News & Shows Music & Merch The Band Press Mailing List Contact Links Tour Journal TOUR JOURNAL December 7 2002:Eugene, OR, USA The Wetlands with American Hitlist, Basic Assumption, Luster We arrived to find that a fourth band had been added to the bill. Normally that would bum us out as there are already too many bands in the world. However, tonight the fourth band is Luster , a female fronted trio from San Francisco....and they rocked so, wahoo!! We were to play first. After some trouble with the PA we played a short but rocking set ourselves, then proceeded to drink a lot. The bar had this cool back room with a groovy salt water aquarium in which resided a black and white striped eel and his friends. After the show, Sara was loading out gear when this guy came up to her and told her how good he thought we were. Hooray! Then he went on to say how cool it was to see a girl playing guitar and that there were so few girls in bands these days. At this point Sara said something like, "Well didn't you see Luster, they had 2 girls in their band." Then the clueless male said "Oh, I thought you were in Luster." Oh, :( We got asked back. Who knows, maybe we will return someday.. In the meantime, check out a new batch of pictures from our little adventure down south in the Big O. Also, enjoy our 3 new song files on the Sounds page. November 16 2002:Seattle, WA, USA Bill's Birthday Bash Secret Location with Daffodil 11 Well...er....um. We didn't get to play a note because the cops showed up. I suppose that is the risk you run when you play a party. I think it was Squirrel Bait who said it best when they sang "I don't need no pig stomping on my buzz!" November 6 2002:Seattle, WA, USA The Central 270 1st Ave S. (Pioneer Square) with The Fading Collection, Blue Star Creeper, Los Peligrosos This show went very well. I knew it was going to be fun when I was hauling my stuff to the club from the car and got propositioned by a hooker, panhandled and was offered the chance to have my tennis shoes shined....all in one trip. We played great to a few people. Bethany the barmaid kept us well medicated all evening. The bathroom is coated in an entertaining array of stickers from bands that I'd never heard of and probably would never want to see. There was "Black Noise Cannon" and Scorched Earth Policy" and (my fav) "Life After Liftoff". Extra-special props to Los Peligrosos who stepped in with less than 12 hours notice to fill in the final slot of the evening which was vacated by an ailing Fading Collection. They have a new guitarist that fits them to a "T". October 25 2002:Seattle, WA, USA Lock & Keel with Daffodil 11 This show went particularly well and the band was happy with the reception they received. The management even asked them back. They must be nuts. :-)? In other news, the first bit of fruit from the latest round of recording activity has been posted to our Sounds page. Check out "Just A Little More", a song that has been in the band's set for about 6 months. What is not to like? October 19 2002:Seattle, WA, USA Patti Summer's Let's see, there was a Patti's show. That went pretty well but nothing to really write home about. There are only so many things one can say...Oh yeah, check out Red Means Run! This was their debut show. ..beautiful female vocals over lots of verb and delay. September 28 2002:Seattle, WA, USA Industrial Cafe with Magic Cordoba What to remember from the Instrial Coffee show? Magic Cordoba opened the show, and played a nice set of psychedelic-surf-rock. Oh yeah, the management has moved the stage. At first glance this seems like a good move. But once you play, you'll notice the speakers are just too far away to hear vocals. This reporter has been to said establishment several times over the past few weeks to see friends bands play, and the consensus of most bands: "it sounds like shit back here!" If you play there (not recommended), bring monitors! September 10 2002:Seattle, WA, USA I-SPY Well kids, the rumors are true. The Purrs have had a change in personnel. Jen has moved on to greener pastures and we were sad. One ad in the Stranger later and we were happy to welcome Sara into the fold. This show at the I-SPY was her coming out party and it went great. Of course we were last out of 4 bands on a Tuesday so very few had the stamina to view the blessed event. Those that did were treated to a rocking good time. I would like to thank the super cool Li, the soundperson, who played spaceship with our vocals. I would also like to thank, Rick, the bassist from Jodie Watts for displaying his nipples to us several times throughout the evening.. Stay tuned for updated pictures and bio. August 2 2002:Eugene, OR, USA Cosmic Pizza Cosmic Pizza is a Vegan Pizza joint that serves (or attempts to serve) organic alcoholic beverages and (of course) pizza. Boy this show sure did not