News & Shows Music & Merch The Band Press Mailing List Contact Links Tour Journal TOUR JOURNAL October 18 2004:Seattle, WA, USA Graceland with The Bratz, The Westminster Abbey, The Bloody Lovelies I was not sure what to expect from this show which was described to us as "Monday Funday" by the bar. We played in the room with the bar as opposed to the room where the stage was, which implies (quite correctly) that there would be no stage. It actually turned out to be a really great time and we'd do it again in a second. There is something about Monday night gigs in bars that fills me with blissful melancholy. I just love it. We played with 2 LA bands and The Bratz. The guys in the 2 LA bands we're very nice but those Bratz guys did not seem interested in talking to anyone. I felt the same about them, so nothing was lost. October 10 2004:Portland, OR, USA Ash Street Saloon with The Sort Ofs, Dance Card, Brendil We were really looking forward to this gig...even though it was a Sunday night ....even though we knew very few people would be there.... we didn't care....it was Ash Street ....a bar we had been trying to get in for almost a year. We weren't disappointed either. The stage is superb and the sound system and sound man were totally together. We played very well and then proceeded to get completely hammered. It was the last night of this little mini-tour and I suppose we just didn't get wasted enough the previous nights. It was over too quick and I'm not sure how long it will be before we go back down south. We have a new album to make.... October 9 2004:Eugene, OR, USA Luckys with The Visible Men, Unkle Nancy The Dark Side Of Nice We found ourselves staggering around Portland's Saturday Market scene, our teeth clenched in a death grin. The whole market is a very "hippie" kind of scene where desperate stoners try to make everything out of hemp in a sad attempt at repealing this country's senseless marijuana laws. I suppose they reason that if it can be proved that one useful thing can be made out of the "Devil Weed" congress will come to their senses and repeal the laws. It’s a total load of crap of course. They don't even use the same plant to make hemp doggie beds that they use to grow pot. The whole thing is just as sad as the medical pot people who want to legalize it because they claim it prevents pain in some AIDS patients. Trying to find worthwhile uses for pot totally tip toes around what pot is really good at, which is getting people high and making them feel good. Why pretend that that property isn't important when discussing legalization? Anyway where was I?...oh yeah, the market...hippies... We are walking around seeing a lot of pro-environment bumper stickers and t-shirts. Yes, the scene is very green. Everyone here seems to really care about the environment. So why is it that almost everything they sell is just useless crap that is on the fast track to the dump? Beads, candleholders, hair wraps. It’s all useless crap. It all ends up in the dump. It all contributes to the waste. A pro-environment bumper sticker will take just as long to decompose as a pro-Bush bumper sticker. Whew...where was I? Oh yeah.... the market... We ate lunch at Old Town Pizza, our standby food joint in Portland. Then we go into a music store to look for various bits of gear we broke or lost the previous night. This store had some great guitars on the wall (a 59 P-Bass, 62 Telecaster, blah, blah blah). Once we inquired about prices we were told the guitars were "museum pieces" and not for sale. The thing is, we aren't in a fucking museum, we are in a guitar store. Why tease customers by displaying so much gear that isn't for sale? Change the store's name from "Apple Music Whatever" to "The Guitars That Aren't For Sale" store. We drive to Eugene. More rain. Rain, rain, rain. This is only our second time playing Luckey's, but we've been playing Eugene since we started over 3 years ago. The people here are actually into supporting touring bands. People bought our CD's, they were nice to us and the show went fine. But there is something about this town that triggers such unease in Dose and I that we have to tranquilize our minds with Vicodin from the Vicodin fairy just to keep from going into a blind panic. Maybe its because the entire town seems to be composed of interchangeable two story buildings and extra wide non-descript streets apparently designed to disorient out of towners. Almost all the streets are one way