Day 5 – All My Friends Live In Portland.

The days are starting blur together.  Jeff’s birthday started in Medford last night if that’s any indication as to why the details might be a little fuzzy.  We get to Portland sometime before dinner.  Psyched on Portland because I’ve never been there before.  New cities have that new city smell and we could use that cause we haven’t showered since the previous day at “Club Med”.  We pull up to the venue and meet our sound engineer.  Cool lady and seems to be down to earth.  She’s got a sense of humor like some of our Denver friends and I immediately like the city.  In the first five minutes she lets us know after smelling herself she likes to play “how long can I go without a shower”.  I laugh and advise her there’s no real winner in that game. 

Side story. Jeff got a haircut before our last show.  It was next to a deli. A new running joke is born as Mike asked Ed what kind of line he would lay down to a deli waitress to which Ed threw down “I’d just ask her what kind of meat is good here?” Classic.  I want to ask every person I meet that question from here on out.

Side-side story.  We’re also starting to learn a bunch of things that we’ve always taken for granted like, what time do liquor stores close?  Do they sell beer and liquor or just liquor?  Where is said liquor store? And finally, who the fuck can we talk to if we miss the liquor deadline?  Let’s just say by day 5, we have a firm grip on these dilemmas. 

So back to Portland.  Ash Street Saloon is awesome.  Great venue with a high stage and lots of room.  Heather gives us a tour of the place.  Holy shit.  Stop the presses.  I’ve just come across the most insane green room I’ve ever seen.  It’s in a fireplace.  No not by the fireplace.  In that fucking fireplace like some kind of magical gateway to Narnia or something!  Pictures of it are on our website.  We load in and back line and get our first sound check (which is good because we’re basically a 30 minute sound check for Guttermouth).  Sound is good.  We’re right around the corner from Voodoo donuts.  It’s actually one of the stops we’ve been talking about since before we left.  It looked a lot bigger on T.V. but then again I’ve heard the camera adds at least 20 square feet…

One delicious maple-bacon bar later, I’m ready to see what’s up in Portland.  Ed has a relative in town so he’s off to see him.  Manny has a friend in town (Matt McCormick who does the videos for the Shins!!) so he’s going to meet him for a beer and Jeff and Manny’s friend Nick also in town.  We get a food buyout (which means the venue gives us money to eat) and we hit the streets.  We did not do our homework here.  We walk in circles for a while and end up at a place called Dante’s.  Their theme is Hell.  Good news.  They have pizza by the slice.  Bad news.  For being a hell themed place, the pizza is a little cold.  Extra news.  No one is there except us, the owner and a couple who are getting pretty tipsy.

We finish up and head back to the show where we find the line is out the door.  This is going to be a good night.  Both local bands did great and we’re up.  We can tell the local scene here is good and Portland came to party.  Right before we start, Heather tells us to turn up the guitars more.  Unfortunately, I think the monitor mix was the same as before so all we could hear was our own guitars blaring back at us.  The show still goes off and Manny (who has a monitor less than a foot from his ear) selfishly goes deaf.  We have fun and we earn the crowd.  We realized that we are the only band that no will know at shows and we have to earn the crowd every time.  It’s cool though.  We are up for it.  After the show, we met a random guy who said if we would have given him a couple of weeks notice, he would have had us on a boat after the show (ps it’s like 3am at this time). And to think, I left my flippy-floppys at home…

Post Script. Jeff here. Thanks to the boys in Boldtype, Guttermouth and Portland’s finest J for a birthday to remember. With the exception of a few absentee friends from Denver and beyond it was certainly the best one yet. I still don’t know exactly what happened in that space-cave of a green room but I will tell you this…I woke up speaking fluent Chinese (Mandarin) and found detailed plans for a safari-themed casino on a napkin in my back pocket. All partying aside, this has been a one-of a kind experience with people of the same with no lack of lessons in patience, camaraderie and living punk. Hui tou jian!