start out too promising. The stage was outside. It was a flimsy affair propped up on cinder blocks and bending under the weight of the gear of the first band. The first band were told no less than 5 times by the "management" that they were too loud. How many times would the "management" tell us to turn down!? Finally we were able to set up and play. For some unknown reason, the Rock Gods were smiling upon us that night. We played great and apparently sounded great too. One thing is for sure, nobody told us to turn down 5+ times! It's a good thing we sounded so good. When we were finished we found out that Cosmic Pizza had run out of beer. That is a clever way to keep customers coming back don't you think??? July 25 2002:Seattle, WA, USA TOST The Purrs played ToST, a new club which is a nice addition to the regular bar fare in the Fremont neighborhood. ToST has bands playing consistently all week, something that hasn't existed in Fremont for..well, a long time. Lots of people came out to see us play a 2 hour set. Everything started out well, including the fog machine. Midway into the set the songs were unraveling, and the fog machine was off. Afterwards we had comforting drinks with friends to help the night spiral more out of control. June 29 2002:Eugene, OR, USA Samurai Duck This past week we rented a van and drove down to Eugene to play a show. On the way down Jim got all excited because there is a tour bus factory located on the I-5 just past Portland. Jim gets excited everytime he sees a tour bus because seeing the outside of a tour bus is as close as he will ever come to fulfilling his rock and roll dream. The club was nice. There was a sound man named Marty, who tried really hard to get the delay in the vocals working. Jason and Jen both spent a lot of time in Eugene and so they had lots of old friends to play with. Jim and Craig, having spent little or no time in Eugene, passed the evening by making fun of Jason and Jen. We seemed to get a good response from the crowd although we did not play as well as they could have. You see…we were drunk. The problem seems to be all the hanging around with nothing to do that happens before a band is supposed to play. Finding ways to pass that time is difficult and finding alcohol free ways is doubly so. Once the show was finally over, we packed up our gear while Marty regaled us with tales of his musically inclined relatives. Somewhere in there, Jason lost a $200 microphone. If anyone has seen it, please email us. On the way back I found out that it is illegal in the state of Oregon to pump your own gas. Instead, a duck faced man walks up to me, asks me if I want a “Phillip”, then hands me a post-it note with this on it: 3/F See, that means Pump #3, fill up. Then I am supposed to somehow know to take the post-it note inside, where someone else rings me up. I’m supposed to know this procedure without the benefit of instructions beforehand. Apparently the "no gas pumping" law was passed in an effort to preserve jobs in the state of Oregon. First I was thinking-“Gee, that’s nice but pumping gas isn’t really a career is it?” Then I was thinking-“Gee, if they are that interested in preserving jobs, why don’t they make ATM machines illegal too?” It was about that time that Jen told me to shut up. Next stop Tost in Fremont, you’d be a fool to miss it. June 22 2002:Seattle, WA, USA Industrial Cafe with Los Peligrosos Tonight we played at Industrial Cafe. We arrived around 8:00. Some guy in the parking lot asked me if I was in the band that plays in the nude. "No", I said, "Is there a band that plays in the nude tonight? I will be missing that one." I kept my word. We unloaded and set up out stuff, as we were the first band of the evening. Then I got a pint of Mac & Jack's and found a comfy barber shop chair in which to veg out. There was a guy there that looked like Elton John, but I'm pretty sure it was not him. We played a set of 6 songs. Our newer songs "Waiting For The Asteroid" and "Here For So Long" are coming along quite nicely. We also brought back an oldie ("The Scene") which was good too. There was almost no one there to see us. I guess there must have been something good on television or something. After us, Los Peligrosos played. They always sound good. They closed with a cover of The Pretender's classic "Precious". It reminded me that I don't own any Pretenders CD's. I think I will go get one now. Later... June 8 2002:Seattle, WA, USA Patti Summer's with Garmonbozia, Elysian The Purrs opened the show with old and new songs. ...some more upbeat than usual..to help appease those who say we're too SLOWW. ...still too slow, i guess. Garmonbozia made the trip from Portland, played an excellent set and wowed everyone. Elysian finished the show, topping it all off in style. Proof blonds have more fun. It all gets real hazy after that... April 