The Mighty Fine – 2nd ROAD BLOG from their “Slaters Revenge Tour 2012”

The Mighty Fine is on their “Slaters Revenge Tour” with The Shell Corporation. While on tour they will be writing periodic blogs for us. The second one can be read after the break.

Day  4: Portland, OR (7/20)

Welcome back friends.  After our show in San Francisco, we journeyed north.  Long night drives after shows can be quite the bitch, especially when everyone’s still settling into some sort of normal sleeping pattern.  Nonetheless, Chris & Slater pumped their veins with Red Bull and took shifts driving us through the dark night.  The morning of our Portland show, I woke up in our bus not knowing how far we’d gone.  The mountains surrounding us still had a little bit of snow and the signs at the truck stop displayed a big ol’ “WEED” sign.  Yep, we were in Weed, CA.  Still hobbling around from my knee injury, I walked over to the Quality Inn to see if I could score some free continental breakfast.  But, I was 5 minutes late.  Damn!  I really want to try this out.

Shortly after, we started the last 7 hour leg of the trip to Portland.  We got to Medford, OR around lunch time and decided to pick up some essentials.  Lunch at Costco (samples included), a knee brace for my knee, amongst other goodies.  We even picked up a huge bag of chicken thighs and roasted pepper marinade on the cheap.  You know what else is cheap in Oregon?  Gas!  $3.25 with full service just outside of Eugene.  Bitchin!

We arrived at the Tonic Lounge in Portland right around load in time.  The night was set of for locals Kill The Kids’ album release.  Another show where we were welcome with open arms.  Hood River locals Three Shot Burst opened the show.  Sweet dudes who brought lots of energy to the stage.  They got the crowd ready for us.  We jammed out and the crowd seemed to really enjoy it.  For only playing there once before (2 years ago), they made us feel like we were regulars in PDX.  Benson Jones played a rad set followed by The Shell Corporation and Kill The Kids.  Some old friends from back home who now live in Portland came out to the show and afterwards we all partook in a late night hang out sesh.  Thank you Corie, Breana, & Caleb for the hospitality!

Day 5: Seattle, WA (7/21)

I wake up to a beautiful Portland morning after only a few hours of sleep.  Drowsy and tired, I notice my voice is raspy and starting to go.  The frustrating part is my throat doesn’t hurt, I just have the ability to use it the way I’d like.

Once we’re all up we walk a few blocks down to a great breakfast joint.  Fully equipped with excellent coffee, delish eggs and the biggest pancakes I’ve ever seen.  So what’s the name of the establishment? No clue.  None of us can seem to remember.  I’ll let you know as soon as we do a little more diggin’ through these brains of ours.

The drive up to Seattle was absolutely beautiful.  Endless number of trees, fresh air and sights most of us had never seen before.  We met back up with Shell Corp once in Seattle at their buddy Chris’s house.  We bbq’d large quantities of meat & veggies before heading over to 2 Bit Saloon for the show.

The whole day leading up to the show I tried not talking since my voice was starting to really go.  It was no surprise that I struggled with my voice the whole night.  You win some, you lose some.  We just have to make do with what we have.  After the mildly attended show, The Mighty Fine and Shell Corp boys hung out at Chris’s.  I opted to crash out early in the bus.  Good sleep is huge when trying to recover from anything on tour.

On a side note, we had the BEST weather in Seattle.  Sunny, 75 degree day!  We’ve  been lucky with weather up to this point.

Day 6: Seattle, WA (7/22)

On Sunday, we had a day off in Seattle.  We grabbed Singer’s Saving Grace from Whole foods to tend to my voice.  Most of the day was spend cursing at the ridiculously poor designed streets, exploring the Tukwila Mall, and absorbing as much as we could with the time we had.   I definitely enjoyed the day much more knowing that I didn’t need to use my voice that night.

That evening, we went to the Bouncing Souls, The Menzingers, Luther show at Chop Suey.    Casey and I met Luther right before we left for tour when this show played in our hometown of San Luis Obispo.  Really awesome dudes who ended up crashing at our place.   Be sure to check them out if you ever have the chance.  Great jams and the nicest dudes.

Day 7: Boise, ID (7/23)

A good part of our day was driving out to Boise.  Slater and Casey stopped by a nearby Holiday Inn to grub on continental breakfast before driving.   We got to Boise a few hours before the show and threw the nerf around for a bit.  This was the first time I noticed my knee was feeling a lot better.   Chef Chris cooked up some of his famous Spaghetti w/ meat sauce for us before the show.  I’ve said it before, and I’m going to say it again: Cooking on tour is really the best/healthiest/most affordable way to eat.  Though it takes a little more effort and planting, the experience is well worth it.  And your wallet will thank you too.

We played at Liquid for their Monday Night Punk Rock night.  The promoter Levi had a great line up for the evening.  The Alltheways opened the show with their take on Blink-182/Green Day styling of pop-punk.  Next up was Dever’s Ska Skank Redemtion.  This 7 piece band killed it.  If you like ska in vein of Streetlight Manifesto then your ears will be pleased with them.  Not to mention, they earned the title of “Best Band Time” on tour so far.  We jammed out a set, my voice feeling much better!  As per usual, Shell Corp played a killer set.  Jan (Singer/Guitar) played most of the set without the guitar, it definitely brought an exciting energy to their set.   They even snuck a Dead Kennedy’s song to their set.  Hugh props to Levi and Mal for taking care of us, and everyone to came out on a Monday night for a healthy does of punk rock and ska.  We’re definitely coming back to Boise.  After the show, we commenced my birthday celebration!  Let’s see where the night takes us.

Until next time…