The Bestest Summer EVER! pt III

The last weekend of summer was all I expected it to be and more. Four shows in three days! The Cherry Poppin' Daddies AND Flogging Molly? TWICE? Such the stuff dreams are made of. (if that sentence is arranged grammatically correct it reads like this: "such the stuff of dreams are made." see what happens when you attempt to NOT end a sentence in a preposition? grammar shmammer, i say.)

Anyway. FRIDAY - The Cherry Poppin' Daddies played the Doug Fir, a bar down the street. It's been five long years since I've seen these local legends, and my how times have changed (and yet haven't at all). The guys who once had a video on a steady rotation on the various MTVs were now loading their own gear. Gone were the fancy zoot suits, and in their places were new wrinkles, bald spots and matured faces. The set started off with "Teenage Brain Surgeon" a verrrry old song from their first album that came out at least 15 years ago. They played a lot of their older songs, some fan favorites like "Sockable Face Club" and "Irish Whiskey," but also some stuff that I'm not sure I've heard live before like "Hazel, South Dakota." There were a few songs I didn't recognize at all, all ska numbers, that they didn't name.
When I used to go to CPD shows on a regular basis, I usually came home with a plethora of bruises. I have a vivid memory of somehow getting my face smushed against the barrier three feet above the ground and having the mesh imprinted on my cheek. Most of the people back then were about ten to fifteen years older than me, were usually wasted. The crowd on Friday were those same people, except older and slightly more mature (although I did see a couple of at least thirty-five years old sucking face in the middle of the dance floor before the set even started). The tameness of the crowd is what really cracked me up. I was bumped into, slightly, only one time - and the guy apologized! Instead of fighting for a spot near the front, I was (gently) pushed up to the stage where I could actually see the band. Would that have happened five years ago? HAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!
There was a little bit of dancing and the band seemed to enjoy themselves. I was pleased with the selection of songs overall, however, I really would have liked to have heard "Don Quixote" and "Master and Slave."
After the show I met some friends at a pub near my house and found to my delight that yet another place serves Smithwicks! I had no idea this beer was so prolific! Woohooo! It was good to catch up on things with them. I'm still working with the idea of having the people I grew up with now married and with children, but it's coming along. The whole crew - two couples, one with two kids - live together in a huge house just a few minutes from me now, so that's exciting.

SATURDAY - Went to the Portland Pirate Festival! Ahhhh, Portland is weird..... and I *LIKE* IT!! I spent an incongruent amount of time standing in lines during this event, but the day was beautiful and the festival was located at a park under the St. John's Bridge, which gives a gorgeous view of the city, the river and the mountains; the bridge itself is quite nice, too. There had to have been at least a thousand people there, more than several of them dressed up. There was a staged "fight" with black powder cannons (the kids took that with mixed results), Irish set dances done with swords, pirates on stilts, "Dress Like a Pirate" booth, etc. My favorite thing was watching some kids wearing pirate hats have a mock swordfight... a few minutes later one of the kid's mom was trying to leave and had to shoo the other one off, "go find your parents!" she said. The kids didn't even know each other! They just started playing and were having the time of their lives with total strangers!
In the afternoon I then drove down to the parents' house to chat for a bit before I continued south to watch the first Flogging Molly show. I hadn't been to the McDonald Theater before and I was rather impressed. The sound system was phenomenal. I did take issue with the area I was standing in, as there was an aisle way with several different floor levels - serious ankle-breaking danger if moshers come along. And come along they did. Sheesh, the kids were moshing to the recorded music playing over the loudspeakers before the band even got on stage! I only caught one of the opening bands, a group called Bedouin Sound Clash. They had a reggae sound, with lots of bass and effects. Kind of mellow to be opening for Flogging Molly, but I do intend to pick up a CD of theirs. They ended their set with a medley of U2's "New Years Day" and the Clash's "Guns of Brixton" and "Police and Thieves." I'm not ordinarily a huge fan of cover songs, but this was great and I've had bits of each song in my head since then.
Flogging Molly's set was pretty similar to the one in Seattle back in March, with the additions of "Laura" and a new version of "Black Friday Rule." For some reason a mosh pit started wayyy on the side, where I was standing, and remained there the entire set. After awhile I didn't mind, as most of the big kids seemed to tucker out four songs or so into it. The pit monitors did a good job as well, picking people up and bear-hugging the bullies. There weren't any crowd surfers and people kept checking up on one another to make sure they were ok. There was at least one dude who was stoned/drunk out of his mind, but in a mild falling-over sort of way. He kept putting his arms around people like he was their closest friend, but really he just couldn't stand up straight. That people were nice to him and that he didn't puke on anyone is amazing. (note: mosh pit monitors are non-official enforcers of pit etiquette and keep people in line so the big, bad security men don't have to do it for them. people can continue to mosh and no one breaks a leg.) (another note: if you are the guy that was standing next to me wearing flip-flops, you're INSANE! flip flops? to a punk rock show? good lord.....)

SUNDAY - Dad made waffles and Tony called! Despite Tony's status as ex-boyfriend he's surprisingly pleasant to talk to and I was relieved to learn that he's officially going to spend the rest of his contract doing a safe job in Korea rather than out in the middle east in the worst unit ever.
In the afternoon Amadan played a free outdoor show at the Corvallis Fall Festival. The crowd was huge and lots of people were dancing (including some librarians from across the street, apparently!). They played most of their good old songs and quite a few new ones. Highlights included the panicked expression on the singer's face when he realized that there were children in the audience and the song he had chosen to sing had nearly every foul word in existence, and the humorous attempt to work around it. They were truly happy and excited to be playing in their hometown to such a large crowd and they kept thanking everyone they've ever known. It's nice to see the local boys done well.
After that I raced back up to Portland with just enough time to eat dinner, put on my jumpboots (so as to not have my toes smashed like the night before) and get down to the second Flogging Molly show. I timed it pretty well and only had to stand around a few minutes before Flogging Molly got on stage. Unfortunately, there was not a coat check, and the thought of riding the bus home in the early morning hours with potentially creepy men made me decide wear my leather jacket to the show, so I was forced to wear the thing throughout the night. I only felt woozy a few times, and even joined the large mosh pit at the end of the night - voluntarily! I got the feeling though that people were being nice to me in there simply because I'm a girl. Ohhhh well. I got to dance, run into people and pump my fist in the air like a maniac! Yeahhhhh!!!!
The set seemed shorter for some reason, but it was very well-played and we could actually hear Bridget sing! I sweated so much my leather jacket was soaked through, and in fact, was still wet this morning. Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!
After the show I waited around a bit to see if the band would come out to shake hands, but the security guys kept yelling at us, so I headed outside. In front of the theater some kids wearing the standard punk rock, chrome-studded leather jackets, and the old man paddy hats (Donegal hats? is that proper name?) played traditional Irish tunes on the guitar and tin whistle. I stood across the street at the bus stop, listening to them and smiling. What a fitting way to end the summer, I thought, to stand on a street corner in Portland, after witnessing my favorite band, with the sound of kids singing "Dirty Old Town" drifting towards me.