and never seem to be going in the direction we want. Just like The Purrs themselves, half the male population of Eugene is named Jason. Anyway, Eugene has been supportive every time and we will be back again. After the show, we crashed with Jason's college buddy (named Jason). I wake up early, walk forever to find some coffee and start writing this.... httrc=h October 8 2004:Portland, OR, USA The Tonic Lounge with Darci Cash, The Piss Shivers, Chimpy It dumped rain the whole way down to Portland. Not one break in the rain. The rainstorm must have been 200 miles across in order to cover so much ground. I found it hard to believe there was that much water in the sky. We pulled into town for the first of three shows in a row just as the presidential debates were starting. Bush said something about "the internets" and we all had a good laugh. It’s a small slip that would have seen Gore totally slammed for it, but no news source said shit. They must be scared or something. We had a good time ridiculing both candidates. Then it was off to the bar. Our 3rd. show at The Tonic Lounge went well. We debuted a new tune called "The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of" There were 3 other bands on the list, the highlight of which was The Piss Shivers. An unfortunate name to be sure, but they played some crazy aggressive hardcore and had a nutso Mexican(?) guitarist. We slept that night on the basement floor at Jason's brother's house. I was up at 9 am. Coffee. Book. Ponder the sins of the Conquistadors. September 18 2004:Seattle, WA, USA The Dubliner with The Out Crowd August 31 2004:Seattle, WA, USA The Crocodile with The Femurs, Moc Moc We walk in the door of the Croc with our stuff. Someone hands me a yellow pill. "What is it," I asked. But they were gone. I handed the pill to Dose, who tossed it back without hesitation. We finished loading in our stuff and I parked the car in the over priced lot down the street. Since we aren't going to get a soundcheck, we mosey down to our favorite Mexican place on First and eat melted cheese while watching "Jaws" in spanish on a big projection screen. "Quijadas" dirigido por Steven Spielberg. "¡Todos fuera del agua, ahora!" I go to the bathroom and on the way back I find a small red and white capsule on the ground which I pick up. I get back to the table. "Hey Dose, isn't that your friend over there?" "Huh? where?" (Plop) "Oh, guess I was mistaken. Oh well, hey everybody drink up. Its time to play a big rock show." We saunter back to the Croc and hang out drinking as Moc Moc is still rock rock. Someone has painted a bunch of rockstar portraits in bold red, blue and black strokes. The pictures are on display on every wall. A strange, but totally hot, blonde chick, asks me to hold a small bag of white powder for her while she goes to the bathroom. I walk over to Dose, who swipes the baggy from me, crams his nose in it and inhales wildly until the contents are completely coating his nose and mouth. By then its time to play the show. We played great. We debuted a new tune at the end of the set called "If It's So Right, How Come It Feels So Wrong?". Then we got off the stage and the Femurs were up. We've played with these Femurs guys before. Last time they didn't sound so great. I suppose it probably had something to do with the fact that we were playing together in a big, empty concrete room on a rickety wooden stage infront of nobody while a bunch of drunken freaks played spaceship with the PA mixer. I'm pretty sure we sounded like total ass that night too. All I know for sure is that The Femurs sounded waaaay better at the Crocodile. They have pop sensibility with an aggressive, hooky style and they understand song structure, whether they want to admit it or not. They also had a stuffed cow's head poking out their bass drum. Jason goes to the pisser and some guy pull up to the urinal next to him and starts going on about how we sounded like a poppy version of The Warlocks. Its a nice thing to say, but talking while pissing seems a bit creepy to me. He must not have been too much of a creep though, cause he bought a copy of our amazing CD. Dose appeared completely unphased by the various mystery substances he'd been given all night long. That guy is a rock. August 19 2004:Seattle, WA, USA Graceland with Full, Sister Monk Harem, Old Ghost We do our soundcheck and then pop off to some place in Capitol Hill for din-din. We return over an hour later. Jason and