Surprised? Embarrassed? Donuts?

The MusicfestNW ads read: 3 nights, 200 bands, 20 venues, $20. As if it’s even possible to see them all. Not that I want to, mind you. To justify that statement, I’ll just say two words: The Buttfrenchers. Don’t ask. Anyway, after spending an hour hanging out with Lara at The Boiler Room, I walked down the street to the Cobalt Lounge and saw 800 Octane. Eric, the guitar player, lives where I work and gets more packages than anyone. EVER. At one point a few months ago, I’d said something about how he must be pretty popular and he said no, he’s not, he’s in a band and it’s band stuff (stickers, cds, etc). After the last few months of being nosy and asking when and where they’re playing, he tells me last week about the show on Friday night at the Cobalt and says I should go. About 10 minutes later, he comes back with a cd and at that point I started to wonder what I’d agreed to go check out. The cover of the cd has the four guys in the band all painted up zombie-style and it’s kinda creepy. I was pleasantly surprised to hear that they’re a punk/rock band. Their set was about 40 minutes of high-energy rock and knocking shit over (excellent) but when the next band, The Buttfrenchers (I don’t even like typing that, let alone saying it out loud), got going, it was painfully apparent that it was time to head out. On the way back to the cars, the Voodoo Donut folks were having a how-fast-can-you-eat-a-frickin’-huge-donut contest so we stopped to watch and since I can’t seem to pass that place without going in, we went in. They’ve got a bench out in front that’s a perfect people watching spot, so we sat down and, according to Eric, at approximately 4 minute intervals for an hour and a half people I know came by and said hey. I would like to state for the record that I’m not that popular. I just know a lot of people and 3/4ths of them happened to walk by last night. But I digress. I had a great time and I’m ready to do the rock show marathon tonight: 4 bands, 4 venues, 4 hours. I’m sure I’ll be showed out after that…at least until next week.