It was a 3 hour drive to get from Portland to Seattle in rush hour.  The
drive was long, and very tiring, but we made it.  It was 9pm, and the
search began for Noisex, so that Kevin could get an interview for Sonic
Boom.  Steve from Scar Tissue was wandering around in a great mood, so I
got to spend a few minutes talking to him.  It turns out that Phil (the
other member) had just broken his arm, leaving Scar Tissue to play
without him.  Luckily, the folks from 3d House of Beef were there to
help out.  I had opened for Scar Tissue once without Phil being there,
so I knew to expect a good show, although very different.

For some reason, Scar Tissue was doomed to go on first.  In my opinion,
that was a major mistake.  Scar Tissue seemed to be the drawing band,
and to put the drawing band on first ... well ...  As always, Steve put
on a fantastic show.  It was a bit impromptu, but it definately left
most of the crowd smiling.  Everyone seemed to have a good time,
everything was going great.

Next up, was a band that had been touring with Noisex since the
beginning.  I had the unfortunate experience of spending a few painful
minutes with the lead singer before the show.  The band was called
Holocaust Theory.  They managed to prove one of my own theories: All it
takes to tour the country is a K2000 and rock-star-hair.  I was very far
from impressed, and actually almost fell asleep.  Very very simple drum
beats, with a little bit of looped noise (sounded like the same noise
for every song), and some way-too distorted vocals that could have been
an alphated recital for all I know.  Needless to say, they belonged
first in the lineup, if there at all.

Finally, Noisex made it on.  I didn't know what to really expect ... I
had heard the latest Noisex CD, and with all the label hype about the
inclusion of :wumpscut: songs, I was waiting for something fairly
spectacular.  Well, the music sounded nothing like the cd.  It was just
a bunch of loops.  That would have been great if there had been a stage
presence.  Imagine going to see Rapoon, and having less movement on
stage.  Finally, the first :wumpscut: song came on ... woo! the crowd
(what was left of them after that second band) went wild.  I guess that
was a little too much.  They seemed to just get very upset that the
crowd liked :wumpscut: a tad bit more than them, and ended the show by
walking off stage.

Ah well.

It was fun, nonethe less.  If you get a chance, go see Scar Tissue, if
you can, at least listen Noisex, but skip that other band.

-Jer (tired from Seattle, and still without a Scar Tissue shirt)