~4/28/02-3 Shows, one excellent one, and lots of anger.~

So this weekend in Bend there were 3 shows. Friday night was the show hosted by Punkin Around dot com. It featured Nothing Heinous, The ConfedeRATS, No Cash Value, Switch Hitter, and Holden Caufield. All of the bands except for Switch Hitter (who hails from Boise) are local Bend bands, and they all put on a great show. It's great to see the kids coming out and supporting their local musicians. I like seeing the diversity at Bend shows. You'll see preppy dudes standing next to punks. It's a good thing. But from time to time you see something odd. Like the skinhead guys. This is was strange, but I didn't worry about it too much, as they could have been just sporting the fashion, and out to have a good time. They seemed to be a bit rough with some of the kids while dancing, but nothing too major at this show that I saw. I just stood back and enjoyed the music. 

Saturday night was the show at the Bend Community School. Backwash, All Out, Virus Nine, Angry Mob, and The Forinsecs. I likes the punk rock, and the last show held at the BCS was pretty cool, good people, good music, etc. I had high hopes for this show as well. I unfortunately showed up late and missed Angry Mob and The Forinsecs. I got to watch most of Backwashes set, and as usual they put on a great show. These guys have some talent. Midway through the light tree that they had set up got pulled down into the audience. While this sucks, at the same time it was quite funny. There's a lesson somewhere here kids. Taking this a sign to go next door to Timbers we left, only to discover that Timbers had a cover charge, for a Band that wasn't playing for an hour. An hour. That's crap, so we headed to the car so my show buddy could have a Pabst. It's good to plan ahead for situations like this. Beer, pain-killers, some bandages, firearms, porno, water, and other emergency supplies are always good to have in ones car. We headed back in to find that they'd just tore down the tree and were relying on the lights in the school. Oh well, who needs ambiance if you've got good music. And All Out provided that easily. These guys sounded way better than they did at the Dead Kennedys show at Trax. Maybe their sound was more on or something. 

This was when I noticed what I'm assuming were the same two skinhead guys that were at the show on Friday. And at this show the one guy was being a fuck. Too rough, too much of an ass. Kids mosh to have fun, not to get hurt, and there were a few occasions where this bald guy pulled his arm back ready to punch one kid. A KID, a kid who was probably 14 and way smaller than the skinhead guy. That's just not fucking cool at all. Way to be an asshole buddy. I started watching this guy after that and noticed him throwing his hand in the air a few times in a Seig Heil, Nazi-wannabe salute. Now, I've stated elsewhere that maybe this guy was just hoping for a high-five, but I really doubt it. Maybe I'm just jumping to conclusions, and these guys are just sporting the fashion. Maybe they're traditional skinheads, and aren't into the white-power bullshit that has become so associated with the look. (check around the net people, the whole skinhead thing started out being much different. An offshoot of the mods, White AND Jamaican poor kids were the first skins, uniting together with none of the racial purity crap that many of today's skinheads are followers of)  These guys ruined the show in my opinion, and I'm not the only one. There was a lot of anger directed towards these guys, and I'm surprised there wasn't trouble. This is something we do NOT need to see in this area. Now, like I said: perhaps I'm wrong. I HOPE I'm wrong. My gut instincts are telling me that these morons aren't here because the music's good, or they want to have a good time, or the economy in Oregon is rocking. They're here to recruit. And that's bad. Bad because Bend is a prime spot for that breed of stuff to grow. We're a town that's predominantly white. And there's a ton of younger kids, looking to fit in in any way they can. These kids are impressionable, and if they start to get into the wrong groups it'll only make it worse for everyone. I have no respect for these people, and it approaches hate. Now I know this is making me just as bad as them. I'm fully aware of that. 

I'll be ranting more on this later. 

So we left this show and those morons behind and headed over to the Free show at Players. We showed up to catch Banned, and missed 57 Split, who we didn't know were playing. The only other time I saw  Banned they sounded horrible, and I wasn't impressed with their stuff at all. The sound was horrible. But not this Saturday. They were fucking great. Their sound was superb, they played tight, and the crowd loved them. I'm way impressed with these local boys now and will without a doubt be at their upcoming show on the 24th of May. The ConfedeRats then set up their gear and proceeded to kick our asses. These guys are fucking great, easily one of the best local bands I've yet heard here. I'm sure we'll see their popularity grow the more they play. And by the way we've got a free compilation CD featuring two songs by The Rats at our store. Come by to pick one up. This show helped make my night great again after watching bonehead goons at the BCS show. Players is a small bar, but the atmosphere was just incredible that night. Friendly faces abounded, killer music filled the air, and I had a great time. Props go out to the bar staff for being super friendly to the Soberguy. This is the best bar show I've seen in a really long time, and it brought back memories of the Evil Sister days. If it'd have been a bit darker, and there was a guy puking in one corner, and Sparky coming out of the bathroom naked it would have been complete deja vu.