I had first took notice of Tonic by way of their song “Casual Affair.” Based on that I had my friend Marvin burn me a copy of the album Lemon Parade (sidenote: burning CD’s was still a very new thing). I grew keen on the whole album but somehow failed to notice the album Sugar, which had come out almost a year before this show. Lucky for me they played most of the songs off Lemon Parade. I’m almost positive that this was one of the first concerts I ever attended by myself. Berbatis Pan was packed for this show because it is not that big of a place to begin with.
The Tattoo the Earth tour was a tour that featured several bands and prominent tattoo artists. It also took the place of the normal KUFO Rockfest for the year 2000. I was interested in Downset because my friends and I had got into their self-titled album years earlier. Their set was alright. I would have been into Sepultura but Max Cavalera had already left the band by this point. Mudvayne was there but not yet on my radar. Coal Chamber was scary to watch simply because the band members look scary. Slayer was Slayer. Even though I’m not a huge Sevendust fan they impressed me because the two guitar players were doing some insane things going back and forth feeding off each other. This was the second time I saw Slipknot but I was still not really a fan of their music. I remember one moment when Corey Taylor wanted everyone to crouch down and jump up right when the song hit its peak. That was pretty weird because I have never seen so many people do as they were told at a rock show. The truth is that I really could of gave a shit about the other bands; I was there to see STP again for the first time in six years. This show marked STP’s return to Portland for the first time since they had reunited. They had just released their comeback album, No. 4, the previous fall. I attended the show with Joe, Roscoe, and Lucinda. Joe and Roscoe had both driven in from out of town to stay with Lucinda and I and had a little quarrel later this night at our house. As far as STP’s performance, it was pretty flawless. Scott Weiland was upset with one of the DJ’s at KUFO because in an interview earlier that day he had been asked questions about his family. One highlight was putting Lucinda on my shoulders so she could see (she’s about 5 foot 2). She was the only one at this point towering over the crowd and therefore Scott Weiland was looking right at her for a good portion of time while he was singing. Another highlight was when they played “Crackerman.” The place just erupted. The final thing I remember was them pumping police siren sounds through the sound system when they left the stage, which was funny because they seemed to be mocking all of Weiland’s recent problems with the police.
This was my first concert at The Roseland Theater but was not my first time seeing the Sweaty Nipples. I was turned onto them by a guy in one of my classes in high school via their eponymous EP and they periodically came through the Tri-Cities. One night some friends and I went to see them somewhere but the show got cancelled. By random happenstance we ended up at a party after the cancellation that they showed up at. Remember that drummer Isaac Carpenter I mentioned earlier? He played drums that night in the living room of a duplex with a little side project known as the Prude Sluts.
The Roseland is a pretty small place with a balcony on the three sides of the building that the stage doesn’t occupy. I believe this was sort of a reunion type show for the Sweaty Nipples. The thing about them is they have one of the most energetic shows I have ever seen. I believe there are six guys in the band and they are all talented enough to interchange their instruments and positions in the band on seemingly almost every song. A standout moment was when one of the cymbals was removed from the drum kit and lit on fire. Unfortunately this would be the last time I would see them.
This is right around the time that Lucinda and I decided to get a place together. I could no longer stand living in the bedroom I rented out of the house and we were always at each other’s place anyway. After piling all of her belongings in my room for about a week unbeknownst to the owner we found a place not far away on 26th and Main. Both of us also became full time employees at Meier & Frank. Looking back on it is strange because at one point we worked the exact same schedule and carpooled as well as lived together. The truth is I never really saw her at work and we loved each other enough to not want to strangle each other from being around one another too much.
