We arrived early in Portland and The Carcass arranged a tattoo appointment for himself to get another tour souvenir. Bill from Immolation, Sanguine, and I went to Powell's which is allegedly the largest used book store on earth. Once we were done we desperately attempted to get back to the club with limited success since Portland was clearly laid out by those guys in wool hats who smoke a lot of dope and say “It's all good, man” a lot. Finally we returned and were greeted by Bane of the Ajna Offensive. We got some dinner and chatted with him about the tour and book publishing. He collaborated with T. Ketola on a new book called Qabalah, Qliphoth, and Goetic Magic. It looks like it will be excellent, and I will purchase one of the limited editions despite the fact that I am functionally broke. We are also discussing the ins and outs of getting Jos A. Smith to come on board with Ajna to publish a book of his art, and I am excited at the prospect of this coming to fore.
In the evening we were greeted by a full lunar eclipse, which we took as good tiding for the night ahead. The show itself was really quite good, which was a pleasant surprise since were expecting the worst when we first hit the stage. The crowd started off very quiet and clearly ambivalent but it only took a minute or two into “A Shower of Idols” to thaw them out. From there it got more animated, including a pit by the end of the set. Sometimes there is almost more reward in winning over an audience than playing to one that is already yours for the taking. Sometimes. In any event we felt like we conquered another city and then we hurriedly packed and vacated in the interest of getting out to Oakland. The sick has its claws in me now, along with everyone else on the tour. We are all standing around coughing up stuff that looks like the color scheme of an Overkill album, and as of today my voice is completely shot. Sanguine is holding up fairly well so we have that at least. I am ready to just get to Oakland and get out of the van.
