tour 5.07
Thursday, July 3 1997 Portland OR
Satyricon
Matt - Still in a great mood from a few upbeat days in LA, the drive up from SF to Portland was great but I was quite delusional. After picking up Mikey at the airport I noticed that he and Zeph were starting to really get on my nerves. The show was horrible with some guy yelling out “You SUCK!!!” He was probably right, and that brought my spirits right back to where I was before LA.
Carol - we ran into nashville pussy’s van on the road, on the way to portland, OR. they were speeding like crazy. we drove to the airport to pick up mikie and it sucked cuz the airport was under a massive construction. we couldn’t find mikie and we couldn’t find parking and it was really hot. at last we got him. so now we had 5 hot bodies in the van and all the shit we got back from the storage space. we were looking for the club when matt, who was driving, started screaming and crying all of a sudden and it scared me so much. he said his eyes hurt and couldn’t see. he got off at the nearest exit safely somehow. it was really intense. but it turns out that his sun block lotion got into his eyes and caused the burning. so much for the drama. the show was lame. my shoe broke.
Zeph - It was another beautiful day on the road without Mikey. We even stopped for ice cream just after we got into Oregon. We got to town and spent most of the afternoon at Powell’s drinking coffee and looking at magazines. At around 4 we got back in the van and headed straight into Portland rush hour the day before the 4th of July. Bumper to bumper for two hours on our way to pick up MW at the airport. Matt took over driving on the way back into the city but after about ten minutes he all of a sudden starts freaking out and yelling about his eyes burning, and he can’t see. It was horrible. He made it off the highway but he was still freaked out. He figured out later that the sun block he’d put on his forehead must have dripped down into his eyes. We got lost trying to find our way back downtown from the north and when we got to Satyricon the place had changed for the even worse, definitely. Same owner but he’d gutted the place of all it’s charm which was all it had going. Satyricon was Portland’s cultivated CB’s. George wiped out every speck of ancient graffiti, stickers and flyers and because of a local liquor ordinance was no longer able to serve beer in pitchers because he was now serving hard alcohol. The beer drinking regulars that used to come to the place have no interest in 5 dollar cocktails so they don’t go there anymore.
The show was terrible. I had what felt like 300 decibels of Todd’s guitar coming through my monitor and no one else could hear it but everyone knew the sound was fucked. My bass drum beater broke and I threw it out into the middle of the empty dance floor. I was expecting one of the other bands to donate a replacement but I guess they’d all left, or just didn’t care. I had to get out from behind my drums and come pick up the broken fucked-up thing in front of the five or ten people that were there and try to make the best of it. We got paid about 10 bucks and left with Xan and Christopher, who were two friends of mine who just happened to have ridden by the club while we were standing out front sulking. Their house was comfortable and they’re both very cool people. We woke up the next day and Christopher got us baked and we hung out on the porch and talked and had a good time. Some guys were playing the second Judas Priest Record on a boom-box. We went to say goodbye to Xan before we left town. she was working at another bar, EJ’s and they were having their July 4th party with Nashville Pussy who we realized had been playing in Portland three months ago, the last time we were here at The O. We hung out for about two minutes, got some water, said goodbye to Xan and we were gone.