It turns out all the previous crap I dealt with in the past to try to see Korn had been rewarded back to me in the form of good karma. I received the Issues album a few days before it was in stores because I had won it off a radio contest on KUFO. Then I won tickets to the show and a meet and greet backstage off the radio when they came to town to support said album! I had never previously won anything before so I was pretty excited. I enlisted Roscoe to be my “date” since I knew he would be the person that would appreciate meeting Korn the most. I really didn’t know what to expect but I guess I figured that we would get to be in a room with the members, have a beer and be able to shoot the shit with them for a little bit. Quite the contrary. They lined up all 10 of us winners and guests of winners against a wall backstage and one by one the members appeared and went down the line to sign autographs and that was it. I’ve never been a fan of autographs because anyone can write someone’s name on a piece of paper and say so and so signed it. This being said I didn’t get their autographs. Instead I shook their hand and said, “thanks for rocking.” Fieldy seemed annoyed that I didn’t want his autograph, David was way shorter than I thought he was, and Munky was pretty funny. He said something to the effect of “I just woke up” and actually did stay and talk longer than anyone else. The show itself was blistering. Staind opened for them and during the interim “Spike & Mike’s Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation” played on a few very large screens. As you can tell by the setlist Korn played for quite awhile on this night. I don’t think anyone in the building minded one bit.
SETLIST: Dead, Falling Away From Me, It’s On!, Got the Life, Ball Tongue/Lodi Dodi, Twist, A.D.I.D.A.S., Good God, Trash, Clown, It’s Gonna Go Away, Shoots and Ladders, Freak on a Leash, Let’s Get This Party Started, Make Me Bad, Dead Bodies Everywhere, Somebody Someone, Faget, Kill You, 4U, Blind
I was really excited to see the Smashing Pumpkins because I had liked them pretty much since learning of them after Siamese Dream came out. I also don’t remember really getting another chance to see them after I missed out on Lollapalooza 1994. This show was a weird free concert thrown by the radio station KUFO. The protocol was to show up at Music Millennium in uptown Portland earlier in the week to receive a bracelet that you would in turn have to wear for the next few days to get you into the concert. I believe they ended up changing some of the details but ultimately Roscoe and I got in and the show was held at Berbati’s Pan, which is a very small venue. It’s more like a bar than a proper place to see a band of magnitude like the Smashing Pumpkins, which is probably why they ended up playing a semi-acoustic show. They were still about a month away from releasing the MACHINA/the machines of God album but that did not stop them from playing songs from the then unreleased album. The original band was intact with the exception of D’arcy Wretzky who was replaced by Melissa Auf der Maur for bass duties. Billy Corgan looked genuinely happy and had a very distinct way of rocking his body when he played guitar. The whole thing was very informal and they actually had a little Q & A near the end. I was also able to go up to Billy and shake his hand after the performance was over. I said, ”thanks for rocking” and he winked at me! It was a little weird but I’ll take it. The other really memorable thing was that the sticker you see was actually affixed to a bald cap wig in honor of Billy’s shaved head. Many people were wearing them, which looked pretty funny on a crowd as a whole.
SETLIST: Glass and the Ghost Children, Crush, I of the Morning, Today, Blue Skies Bring Tears, Heavy Metal Machine, If There Is A God, Age of Innocence, 1979, Everybody (Backstreet’s Back), Join Together, Bullet With Butterfly Wings, Rock On, Zero
So Soundgarden had broken up but I was happy to have anything new from the voice of that band, Chris Cornell. He had just released his first solo album Euphoria Morning a few months prior to this show. It was a memorable concert for me because it was the first time I had been to the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall and it was the first concert I attended with Lucinda. Since the last concert Lucinda told me that she couldn’t be with me but about a week later after going back to her ex-boyfriend decided that we were going to be together. My friend Roscoe also went with us. The funny part is that I decided we were going to dress up for this concert because of the place where it was held. I wore a charcoal pinstriped suit with a black shirt and silver tie while Lucinda looked absolutely stunning in a silver dress. We looked very out of place once we got there and it probably didn’t help that we were completely stoned out of our minds but we were in love so everyone else be damned. It all seemed very formal because of the whole place being filled with seats. I think Chris Cornell felt strange after awhile because he encouraged people to get out of their seats and come down to the front of the stage. He played pretty much all of Euphoria Morning and am pretty sure he left out any trace of Soundgarden except for maybe “Like Suicide.”
Apparently Filter and Bush played but I only really remember the Foo Fighters because I had never seen them before. I became an immediate fan simply based on Dave Grohl being in Nirvana but actually liked the music too. Dave Grohl is a badass and he kicked a lot of ass that night. They were on tour for the recently released There Is Nothing Left to Lose album. One memorable moment was when Dave said “I’m gonna sing this next song to Taylor” and played whatever song it was just facing Taylor Hawkins but the highlight was when Dave got behind the drum kit himself. He just went nuts and reminded everyone just how talented he is.
