A bunch of our friends from Portland were there, so we brought some of them backstage after the show and friends and family of both bands hung out in the dressing rooms until late. It was great to see everyone again.

The next night was at Dante's in Portland... we played and howled inside while the skies howled and fell outside. 50 mile an hour gusts and rain blowing sideways while we tried to load our gear into our road machine. It was worth it though. Not a whole lot of people came, but the ones who did brave the weather got to see a great show with The Charmparticles and... well... us!

We're back in Salem for a day now (Nov. 17) and are off to Eugene, Oregon tonight for a show at Diablo's. We'll let you know how that one goes in a couple of days.

Hey, is anyone interested in leaving comments here? It would make it a little more interesting for us if you did ;-)

Lefty's gig report.

On Friday, Nov. 3rd we played at Lefty's in Salem. It was a good show. The coolest part was seeing the opening bands, Righteous Animal and Whiskey Priest. They we're both very cool and I suggest you check them out if you want to be cool too. Righteous Animal is like Black Sabbath meets Supergrass with Marc Bolan singing Queens of the Stone Age covers while Keith Moon bangs on the drums. Or something. I think they're my new favorite band. I'm not sure though. I'll have to ask around and do a little research first to see what I think.

I would probably make a perfect major label A&R guy.

- normal ::::: guards of metropolis

Kaboom!

A couple of days before Halloween we all drove out to a farm between Portland and Salem for their annual harvest festival. What else is there to do in late October in the Willamette Valley? There were all the things you would expect. A hayride out to a field to pick pumpkins. a petting zoo of exotic animals like goats and cats, caramel apples, and strange people wearing overalls. But what wasn't expected was encountering something that's perhaps the most glorious invention mankind has yet to produce; a gigantic, flatbed truck-mounted pumpkin cannon. It only cost $3.00 per round to pull the trigger, so we stayed there for about 2 hours firing pumpkins 1500 feet across a half-plowed field at an old school bus on the other side. Amidst all the kabooms and cheering whenever a pumpkin hit its target, a thought struck me. What other nation is so gluttonous that its citizens will line up and pay good money to destroy food?

None!

And that's just part of what makes this country great!

We also have monster truck rallies.



- Normal ::::: Guards Of Metropolis