~8/30/02-Thought Riot, Sex Machines, Pornstore Janitors, The Alter Boys [Some dudes house, Portland.]

Road Trips. Everyone loves a good road trip. Recently my fine business partners roommate was turning 19, so we decided that the only proper way to celebrate the blessed occasion was to head up to Vancouver, British Columbia so she could drink in bars. Yeah, my friends are drunkards. So August 30th we headed up to Portland to see what sort of entertainment we could find. Somehow I'd stumbled upon a listing for a show that was only $3, so we headed in that direction. Getting to the address we discovered that the show was actually a house show in someone's basement. The entry was actually donations, so we managed to slide in for the whopping price of $6 for the three of us and arrived just in time to see the Altar Boys finishing up their set. We retreated to another room of the basement where the "Bar" was located. The Drunk Guy was pleased to see $1 Pabst, so Jon, Steph, and I retreated to a couch to enjoy the ambiance of the room. Bondage gear in the corner, some really excellent graffiti on the walls, and a record player pumping out Styx's  'Mr. Roboto' foretold that this would be a good night. Pornstore Janitor set up next, and they sounded pretty good. Punk with some funny lyrics, including one song proclaiming the the joys of drinking, driving, and masturbating. The Sex Machines were up next. This New York band really needed more room to perform, but they made good use of the small amount of space in this basement to fling themselves around as they played. Their energetic playing, skill with their instruments, and screamed vocals made up for the terrible sound in the basement. In between this set as we hit the couches again, with the always loveable Queen playing in the background, I noticed a familiar face sitting across from us. Sitting in the basement was the bassist and one of the roadies for Thought Riot, the band that headlined my last show here in Bend. They were supposed to play a show at the Paris Theatre, but it fell through for some reason, and they were playing this house show. A pleasant surprise, as I really like these guys. That's why I'm sad to say they didn't sound too hot tonight. Well, they sounded good, just the sound sucked giant ass. The vocals kept going in and out, and the feedback was terrible. Thought Riot played a short set, which wasn't surprising due to the sound probs and the heat that was rising in the basement. Overall even though the sound could have been much much better, this was one of the best house shows I've ever been to. The cops showed up at one point, but didn't shut things down, the crowd was pretty cool, and even though we were just random idiots from Bend we were made to feel at home. Yay for the punk scene and the people that inhabit it. We took off to spend the night at a friends before heading up to Vancouver-my next update!