13 2002:Seattle, WA, USA Patti Summer's with Racket, Daffodil 11 The Purrs returned to Patti Summers after a couple month break from the club. We played with our good friends Racket and Daffodil 11. Jima can't say much about the Racket show because he wasn't there. He was down the street at the Cyclops drinking with friends. Is there some mystery why everyone hates Jima? Daffodill 11, Jen's other band, played a strong set as usual. The entire thing was being filmed by creative media alliance. They had lots of bright lights. I'm not exactly sure why but it was very nice of them to do so. Perhaps some day we will put a clip up on our site for all of you to endure....I'm mean, enjoy. April 9 2002:Seattle, WA, USA The Vogue Vicious Dolls Drag and Variety Show with Optimus Ryme Tonight The Purrs played the Vicious Dolls Drag and Variety Show with a rap act called Optimus Ryme. It was hard to tell which thing didn't belong there: The all white rap act, the shoegazing slackers with no friends or the half dozen older guys dressed like Tammy Faye Baker on acid lip synching Cher tunes. The sound quality was good (we think), the alcohol was good (we know) so I suppose the evening was a success. February 28 2002:Seattle, WA, USA Hurricane Cafe Purrs played the Hurricane Cafe last night. There was some acoustic act that did a cool cover of "Waiting For The Flood" by Love & Rockets. The band played decently in front of 3 or 4 people. We got paid $20. Then the band proceeded to get very drunk. So drunk the bar cut Jason off at around 1:30. So drunk Jim promised to wear a dress at the drag show gig in April. Whatever happened after that point is anybody's guess. There was no after show party that I was aware of. February 24 2002:Seattle, WA, USA Ballard Firehouse Tonight The Purrs played one of their best sounding shows to date and NOBODY saw it. That is because other bands screwed us. It's an important lesson that anyone in a band should understand I suppose. Here's the skinny: We were playing at the Ballard Firehouse as part of a showcase of 20+ bands. We were supposed to play at 8 pm. Supposedly the bar was going to be quizing audience members upon their arrival as to which band they were there to see. If a band ended up with more than 25 people then they were given future dates. We wanted future dates and had pestered our friends to come see us that night at 8 pm. At 5:30 I was relaxing in my home when Craig called to inform me that several of the bands before us had not bothered to show up. We were going to be on in 30 minutes. We scrambled down there and were able to play. Of course we had no friends really in the audience. Other bands had screwed us. Now on to the good news. It was The Purrs first time on a real stage with a real sound system and I think the dreamy qualities of our band really came out. We received many compliments from strangers. I was told afterward that we were the only band of the evening with discernable lyrics, not to mention hooks and melody lines. We even got a compliment from the sound guy and sound guys, as a group, are a most cynical bunch. All the other bands of the evening sounded like Band #2 from the last gig. If everyone is doing the noise punk thing then it isn't very punk is it? Hell, we were the punkest band out there. February 16 2002:Seattle, WA, USA Industrial Cafe The band played another show at Industrial Coffee. They were first out of 3. Band #2 really sucked! A bunch of loud punk/funk/metal goobers with no sense of song or melody. I knew it was going to be trouble when they arrived with their "fans" and they were all chunky guys and no chicks. A lack of female element is a sure sign of disaster. Jim hid in the back store room where he met a member of the Band #3 (Jodie Watts) who was also hiding. He seemed nice. Jim got extra excited when he found out Band #3 do a cover of "Cars" by Gary Numan. That is because Jim is an old fart. Band #2 played twice as long as they were supposed to which we took as a sign of total disrespect to the members of band #3, not to mention the audience. By the time they were done the bar was literally empty except for the chunky guys. I'm sure the bar owner was pleased. I know Band #3 was. The Purrs blew out of there without hearing Band #3. The Purrs would like to apologize to Band#3 but there was no way our craniums could take anymore. January 26 2002:Seattle, WA, USA Patti Summer's with Elysian, Electric Ottoman Purrs debuted 3 new songs tonight. Despite inclimate weather many people showed up to enjoy the evening. Why does the management of Patti Summers pile ice in the urinals in the men's room? It is kind of fun pretending the urine stream is a laser gun and your blasting your way through to.....I'll just shut up now. Check out gigs from these years: 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010