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Ohhh dear. Where to start this
one? It's tough reviewing things sometimes. Do you give a completely honest
opinion as a reviewer, and maybe say some stuff that's harsh? Or do you look
at your own experiences and say "oh well, it happens" and only
concentrate on the good things? This show seemed to have forces conspiring
against it from the beginning. We'll start the review a few weeks before the
show, when the flyers had the correct date, but the wrong day printed on them,
eh, a small mistake, and with any luck people would have gone with the actual
numerical date: 3.04.03 (which was a Tuesday), and not the day: Weds, that was
printed on the flyer. The lack of turnout makes me think differently, as well
as the 4+ comments I got from people who went to the venue on Weds night. Ok,
next up in the list of bad stuff before the show even got started was the fact
that the original venue was supposed to be the Domino Room, which was
unfortunately shut down by the fire marshal 5 days before the show was
scheduled to happen. Luckily the promoters were able to get the show moved to
the Midtown Roller Rink. I had my doubts about how this would work out because
that place is pretty big, and it takes a big nice PA system with some very
hefty speakers to make anything sound good in there. So when one of the people
putting on the affair asked me 6 hours before the show if I knew anyone who
had a PA system they could use I was naturally expecting the worse, sound wise
at least. Showing up at the venue at 7pm, the time stated on the flyers, I
found the doors still locked. Now, I understand this, as if you're still
setting stuff up you don't want a bunch of people wandering around and getting
in your way. But as ALL of the venues in Bend have very large entryways where
the people could wait, and especially the roller rink, I think this is
pretty damn lame. In the middle of summer it's one thing, but when it's 30
degrees outside I have a big problem with making kids stand around in the cold
when it'd be nice and easy to let them inside where it's warm. Gaining entry
to the venue we discovered they didn't have any change. This has happened
before, and it's not a very professional way to run things. Ok...on to the
show itself. The Midtown roller rink is a pretty good sized building, with
very high ceilings that just don't create a very nice space for sound to
resonate in. I've been to a good many shows here that sounded pretty decent,
but they were always powered by an excellent sound system with lots of
speakers and a full sized sound board. Tonight's show had a tiny PA, and two
equally small speakers.
The
Suspenders opened this show, and I was looking forwards to seeing these
guys as the last time I watched them they put on a pretty good show for a
newer band. They had a small lineup change that put vocalist Grey onto drums
as well as continuing his singing duties, so I was very interested in hearing
them. Three songs in I went to the bathroom for some paper towel to make into
ear plugs. I know that the poor sound system and huge space had something to
do with it, but tonight these guys just didn't sound very good at all. I'm
sure that next time they'll be much improved.
Now things got interesting as
the headliner for the evening, Divit,
decided they wanted to leave early, so they'd be playing second. Yeah, that's
way professional. But they did proceed to put on a really good show for the
tiny audience. (And by tiny I mean that I counted 26 people watching at the
height of their set, with another 15 or so people being social at the extreme
rear of the venue, so they don't count. This is extremely bizarre, because
Divit's a fairly well known band, signed to Nitro Records, and they should
have brought out a much larger crowd.) I have a hard time nailing down Divit's
sound into one category. Some of it's punk, some of it's pretty poppy, and
alot of it is very melodic. Despite the poor sound of the night Divit put on
the best performance of the evening and didn't seem to let the small crowd
bring them down too much. One major down point during their set was the drunk
idiot trying to get the crowd more amped. Unfortunately his manner was doing
more to piss people of than get them amped to dance. A couple of people
actually went the rear of the venue rather than deal with this guy, and he got
in the faces of myself and several others after we told him to get the hell
away from us. Ahh, drunk morons at shows. This might be a good time to mention
the fact that this show was to be no-reentry, presumably to cut down on the
amount of kids drinking in the parking lot between bands. Judging from the kid
who couldn't stand up, the drunk idiot who kept getting in peoples faces, and
the empty booze bottle being kicked around the floor I'd have to say that
no-reentry at shows works like a charm! Ok, enough about stupidity, on to the
bands.
Canada's Downway
was up next. Their style is best described as a melodic pop-punk that was well
played. They obviously know what they're doing, and with a little more work
will be really polished. They put on a pretty good show and were also very
energetic on stage even though there was a whopping 38 people watching them
(more than were standing around for Divit even...), but it's very hard to
follow the best band of the night. With any luck I'll see them again sometime
with a better sound system.
Paint
By Numbers from good ol' Portland, OR was the final band of the evening.
They threw socks on the mics to keep from getting shocked and were the first
band to have the venue turn off the overly bright overheard lights so they
could play in the glow of the disco ball hanging from the roller rink ceiling.
They seemed to not be as into it, and I don't really blame them them because
the crowd at this point was comprised of 16 people total up at the stage. I
hadn't heard them before and was pretty impressed by their melodic style.
They'll be back in Bend on May 10th, and should provide a much better
performance then. Overall this show could have been much much better, but then
again it could have been alot worse or not happened at all.
