"Back In The Swing Of
Things"
November 2nd, 2000
Rose Garden: Portland,
Oregon
Main
Set...
Sometimes, Grievance, Corduroy,
Go, Hail, Hail, Dissident, Evacuation, Wishlist, Better Man, Given to Fly,
State of Love and Trust, Untitled, MFC, Habit, Thin Air, Even Flow, Black,
Insignificance, Porch
First
Encore...
Soon Forget, Do the Evolution,
Leatherman, Nothingman, Elderly Woman, Improv, Rearviewmirror
Second
Encore...
Fuckin' Up
I flew into
Seattle the day before the Portland show so I could drive into Portland
with Bowman. My flight arrived in Seattle at like 10:45 pm or some bull
like that...so that was like close to 2 in the morning my time. Needless
to say, waking up on the morning on the 2nd was just the beginning of the
most WACKED out tour schedule I was ever a part of. Bowman and I left at
a relatively good time (around 9 or 10 or something) and stopped at McDonald's
and were on our way to Portland. Of course, we had time for a little stop-over
in Vancouver to visit his grandparents...who were very nice and have an
indoor-outhouse in their basement.
We made it
to Portland...a lightly rainy...not quite beautiful...day. We finally parked
and made our way towards the box office where we see Rich from like the
street. So Bowman begins shouting "RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICH WIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIILSON!"
Only Rich couldn't hear him...so it was quite comical to see Ryan shout
Rich's name like six hundred times:-) The fan club line was already accumulating...and
the only familiar faces around were Rich, Chuck, and Alex. It was so nice
seeing Chuck and Rich again...as they were clearly 2/3rd of the icon faces
of the 2000 tour...in my opinion that is:-) Oh wait, I'm a liar...Dan was
there at this point, too. Sorry.
Before Bowman
and I left in the morning, I had called Mike (my boss) and saw if we could
possibly get in at the Dr. Martens USA headquarters in Portland for a tour...so
he instructed me what do to. We also had to wait for Carolina at the box
office since she would be traveling with us and she was flying into Portland.
Anyhow, after everyone got their tickets/ticket upgrades, we were going
to go find DM USA and go on a tour. We ended up scratching that idea and
the two carloads of us decided to go to the mall instead.
The mall we
ended up going to was the mall that Tonya Harding teaches skating lessons
at. Isn't that sweet? We did some lollygagging at Toys R Us and then some
of us separated from the group. Rich asked me if I dared him to go on the
ice...I said "sure"...so what does he do? He goes on the ice and starts
skating...in his shoes. All these little kids come up to him and tell him
to get off the ice...eventually, he feels like he's done his job and gets
off. When he's getting off, some adult lady comes over and starts yelling
at him saying that if he goes on the ice again, she was going to call mall
security and blah blah blah. It was really funny at the time...I guess
you had to be there:-) Eventually, we had enough of that biatchof amall,
and escaped through a mall personal only hallway. That was interesting...a
bunch of hoodlums running through the "off limits" area :-)
We got back
to the venue and I got hooked up with some great tickets (thanks to Liz!)
and Dan and I made our way to a special area that night...LOL. So anyhow,
I made my way to my seat eventually and it was really superb! I forget
where my original Portland seat was supposed to be, but I just know that
this seat (on Stonewall's side) kicked some major ass!!!
I had really
been looking forward to seeing the band again...I was off the road too
much...and it kicked my ass knowing that all my friends were still out
there doin' the right thing! (haha)
Even though
my seat was superb, my section was not. BUT...I pretty much think that
reaction was the same for everyone hardcore that was at that show. I talked
to a woman in the Boise airport who was from Portland and she was really
disappointed in the show...I felt really bad about that. If Detroit shows
sucked, I would be superdeduperdybummed...not only if they sucked...but
if I was able to ADMIT that they sucked...
I think the
setlist indicated that there were good things ahead if the crowd put forth
some energy...but they just weren't doin' it for them that night. Evacuation
AND Thin Air...come on...good Binaural main set! Too bad the Portland kids
messed it up;-) At least we got an improv out of the
show...or new song...whatever you want to call it...I am not going to argue
over it. I think it sounds more like an improv, but what do I know? Ya
know?
Kickass closing
of Fuckin' Up...
Onto the airport
after this show to be wimpies and fly into Boise...
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