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Those of you who have been checking out this site for awhile will probably have noticed that the Portland band
800 Octane is one of my favorite live bands. Their live performance never fails to entertain, and when I heard that they were playing a show on Halloween along with another of my faves,
Countdown to Life, I decided to make the trek up to Longview to catch the show.
We arrived in Longview a bit early because I had to apply my costume. I hate dressing up on Halloween, but because this was a special occasion I decided that I'd have to do something to celebrate it. I decided to go with a CD stuck in my head, and what better cd to use than 800 Octane's 3rd full length, "The Return". I made a color photocopy of the disks artwork, then pasted that to a CDR and cut it to fit my forehead. Some homemade fake skin and blood, a little spirit gum to glue the sucker to my face, and I was ready to
rock.
It was colder than the grave this Halloween in Longview, so I kept returning to the sweet warmth of my car while waiting to get inside the venue. Unfortunately I waited a bit too long and missed out on seeing Robbie Hellfire & the 500 Club. Psh! Next up in the mix was Sumara. I've caught these screaming hardcore guys 4 times now, and they're 50/50 on their quality. Twice they were really good, the other two times they weren't that great. Tonight unfortunately was one of the not so great nights. I'm not sure whether it was the venues pa, or just the singers voice, but the band sounded off tonight. I'll continue to follow these guys though, as I'm sure it was just an off night and I generally enjoy their technical hardcore sound. They do get extra points for dressing up like mormon missionaries, complete with bike helmets!
Hauler was next up on the bill, and I'd been looking forward to hearing these guys after finding out that the band consisted of ex-members from Himsa, Harkonen, and others. They played an excellent set of metal influenced rock. Their style reminded me more of metal-ized stoner rock than anything else. The lineups past history of playing in other bands was very evident in their skill with their chosen instruments, but the songs began to feel rather monotonous to me after awhile, as much stoner rock does. At another show I'd have most likely appreciated it much more, but tonight I needed more rock in my soup...
and 800 Octane was just the band to provide that rock. I said earlier that 800 Octane never fails to entertain, and tonight's show was no exception. If anything they put on their best live performance I've yet seen from these PDX cats. They came onstage decked out in skeleton shirts and zombie makeup, splattered in blood, and proceeded to start things off with a bad-ass cover of the Mistfits' "Halloween". Things didn't slow down after that. Lead singer Dave continually spit blood into the crowd, who were going nuts, moshing, dancing, hopping onstage to sing along, and crowdsurfing throughout their entire set. One of the highlights of their set was the always crowd pleasing "Day of the Dead", when several members from the crowd along with members from other bands playing took the stage to sing along with the band. The band is always great to it's fans and tonight they had people flinging candy into the audience for the entire duration of their set. I'm talking probably 20 pounds of candy here. (note, do not stare at candy being thrown at your face, tootsie pop sticks hurt when they plunge into your face). The negative to an otherwise awesome set was that the sound for the venue was far too loud in my opinion. Far too often the guitar would be completely drowned out by the bass, and the vocals would cut out from time to time. I like to hear the bass, not feel it deep in my bowels, making them loose.
Between 800 and Countdown to Life a lone man took the stage with an electric guitar to sing a couple of songs. He was decent, had a Bright Eyes thing going, and I have no idea who he was. Sorry. I wondered if Countdown to Life could match the intensity of 800's performance, but they proved to not only match it but surpass it. CTL always puts on a crazy show, their lead singer is consistently one of the most energetic front men I've seen. Tonight he was all over the stage, the speakers, in the pit, and on top of the crowd as he belted through their songs. His vocals could have been better, but I think this was largely due to his being in constant motion, and having the mic borrowed by zealous fans who wished to scream along as well. They did a nice cover of "Day of the Dead" in homage to the preceeding band. At one point in their set Danny the lead singer climbed to the top of the stack of speakers and leapt into the crowd. Unfortunately there weren't really enough kids to support him, and he crashed to the candy and fake blood strewn floor. For a few seconds I couldn't see him below the heads of those in front of me, and I feared the worst. Judging from the concerned faces I wasn't the only one. but happily he climbed back on stage and finished the song like a champ. He seemed to be a bit more stiff after his plunge to the floor, but the rest of their set was just as energetic and the crowd ate it all up.
All in all a good damn Halloween show.
