~7/23/02- Combat Junkies, Showbread, The Cartwrights, Hydroponic [The Pine Forest Grange, Bend]

Monday, July 15th-Combat Junkies, Showbread, The Cartwrights, and Hydroponic at Pine Forest Grange Hall. Being the first show that I'd attended at this particular venue I was very interested in seeing how everything would turn out. And since the show I was helping set up would be 4 days later I felt compelled to attend. I'd never heard any of the attending bands except Hydroponic, but I was assured by two different sources that the bands would be excellent. It's good to see the sources didn't lie to me. Local kids Hydroponic opened the show and put on a great gig. I don't think these guys get enough credit. I hear far too much about them sucking from the assorted "punks" around town. I can see how their 311ish style of sound wouldn't be appealing to most people with a mohawk, but they know how to play their instruments, and they've yet to put on a bad show that I've been to. Their sound didn't quite mesh as well with the upcoming bands as it could have, but to my ears that's a good thing. I like a little diversity at shows. Next up was a little band from St Louis called The Cartwright's. They've got a definite pop-punk kind of sound going on, but it's well played. Check them out, they've got every song from their "Slow and Steady" EP available on MP3.com. (They're also the kings of mooching food and scoring free drinks.) Showbread was up next, and it seemed like these guys were the most popular of the four bands that played. I know they were the band that most of the local kids knew about. I hate to say it but I really wasn't into their sound on this night. They're really talented, and on another day I would have really enjoyed their style of screaming hardcore. Everyone else however LOVED it. I'd happily say that Showbread put on the best performance of the night. The energy put out by the band and amplified by the two lead vocalists was soaked up and cherished by the crowd.  Showbreads frantic performance led into the ending band: The Combat Junkies. The lead from the Junkies started out by giving a little lecture to the crowd, he wanted to explain about the little "confrontation" that had occurred earlier in the evening. He made some statements about how punks not about violence and generally tried to be very positive. They then proceeded to put on a good show, not great. Their sound, while well played, didn't really stand out. It's punk, it's good, you know how it goes. They did a good cover of Blitzkrieg Bop to end things up. Yay! Overall an excellent show put on by the lovely Amber from Wembley Productions. The crowd turnout was rather disappointing, and I'm not sure whether this was due to lack of promotion, or the fact it was a "Christian" show, or the fact that it was a new venue. Regardless, any of you that missed this show missed a good one.