Drowning Pool 4/5/02

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I first heard Drowning Pool through their song “Bodies.” It caught my interest but I didn’t really start liking the band until Lucinda picked up the Sinner album and I heard the rest of their songs. They were coming to town on the very first Jagermeister Music Tour with Coal Chamber, and Ill Nino but all I really cared about was Drowning Pool. It was just Lucinda and I in attendance at my personal favorite Portland venue, The Roseland, and they did not disappoint. They played the whole first album and lived up to the way they sounded on the album, which is not always so common. Unfortunately for fans the singer died just four short months after this show. There was originally speculation that he had pulled a Bonzo and choked on his own vomit, but the autopsy later revealed that he passed in his sleep due to a rare heart disease. R.I.P. Dave Williams.

Many things happened between this concert and the last. Lucinda and I were hell-bent on moving to L.A. as soon as possible because she wanted to act and I thought I could make some money doing modeling. The other reason was because the California school system is very reasonably priced once you are a resident. The weather was also a big selling point for me. I was tired of the constant rain Portland had to offer and felt like all I was really doing there was spinning my wheels. Long story short we decided to fly out to L.A. and stay with our friend Aria to look for a place to live. Our efforts were fruitless after about four days of constantly driving around and calling people who would not return our phone call so we had to return to Portland. Lucinda was on edge since we had already left our 30-day notice at the place we were currently living in Portland but if there is one thing I’ve learned in life it is that if you have money then there are certain things that shouldn’t worry you. Not that we had a ton of money, but certainly enough to get into another place. We decided to stay in Portland awhile longer to save up more money. “Awhile longer” ended up turning into another two years, but I digress. I had grown equally discontented with my job at Meier and Frank because it is not what I really wanted to be doing and I didn’t get paid all that great. I decided the trick to getting out of debt was not to spend less, but make more. Those thoughts lead me to the auto business. I figured if I could sell clothing then I could sell cars. The problem was the stigma attached to “car salesmen.” Everybody either has been screwed at the dealership or knows someone who has. That is why I chose to sell new Hondas and why I was decent at it. I wasn’t your typical car salesman and never related to my job. For me it was a means to an end but I did learn sales there from the school of hard knocks. It was sell or make no money, be fired, or both. Anyways, one thing I always reserve money for is going to concerts and this time the band of the night was Drowning Pool.

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