Northwest, Part III
Wake up, ready to bomb it to Portland. Long drive ahead of us. Big thanks to Geoff for handling almost all the driving, not just today, but on the whole trip.
Wrong turn in Washington takes us to lonely road through wildlife preserve, then Indian reservation. Speeding ticket. Big time.
Fast-forward to Chris’s house in Portland, where we were to play later that night in the basement. Local two-piece The Ax started out the show with guitar-and-drums fury. Heavy, stoney riffs. Painful drum blasts. Repeat. I feel bad because throughout the rest of the night we would just run up them (Adam and Chris) and yell “The Ax!” right in their faces. Even the next day in the van, I would find myself blurting it out for no reason. That is how good they are.
Next up Sky Pilots. By now you know how that goes. But the Portland crew had never seen, and they kept cheering us on.
The Maps then took over rock duties. Everybody loved it. They are total warriors. We stayed up well into the night drinking keg beer and clowning around. But eventually our bodies got the best of us and we crawled in bed.
The next day Geoff drove us back to San Francisco. Nothing too eventful. The whole trip was way too short, and we’re already itching for another Northwest tour, which will probably go down this summer.