Craig go hang in the club while Dose and I go wandering through the city. We walked all the way to the water and then watched the conglomeration of crackheads talking about crack in the crack park. Wouldn't it be cool if they were talking about something intense, like "revolution"? But no, Dose assured me they were just talking about crack... and where to buy crack...and how bad they wanted crack...and crack pipes...and all things crack. We then wandered back to the venue via The Whiskey Bar and sat through a bit of the 3rd band before going on. By the time we were ready to play, there wasn't a dry eye in the house. In fact, there wasn't an eye in the house of any kind. All the eyeballs were gone. And they had taken their bodies with them. We played a great show, to no one, yet again. Don't stop kicking me down.... July 31 2004:Seattle, WA, USA Cafe Venus / Mars Bar with Half Light Tonight the band played on a hot Saturday night in their hometown at the lovely Mars Bar. The bar has gone through some cosmetic changes, which I'm happy to report are all for the best. We shared the bill with the new local act, Halflight. They played an amazing set of blissed out psychedelic twang fronted by Dayna Loeffler's lush vocals. You should definately check these guys out! The Purrs followed with a great set to a very responsive crowd. We broke out a new song, "She's Gone". It's a very cool new-wavey psych-pop tune, which goes to show we have a ton of great new songs and we can play a song under five minutes! After the show Craig and Dose got into an argument with the members of Pearl Jam over which band was better - ELO or REO Speedwagon. Good thing they were both debate captains in High School. July 23 2004:Portland, OR, USA Slabtown with The Out Crowd, The Glass Family Several weeks ago Jima sent out promo CD's to bands he digs in a misguided attempt to attract attention to his band and hopefully drum up some unique gigs. One went to The Out Crowd, a super cool Portland based psych band featuring Matt Hollywood from Brian Jonestown Massacre, and Sara Jane, tamborine vixen extrodinare. They actually contacted us and we set up a gig at Slabtown, a fun little Portland venue. Once we arrived Jima promptly went to sleep in the back room of Slabtown, which is air conditioned. The rest of The Purrs hung out in front doing whatever. Glass Family, a band from Austin, TX were a nice bunch of kids and they played well. Jima retired to the back room again with a bourbon. In the backroom are several bar booths. He noticed that one of the booths was occupied by two chicks doing some blow and talking about boys in an animated, 100 syllables-per-second fashion. About every 5 minutes a different male would wander into the back room and saunter up to their table. "Hey, whatcha doing?" "Talking and doing some blow. Want some?" "Sure." The male would then lean over the table and a snorting sound could be heard. He'd sit there for about a minute and then leave. This happened several times. Jima wondered why no guy would want to hang out with 2 chicks doing blow. Then we played. We had to bail on playing our newest tune "She's Gone" because of a shortage of microphones. Everything else was fine though. The Out Crowd played last. They flat out kicked ass. They finished and before I knew it, 3 am had arrived. People were finally starting to file out. A drunk girl accosted Craig. She kissed on him and tried to drag him off into the night. Sensing that there was something wrong with that scenario, Craig declined the offer. The girl made a reptilian sound and wandered off into the night in search of easier prey. We stayed with Dose's friend Lisa, in a 4th floor apartment. It was nice but very hot. June 24 2004:Seattle, WA, USA Consolidated Works Arts Center with Blessed Light, The More, Arkade Hanging out in an art space is fun. They had really cool, designer furniture to hang out on. In case you didn't know it, Jima loves cool designer furniture....and Dose used to be an architect before he quit to join The Purrs. Somebody was handing out random pills to crowd members. Art chicks are hot. We played a show with 3 great bands, but I must say that Arkade blew me away. I feel like I witnessed rock 'n roll history happening in front of me. Its one of those things where, 5 years from now, someone will say something like, "Arkade is so huge now, they're just a bunch of sell outs." or maybe "Did you hear about how Arkade got busted with all that