The haze of Portland finally grew into it's grand fullness in our rearview mirrors as we headed to our second show in the great town of Pendleton. Hard to believe that just two days ago, I was pulling up to Lorin's house blasting early 90's techno and yelling at confused pedestrians in a faux-German accent. The grippe of death had also begun its decent upon my dying days-a result of my 26th birthday weekend that had just passed(irony?). It was I now that descended upon the living stairs of the Haus and strapped on my jammy pack. It was a straight shot: up the I-5, over to NE, get out of the car, go downstairs, and then rip through all 20 songs that was our planned repratoir for this trip. It was unbelievable! Not only had we not played for 6 months, we were bringing a new Moth on board. A gentleman by the name of Paul Conti that already new all the chord changes and bass rhythms. It blew my mind! Our four piece ensemble was ready for the road and we hadn't even finished our first rehearsal. Woo!
The next few days we prepared further for our first show: an art studio/gallery, living space, activity center called the Pancake Clubhouse. It was a very hot affair as we had to keep the windows and doors closed due to surrounding residential neighborhoods. But with weird anime projected on the wall, and following Ayal's debut performance of his amazing Robot Opera, we slayed through the night. It was also nice to get to say hello to some of my long lost Portland homies. I had not been in town since I'd left for NY last January.
Pendleton was, as always, an amazing time. Ken the owner treats bands so wonderfully and always makes us feel right at home and that we're doing a good thing by travelling around sharing our art with the world, which is a very important thing to remember when the stakes are down. But they never are here. All our worries get washed away with tasty beer and pizza.
We spent most of the night sitting in the GP at the long table(the same table that I am in fact writing this to you) chatting about everything 'til the weeeee hours. We also had to find a show for the next day to fill our open spot. Ken graciously agreed to let us play in the evening time after the town's Friday festivities: a farmer's market and a wiener dog race!