This week has been the most excitement filled week for me in a long long time! Last (well not last Thursday but the Thursday prior) My old band Tres Madres got back together to play at a Wrestlemania themed party where my noise band Dr. Jones also played. That was the first time I have ever performed in two acts for one show. The party was great there was constantly four televisions playing old Hulk Hogan wrestling matches, the party started with a eating contest, consisting of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for round one, round two was hard boiled eggs and, round three was blackened hot dogs, with the bun of course. The only thing the contestants were allowed to wash it all down with was shots of whiskey. It was crazy, the winner got a Easter basket full of booze. Then Arsenlives played his set, one of my favorites was his Aphex Twin sounding keyboard cover of Radiohead, I think the song was Climbing the Walls. Then Paintings For Animals played his set which was a slow building noise adventure that rounded off very nicely. Following Paintings For Animals, Tres Madres played, our set consisted of two and a half songs very roughly pieced together into one pretty steady piece. I was surprised to see some of the people in the crowd actually screaming along with us! The last musical act to perform that evening was Dr. Jones. We did a noise interpretation of that which was and is Hulkamania; I don't know how to better describe it, you had to be there. Dr. Jones was the last musical act to perform as I said but not the last event of the night! The party's focus of attention then was moved out to the front yard where there was a fake wrestling match that continued for about 45 minutes to an hour. Then there seemed to be a bit of a arm wrestling contest on the front porch, my friend Luke won.
So that was the party, then I worked for the next two days, not too exciting but, the following Sunday one of my old friends from high school who lived like a hobo for at least a solid four years hit me up to hop a freight train from Seattle to Portland to go see another old friend of our Jeremy. I had never hopped a train before but I've wanted to for years so, with that in mind I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to go on such an adventure with someone who had as much experience as my friend has.
So we hit the train yards at around three in the afternoon and crawled over two trains to get to one of those gondola cars that would usually be used to haul a bunch of dirt or clay or maybe coal. Anyway, we hid out in there for about 6 to 6 1/2 hours until we finally heard them doing the brake check on one of the trains headed our way, I was already excited. So then we sneak way up the train looking for a good car to settle into for the trip (unfortunately there were no big spacious cars on this one like the one we had waited out in) when we finally jumped onto the front of one of those cars where they stack the freight on top of freight. I curled up under the platform that goes across the car (meant for walking across) while my friend Justin hid out in what they call the suicide hop part of the car until we got out of Seattle, then I jumped down there and we drank a beer. After the first beer we decided to go back up under the walking platform as it seemed a bit risky a place to be drinking down in the suicide part. I would guess the fastest the train got going would've been 50-60mph but it did seem to stop a lot. I wanted to hop a train back into Seattle too but after sleeping under a bridge all night waiting for one train to stop after four or five of them passed through without stopping, finally a train going the other way stopped which was the one my friend was catching to start back towards his home in Denver so, I told him to go ahead and hop that thing and I would just head back in towards Portland and catch the Amtrak for my journey which did afford me a bit more time with my friend Jeremy which was cool. A couple of days later my friend Justin mails me to let me know that not only did he get home safely but that he also ran into a friend on that train so he had company on his way back. I was thrilled, everybody seemed to win!
Then this past Thursday, I went to the Showbox Sodo and got to see Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds! They were the first big concert I saw when I first moved out here and now it looks like they will be the last big show I'll have seen while living here too. I think they were better the first time even though they did do more of my favorite songs this past time. Now I am planning my going away party and trying to figure out how I'm going to pack up all of my stuff for the move. I just got my cello back from the shop yesterday though so I'll probably be finding myself distracted by that a lot. Cheers until next time!!!
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So that was the party, then I worked for the next two days, not too exciting but, the following Sunday one of my old friends from high school who lived like a hobo for at least a solid four years hit me up to hop a freight train from Seattle to Portland to go see another old friend of our Jeremy. I had never hopped a train before but I've wanted to for years so, with that in mind I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to go on such an adventure with someone who had as much experience as my friend has.
So we hit the train yards at around three in the afternoon and crawled over two trains to get to one of those gondola cars that would usually be used to haul a bunch of dirt or clay or maybe coal. Anyway, we hid out in there for about 6 to 6 1/2 hours until we finally heard them doing the brake check on one of the trains headed our way, I was already excited. So then we sneak way up the train looking for a good car to settle into for the trip (unfortunately there were no big spacious cars on this one like the one we had waited out in) when we finally jumped onto the front of one of those cars where they stack the freight on top of freight. I curled up under the platform that goes across the car (meant for walking across) while my friend Justin hid out in what they call the suicide hop part of the car until we got out of Seattle, then I jumped down there and we drank a beer. After the first beer we decided to go back up under the walking platform as it seemed a bit risky a place to be drinking down in the suicide part. I would guess the fastest the train got going would've been 50-60mph but it did seem to stop a lot. I wanted to hop a train back into Seattle too but after sleeping under a bridge all night waiting for one train to stop after four or five of them passed through without stopping, finally a train going the other way stopped which was the one my friend was catching to start back towards his home in Denver so, I told him to go ahead and hop that thing and I would just head back in towards Portland and catch the Amtrak for my journey which did afford me a bit more time with my friend Jeremy which was cool. A couple of days later my friend Justin mails me to let me know that not only did he get home safely but that he also ran into a friend on that train so he had company on his way back. I was thrilled, everybody seemed to win!
Then this past Thursday, I went to the Showbox Sodo and got to see Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds! They were the first big concert I saw when I first moved out here and now it looks like they will be the last big show I'll have seen while living here too. I think they were better the first time even though they did do more of my favorite songs this past time. Now I am planning my going away party and trying to figure out how I'm going to pack up all of my stuff for the move. I just got my cello back from the shop yesterday though so I'll probably be finding myself distracted by that a lot. Cheers until next time!!!
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Miss you.