Tag Archives: eugene

Seattle and Eugene

I’m sitting in my Portland hotel room. Housekeeping is making their rounds and wondering why Matt and I have had the Do Not Disturb sign on our door for three days. It’s not why you think… it’s because we’ve been getting in so late every night (5:30am and 3:30am respectively) that sleeping through the towel changing ceremony seems wise. I’m not complaining; I’m a night-owl anyway, and this asleep-at-4am-awake-at-noon pattern suits me just fine.

Seattle
Tuesday night, Andrew and I crashed the WAA cocktail hour. I was in full stegosaurus regalia trying to drum up some audience members for our show that night at The Jewelbox, and also figured hobnobbing with some music promoters/booking agents couldn’t hurt either. We made some good connections, and I was very happy to tag along with Andrew to the event.

After some good Mexican food, We played at Seattle’s Jewelbox Theater on Tuesday night with Baby Gramps, with whom I am absolutely smitten. Holy crap, he is easily the coolest person I’ve met in the last 5 years, probably longer. If I lived in Seattle, I would love to be this guy’s pal, learning from him, and digging through his record collection. Holy cow– brilliant musician, wise (understatement of the year), and he exudes cool through every pore. He seemed to like us a bunch and gave us tons of people to contact (other bands, DJs, etc.), and we’re very grateful for that (second understatement of the year).

Anyway, it was a very small crowd, most likely due to everyone in Seattle being all Bumbershooted out, and also because the show was at 11:30 on a Tuesday night. No worries; the crowd we did have was very appreciative and fun. The soundguy even loved us and bought a shirt. (An aside: The new “Me + Your Mom” shirts seem to be getting a very good reaction.)

Eugene
We hit the road for Eugene around 6ish and got there by 8ish, got set up in record time, and had plenty of time for a slice or 7 of Cozmic Pizza and some beers (or some raisins and a ginger-lemonade if you’re me). The venue was really neat– it’s a very large venue with great tasty organic food, terrific beers, an attached coffee shop, bookstore and an internet cafe. Everything a college town needs, all under one roof! Plenty of room for jumping around, a nice sound system, and a stage big enough for our, um, bigness. We played really well, and I probably spent more time facing the back of the stage because the bones and trumpets were having such a good time– it was infectious! Have I mentioned lately how much I love this band?

Last night, Tany and Andrew debuted a hilarious new tune about John McCain called “Civility.” Sadly, this over-the-top satire upset [probably our only] two Republican fans, causing them to walk out after hearing it along with an F-bomb later in the set. I don’t like upsetting people, but at the same time, if the word “fuck” and a political joke gets you rattled in 2008, it might be time to lighten up a little.

Of course, this is easy for me to say. If folks were poking a salty stick at an issue I’m particularly sensitive to, I might be feeling differently.

Anyhoozle, it’s 2:30pm, and it’s time for a shower.

Tonight we play Olympia along with Baby Gramps again (wheee!) and we’re also joined by the fabulous Reptet.