cocaine purchased with the proceeds from their latest triple platinum album?" and I'll say something like "Man, I saw them say back on 04, in an art space and they fucking ruled!!! It was only 3 freaking dollars!!!!" June 14 2004:Seattle, WA, USA Chop Suey with Ed Wang, Psuedo June 9 2004:Seattle, WA, USA The Crocodile with Treasure State, In Praise of Folly What a lovely intimate show this was. If you missed it, you missed us in fine form. We pulled out a bunch of mellow tunes that fit the vibe of the other bands and the scene. It was quite nice. Treasure State was quite enjoyable as was In Praise Of Folly. People bought me drinks. We bought ourselves drinks. Drinks for all my friends!!!!! May 26 2004:Seattle, WA, USA Funhouse with The Femurs, The Jeunes This show was fun. We drank. They have a kicking jukebox. May 8 2004:Seattle, WA, USA The Hideaway CD Release! with Graig Markel, Actionslacks It was our CD release show, by which I mean, it was like every other show in every quantifiable way. We got really drunk. No suprise there I suppose. We sold 6 CDs! That was cool. I spoke to the Actionslacks lead singer for a while about musical influences. Both of us are massive Brit rock fans, 80's fans and shoegaze fans. I think perhaps he just likes all kinds of music. Or maybe he just wanted to get in my pants. :) Telling me you like the above listed music genres is a good start if that is your goal. Speaking of being hit on, Dose got hit on after the show by some guy. He offered to buy Dose a drink at which point Dose said that if one drink was to be purchased then drinks for all band members must be purchased. The guy agreed and bought 4 shots of Jagermeister. At which point we had finished loading out our gear, so we drank and split. Props to Dose for getting us all free drinks and avoiding butt sex. April 17 2004:Seattle, WA, USA The Dubliner with Yelstin April 9 2004:Portland, OR, USA The Tonic Lounge with the Ovulators, Junior Private Detective, Friends For Heroes I can see the headlines now: Purrs Survive Assassination Attempt At Portland Eatery We have this problem whenever we go on the road. We don't know the town(s) so well and we get hungry. So we have to take chances on eateries we know nothing about. Usually we are pretty lucky. I suppose this is because of the Darwinism inherit in the food industry. This time around we ate at a place called "Old Wives Tale" or something like that. It was a pretty geriatric scene that should have tipped me off right away. In fact I think it did, but I ignored my instincts as I thought they were fried from long distance driving. We stagger into the place and the old lady hostess scowls at us and then leads us to the rear dining room at the end of a hallway. Over the hallway entry is a sign that reads "Classical Dining Room". As we quickly found out, the reason for this name is that they play classical music on a stereo in that room at an excessive volume. The walls of the Classical Dining Room are lined with quilts. The menu, a voluminous affair on light blue paper is doubly confusing because of the order in which the menu items are presented. First are the entrees, then a long disclaimer about their salad bar. Then I believe there was breakfast, lunch, desserts followed by appetizers. The confusion becomes compounded as one reads through the menu items and realizes the management can't seem to decide which culinary direction they would like to pursue. Spanikopeta (sp?), Curried Burritos, Pasta Carbonara, Enchiladas & BLT's are all part of the world-spanning menu. I took a chance on the Carbonara. I just felt like having it. Bad move. Carbonara was invented in Italy during the Second World War, when a group of American soldiers had finished routing some Nazis out of a small village, the villagers decided to make them breakfast. All they had was pasta and some eggs and bacon the Allied forces brought with them...anyway, that is pretty much all that is supposed to be in it. Imagine how happy I was when I found out that the dish is really just Alfredo in a thin disguise? Yum, nothing like a big heavy cream sauce before a gig. I only ate about half of it. The waitress suggested I take the rest in a to go box. When I informed her that I had not refrigeration as I was traveling she said I should just leave it on the sidewalk for the homeless. Where I come from, that is really just a euphemism for littering. She insisted that I do it. Whatever. I think when I get