We all woke up early at Neil's house and went to a have breakfast at a
vegetarian restaurant. Next to the restaurant there was a cool arcade. We
paid $1.25 and played the rest of the games for $0.05 or some of them were
even free. It was really fun. Today is the big benefit show for the Liberation Collective at the Paris
Theatre. When I got there Mike from Defiance wanted to know why I hadn't
called him when we first arrived. I felt really bad because we phoned him
before we left for the tour and told him that we needed a place to stay when
we got to Portland. I also ran into the singer of Defiance, I remember him
when he was doing vocals for Unamused in 1991. I was really happy to see
him and gave him a hug. The line was really long and it was so cold
outside. I was all the way in the back and it took me 20 minutes to get in.
I did that because when I wasn't in a band, I always thought it was unfair
that band members got to cut in front of everyone and just walk in. The first band that went on was The Riffs. The singer used to be in a
famous Portland band called RESIST (now defunct). His band was 70's punk
style. Then it was our turn. I didn't do so great with my poetry. The
crowd was too big and I'm really not used to this kind of punk concert. I
think we were all very nervous because of the size of the crowd and the
height of the stage. Next up was Marck Bruback who put the audience in a
good mood. I don't know how he performs so well. It was like he had no
fear, no stage fright. Next it was Aus Rotten. While they were playing a
few fights broke out. They stopped playing and the bass player Corey kept
trying to get down off the stage while Neil kept grabbing him, trying to
prevent him from doing so. Corey finally got down, grabbed a skinhead and
took him out the exit. Neil made a big speech about how this has been going
on too long at gigs and how it must be stopped. After that Defiance hit the stage and the kids were going crazy and singing
along. The vocalist made an anti-war speech about the bombing of Iraq.
Their new songs were really powerful but I'm not really into their older
material.
Today Katrina and I woke up early and went to the Liberation Collective at
about 10 am. We were both recovering from the concert last night and were
still half asleep. At the Collective I ran into Craig who used to be in
Unamused. It had been 8 years since we last saw each other. The last time
he wrote me he said that he wasn't going to do any punk stuff and planned
to focus solely on Animal Rights activism. He is now heavily involved, so
much so that he has been harassed by the FBI. We all went to an anti- vivisection protest that took place at the Oregon
Regional Primate Resource Center. It was very cold and windy. We held our
signs and banners so people in their cars could see us. Sometimes I wonder
if protests like this can accomplish anything. After that we all went to Corvalles, which was about a one hour drive. We
stayed with Dave's sister Ange. It was a very warm house and they were
making us a big dinner. The best thing, next to the food was the cool
feminist book collection. We had to go to the show so the food was not finished. The show was at a
record store and the place was packed. I wanted to talk to people but I was
so tired after our set. Marck did very well as usual and Aus Rotten did a
very good set. Ange sang a song with them. We all stayed up late with Aus
Rotten and talked about almost getting beat up by big biker gangs and
skinheads.
