My Portland Adventure

I had the pleasure of going to Portland this weekend to see one of my favorite punk bands, Strike Anywhere, and managed to get some incredibly awesome pictures and even video of the band playing a full song! If you don’t already know, Portland is my favorite city in the world and this trip was no exception when it comes to loving the fair city of roses. Not only did I have an extraordinary time at the strike Anywhere show, but almost instantly afterwords I managed to find a house party with a Metal band from Olympia known as Christian Mistress.

Being in photo journalism I had to take advantage of the opportunity to snap as many pictures as I could in the overcrowded Portland basement. The band played fast, brain melting riffs that could power a whole city with the amount of head banging being generated in the damp basement. Unfortunately, you cant power a house from head banging and circuits were blown that lead to a completely dark house and an early exit for Christian Mistress who had easily made there point by then.



























After the band was done playing everyone shuffled outside and kept the party going. I made bunches of new friends here and got a real taste of the Portland scene. It was just like a Corvallis house party that had way more people and not just a bunch of college yuppies. When the cops drove by they didn’t even look at the place. In Corvallis the pigs would be watching all night just waiting for there chance to move in. Luckily, we were in a big city, and the cops just have more to do there.

After meeting some new friends and seeing some great music I decided to move along and headed towards Burnside to continue my Portland adventure. It didn’t take long before I ran into an aspiring street musician, Roby Dale Williams, who goes by “Lord Bullet Train Sugar Cane” and proclaims to be the “Lord of PDX buckets” I snapped a few shots and some video of Williams playing the bucket drums and after a short conversation realized that he actually played drums for the legendary Portland punk rockers, MDC(Millions of Dead Cops) in 1994-1995, I was talking to a legend!!








Once I parted ways with Williams it was getting late, the clock was pushing 2am and I still had to drive all the way back to Corvallis. But I had one more stop to make before making the long trek up I-5, Ground Kontrol, Portland’s famous video arcade/bar!

Knowing I had a long drive ahead of me I stayed clear of purchasing any drinks that could cloud up my head, but made sure to put my left over quarters to use and started making my rounds through the arcade. I started with the start wars fighter pilot game that had me blowing up tye fighters left and right until a shielding gun on the death start put my ship to rest. After that it was up to the second floor that was dedicated to nothing but pinball.

After a few more random games and a quick drive around the city It was finally time to head back to that small black hole known as Corvallis. Exhausted and tired I made sure to drive extra carefully because it was late and this was no time to be messing around. The drive home presented great opportunity for me to reflect on my evening full of extraordinary circumstance. Portland is a great city and on a night like this it doesn’t take long to realize that it is truly the heart of Oregon. One day I plan on making Portland my home but till then all I can do is take every chance I get visit and make the best of my time in the city of roses.