home; I'll dump my garbage in the street "for the homeless." We finished eating then went to a local record shop, as it was still too early to go to the bar. I almost barfed in the store. It was a combination of Cream Sauce and Gansta-Rap I suppose. But Craig was showing signs of sickness too. I became convinced we'd been poisoned. It was an assassination attempt! We got to the Tonic, loaded in and had a beer. My nausea kept creeping in, so I went back to my car and fell asleep. I woke up feeling much better. I wandered into the bar; bought a whiskey, hung out with various people I know and watched some bands. Then we played a show. We debuted our cover of a Belle & Sebastian tune and a Heroin-lounge type number. We had a good crowd and we sold 2 CD's. We loaded out our gear and drove to this chick's pad where we found a friendly cat and a clean floor on which to sleep. I woke up the next day, drank coffee, walked around window shopping and reading my book. I returned to the apartment and played guitar until everyone woke up. Then we went somewhere for breakfast. Then we drove back to Seattle. When I pulled into the driveway I quickly got< April 1 2004:Seattle, WA, USA Graceland with The Capitol Years, Levi Fuller & the Library Well, The Volcano I'm Still Excited band bailed on the show like a bunch of Girly Girls. I guess they were just too afraid to go on after the awe inspiring stage prowess of The Purrs. Boy, were we on tonight. Levi Fuller was not afraid and they played a fine set, as did Philly faves - The Capitol Years. They had super tight transitions between each song that we all enjoyed. Transitioning from one song to the next is difficult. Oftentimes you have to make sure that the first song ends on the same chord that the next song begins with. This kind of arrangement can lead to sets in which the flow suffers just to get the transition right. They didn't seem to have that problem. There was much drinking and camaraderie among bands, which resulted in a tearful departure. February 24 2004:Seattle, WA, USA Graceland with Anybody Human, The Isidore Chamber Tonight we wrapped up our "Off Nights at Great Bars" tour. Before the show Dose and I walked a couple blocks to a nice quite bar for a change of scene. We're sitting in an unassuming yuppie looking drinking establishment when the house lights go down, the blue stage lights come up and a dude dressed like Tina Turner comes out as starts lip synching to "What's Love Got To Do With It". I was never a big TT fan but I think that bridge in "What's Love Got To Do With It" is pretty much genius. Anyway it turned out we were in a gay bar and not a yuppie bar. When we got back to the Graceland we found out that The Isidore Chamber kids had all their gear stolen from their rehearsal space last night. Thieves are the scum of the earth. My heart goes out to them. The cool thing was that they climbed right back on that horse, borrowed some gear from friends and showed up to play the show. What troopers. A lesser band would have caved. There was no one I knew at the show. The only thing left to do was get drunk. We played. We slayed. We went to bed. February 17 2004:Seattle, WA, USA The Hideaway with Biography of Ferns, The Jeunes So I read in the latest issue of Men's Health magazine that chicks dig guys who drink bourbon because it makes the guy seem "dangerous" and chicks dig danger. So we were drinking bourbon. The problem is that The Hideaway pours their bourbon into white plastic cups so chicks can't see what dangerous drinkers we are. Big tobacco was supposed to show up and hand out 50 free drinks to audience members. Maybe they did. Maybe they didn't. We played well to a small audience. What can one expect on a Tuesday? The new tunes are coming along nicely. There were no exploding amps or anything. February 11 2004:Seattle, WA, USA Green Room/Showbox with Nomovingparts The last time we played this place my bass amp blew out. That didn't happen this time. Whew! O crap, Dose's guitar amp blew out instead! So went the night gigging in the Jockstrap Lounge, where the wall sconce lights all look like jockstraps. Check it out. Here are a few pics from that evening for all our fans... Jason Jima Craig Dose Bowie January 17 2004:Eugene, OR, USA Luckys with Yelstin, The Visible Men Woke up this morning before anyone else and wandered down to the little coffee shop I always visit. Its not really that great of a place, I just go there out of habit. They