This was an interesting show for me because of my love life. I was hired on for the holiday season at a retail store called Meier & Frank. Working in a four level retail store at the mall was a wonderful way to meet women. The problem was that I was not interested in any of the girls that outwardly showed interest in me. I worked as a “floater,” which meant I didn’t know what department I was going to work in until I showed up for work. One day I was assigned to Men’s Sportswear and that’s when I saw her. An angelic, sweet, and innocent looking girl named Lucinda. I couldn’t stop looking at her but she wanted nothing to do with me. A day shortly after I was assigned to a department that was right next to Men’s Sportswear and I happened to work with a girl named Robin, who happened to be Lucinda’s best friend. Turns out Lucinda had a boyfriend. Not that long after she broke up with him and invited me to her birthday party. It was at Robin’s apartment, which happened to be in the same building as Lucinda’s apartment. You get where I’m going with this. I previously agreed to go to this concert with Rose but had since fallen for Lucinda harder than any girl I had ever fallen for. Rose’s friend Tyler worked at the Memorial Coliseum and I remember not really wanting him to see me there with another girl because I really wasn’t trying to be with Rose at that point.
SETLIST: Stacked Actors, My Poor Brain, Breakout, Learn to Fly, Up in Arms, Ain’t it the Life, Monkey Wrench, Alone + Easy Target, Everlong, Aurora, This is a Call, I’ll Stick Around
The Crystal Ballroom is a very cool place to see a concert because the floor is the only sprung or “floating” floor in the United States and the sound is decent. It is in a building run by McMenamins in downtown Portland that consists of four floors. McMenamins owns several bars in Portland and a few in Seattle that feature beers they brew themselves that are flat out delicious. The Paranormal Party is something that KUFO put on every year either near or on Halloween. Oleander played this year. I decided to go because I liked Oleander and I wanted to meet people. I dressed in my devil priest costume (see picture) because I thought and still do think it’s funny. One highlight for me was being pulled into the ladies restroom. The girl who pulled me in apparently thought I would be someone her friend would like but instead the friend looked at me and said, “that’s disgusting.” Hopefully she was referring to my costume… I met another girl in the bar downstairs and ended up hanging out with her for a while until I saw a cougar dressed in a skintight pleather mini-dress I couldn’t resist. The first girl got kind of upset with me when she realized I was hanging out with my new slutty looking friend. I ended up going home with her but nothing really happened. Oleander put on a good show but obviously on this night my mind was on beer and girls.
By the time this show occurred everything was pretty much restored and back on track. My cousin Tony helped me get a 1985 Mustang so I could get to school. The police had found my Firebird on New Year’s Eve when they were called to an apartment complex for domestic violence and started running plates when nobody answered the door. The thieves had put about 3,000 miles on it in 2.5 weeks, burned all the rubber off the rear tires from burnouts, fucked up the steering column, and put a huge dent in the rear driver’s quarter panel but I had it back in my possession. It was pretty much worthless but I managed to get a loan against it to pay off the lease. I successfully sued Jack for the money he owed me partially because he didn’t even show up to court (it would be years before I was actually able to collect on the money). I not only patched things up with Rose but also moved in with her. My chameleon survived. I had started working with my mom at the Tri-City Herald (local newspaper) at night. The job was alright sans the fact that it payed minimum wage and every Saturday night was shot because work started at midnight when the press started for the grand daddy Sunday paper. I was turned on to Our Lady Peace by my ex-girlfriend Daisy. About the time of this show was my first Spring Break. Marvin and I decided to drive to Vancouver, B.C. with very little money in our pocket because being 19 years old we were legal to drink. I mention this because we listened to the album Naveed constantly on this trip. Our Lady Peace was on tour for the album Clumsy and La Luna was a great place to see a show. It is now defunct or maybe just called something else. I went to the show with Rose because we figured we could drive to her parents house in Corvallis after the show. This was my first time ever being to Portland, Oregon and I was not impressed. I swore to myself I would never live there. Hold that thought…
