Big Stink 5 8/6/00

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I’m pretty sure it was just Lucinda and I that attended this one. This wasn’t the greatest of lineups for me but there were enough bands to spark my interest. Jimmie’s Chicken Shack was pretty good for the second time seeing them. 3 Doors Down was reeling from their hit “Superman” and save for that song were pretty disappointing. I remember at one point the power flickered and they had to start whatever song they were playing over again. Papa Roach was definitely the surprise of the day. I’m not that big of a fan but the guitar player won me over with his amazing playing. Just like the previous concert I was really here to see just one band, Deftones. This was the fifth time seeing them but this was special because they had just released White Pony less than 2 months before this show and consequently played a number of songs from the album. I believe this was the first show I ever saw Chino strap on a guitar. I remember it was during “Change (In The House Of Flies)” and he had a beautiful natural brown colored Gibson SG. Besides that they just flat out rocked and I didn’t leave the show unsatisfied. Thankfully this was the last time I ever saw a concert at the Portland Meadows. It probably took a good two or three days to blow all the dust out of my nose!

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Big Stink 4 8/8/99

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Remember that other rock station in Portland I told you about? This was their summer rock festival. This was my second concert at the Portland Meadows and Roscoe and I drove down from Kennewick. The first band that I wanted to see was Zebrahead. I liked them based on their album Waste of Mind. They played on the second stage and with a very high amount of energy. They touted themselves as “mutherfuckinzebraheadbitch” which was also pretty damn funny. I distinctly remember using the time that Blink 182 was on to get food and chill since I didn’t and still don’t give a shit about them.  After they left we were on to the highlight of the show for me, Orgy. They are the darkest band I have ever seen in the daylight. They just had a very powerful stage presence. They were on tour for their debut album Candyass and this turned out to be the only time I saw them which sucks because I like their unreleased-at-the-time next album Vapor Transmission even better. The next band I wanted to see was Oleander. I started liking them thanks to their song “Why I’m Here.” They were on tour for their first album February Son and they rocked. After they were done the next band up were hometown boys Everclear. This was the second time I saw them but the first since they became huge MTV staples. I think they put on an extra special show since they were in Portland or maybe the stars just aligned but they put on a great show. The headlining band was Deftones. This was the fourth time I saw them and they were only getting better every time I saw them. You have to give them credit for touring their ass off and they still were for Around the Fur.

An interesting sidenote of this show was that I was approached by John Casablancas’ people about modeling. I was semi-interested because at this point I did not know what the hell I was going to do with my life, I knew that the possibility of travel existed and getting paid for hanging around with attractive women didn’t sound that bad either. It’s not that I’m incredible to look at, it’s just that my body type fits the mold and I don’t look like everybody else. This summer I had taken pictures and sent them off to modeling agencies in New York and Los Angeles. I heard back from 2 of the agencies that I sent pictures to, one in NY and one in L.A.

KUFO Rockfest 6/21/98

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Portland, OR had two big rock stations back in the day: KUFO and KNRK. Every year they both had a summer show with at least a few big bands. This was my first experience for KUFO’s Rockfest. I was increasingly starting to go to Portland because of Rose’s parents in Corvallis. Besides, Seattle and Portland are both pretty equidistant from Kennewick, WA. The Portland Meadows is a horse racing track in North Portland that was definitely not made for concerts. The area right in front of the stage was just loose dirt that whipped up into a dust storm whenever someone good was on stage. I was excited to see Clutch, Jimmie’s Chicken Shack, Deftones, and Creed. Clutch didn’t end up showing up for some reason so Jimmie’s Chicken Shack was the first band I wanted to see of the day. Roscoe turned me onto them somehow and they were exactly what I expected-they rocked. I only remember the singer/guitarist saying that he wrote the song “High” in his bedroom when he lived in Portland. The second time seeing Deftones was not as cool as the first but they rocked just as hard. I was cracking up with laughter when they decided to cover Weezer’s “Say It Ain’t So” and nailed it. I heard of Creed from Rose and am ashamed to admit it but got into their first album My Own Prison, which is what they were touring for at this point. This was before Scott Stapp turned into a Jesus-Christ-Pose little bitch. I do remember being very impressed with their guitar player Mark Tremonti, who fucking killed it that night.