don't even serve tea, which is what I really wanted as my throat was even more ripped up than yesterday. While hanging out in the coffee shop, these two big black chicks come in and sit at the table next to me. Someone had left a newspaper behind and they started to read it while waiting for their orders. "Whoa," said the first one, "Listen to this, Man Shot To Death While Getting A Haircut" "So now it isn't safe to get a haircut?" "I don't know about you, but I'm letting my hair grow." We got some lunch and shopped a bit in Portland. For a while I have been unsuccessfully trying to find the ultimate sunglasses. My search proved fruitless on this day. Dose found a nice blue shirt. Craig found a Conductor's Cap. Jason bought an 8-ball of coke. We drove down to Eugene and stowed our stuff at Jason's friend's place. His name is Jason too. What a surprise. It sure simplifies things when everyone has the same first name. We ate too much Mexican food then went to the bar. Great graffito in the men's room at the bar: "I NEED 10 WIVES!!!" Luckey's used to be called something like "The Co cabaña Cigar Bar". It was an entire bar dedicated to the consumption of tobacco. Nowadays there is a city ordinance, which prohibits smoking in a bar. So all the smoking (and there is a lot) is done out in the rainy, cold sidewalk. It is the exact opposite of last night's Portland gig, where they only seem to allow smoking indoors in claustrophobic bars. There was another funny graffito in the Men's room. "IF THIS BAR WAS IN AMSTERDAM THEY WOULD SERVE WEED!!!" Of course, that is not true, as they don't allow smoking. Which reminds me. Around these parts most people are herb friendly. Many local and state governments have passed laws decriminalizing possession of small amounts of weed. The Feds of course, don't play by those laws and they swoop in periodically and bust people. The herb-friendly types complain. They say the Feds should mind their own business. It’s basically a state's rights issue. But before one jumps on that trip, one needs to understand that State's rights issues go both ways. If everybody in your state votes to legalize weed then its legal. However, there are still plenty of states where they would vote to make segregation legal. Should they be allowed to? I would think it would be rather difficult to allow one and not the other. Or damn near any other absurd thing the masses might vote for. Anyway, we played great. Sold some CD’s, saw two rather good bands and then retired for the evening. The next morning we packed up, ate breakfast and hit the road for home. Just north of Portland another pebble, propelled by a truck, popped another divet in my windshield. Fucking asshole trucks!!! January 16 2004:Portland, OR, USA The Tonic Lounge with Momma (formerly Vertibird), Fells Acres, Glassine About 6 months ago a pebble, propelled off the wheels of a speeding semi, chipped my windshield while driving the I-5. I had to get the windshield replaced. It was a minor hassle. Today, while driving down to Portland to play a show at the Tonic the windshield got popped again. That sure put me in a good mood. The Tonic is a cool little venue, decked out in the usual assortment of bar lights, human flotsam and clouds of odd organic odors. My throat was feeling a bit sore so I chose to drink Tanqueray & tonics instead of my usual. Silly me, I thought the extra water and citrus would help soothe my throat. I only brought one pair of pants on this weekend trip. We played the same 8 song set we played at the Crocodile a couple days before. It went even better than last time. The sound is really coming together. January 14 2004:Seattle, WA, USA The Crocodile !! Arunas and Dose's Birthday Extravaganza!! with Radio Caroline, Racket Our first gig of the new year and our first gig of a string of 3. We broke with convention a bit, trying to change things up. We bought back "Waiting For The Asteroid" with a new groovy guitar bit. Brought back "Ebb & Flow", which we haven't played live in a while. The crowd response was great, the attendance was good and, of course, we played an energetic and fun set. But you don't really care about all that do you? You want to hear about the booze and drugs and chicks, right? Well, there really wasn't much of that. Heck, there never really is. What do you want? It was a Wednesday for Allah's sake! Check out gigs from these years: 2001 2002 2003 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010