Punk Rock High School

Currently listening to: Rush
Currently reading: nothing new

Our last 24 hours were a blur of some of the delightfully crazy things that one can experience as a member of one of Seattle's lesser-known indie rock bands.

Yesterday afternoon we all piled in the van and drove to Portland to play KPSU's Pop Tomorrow showcase. We enjoyed some dinner at Escape from New York Pizza, then headed to the venue, Towne Lounge, drove around it about five times because there was no signage indicating the location of said venue. The website isn't kidding when it says, "Look for the green light." because it's the only goddamn thing to home you in. Once we found the venue, we also found that the door was locked. So, we knocked and a cranky guy in sweats pants, slippers and a half-buttoned-up shirt informed us that they weren't open.

After having driven three hours to play a show, this isn't what one wants to hear. I thought A) we have the wrong venue, B) I got the date wrong, or C) the booking was screwed up.

The man (apparently the owner, manager or high-ranking bartender) in sweats and slippers turned out being very helpful, but in the most unpredictable way. This man gave a performance as he ripped the promoter and booker up and down over the phone for being unorganized and not following their established procedure of alerting the venue of nights there would be shows. Highlights from his phone dialog include diatribes like, "You are a giant dildo. You are one of those huge, mail-order dildos from Spartacus and you have shoved it down my throat, through my gastrointestinal tract and now I'm going to be the first man to be f***** out the ass!"

Hilarious and helpful. The night was saved by a bartender who was willing to come in on his night off and work. So, people came out, the other bands, Chores and Qwong were awesome AND they quickly picked up the "HOORAY!" torch.

Then, we drove home. We left Portland at 12:30 and, after three hours of discussing death, the after life, the meaning of life, ways of dying, the year 2012, and caffeine-infused truffles we arrived home safely.

But oh no, the rock just kept going, and it went straight to Ingraham High School at 10:00 this morning. Our buddy Jason from Juhu Beach (that makes it sound like he's from the place Juhu Beach, not the band...funny) is a teacher who is starting to bring in local artists to play for/talk to the creative writing classes. So, at an hour much too early for rock, we played our set to the future of America. I haven't been in a high school since....high school and, wow, the self-consciousness jumped right back in my brain like it had never left.

Nevertheless, it was fun. We played for too long and didn't have much of a chance to answer the kids' questions, but at least a couple of them seemed to not hate us.

So, people, we only have one more show before our big tour and that's our tour kick-off show on Thursday, April 5th at the Mars Bar. Then, it's 3 weeks, a mini-van, 19 shows, and 5600 miles.