Pitchfork

As the legendary Mission of Burma make their way down the West Coast on a week-long trek, guitarist Roger Miller shares his tour diary with Pitchfork. Stay tuned for daily entries ("Of course, it depends a bit on free WiFi," Miller says.)

Here's part four, in which Burma travels from Portland to Eugene, Oregon.

Read part three here.
Read part two here.
Read part one here.

 

---

Sunday, September 17: "Portland to Eugene"

We were awakened today by a blast at 8 a.m. and smoke was pouring into our room. Pete and I rushed into the hall amidst a cacophony of fire alarms and met the rest of our crew there. We grabbed what we could and rushed downstairs (taking the stairway of course) and then outside. The sky was dense with choking particles and sulfurous fumes. Jimmy somehow commandeered the van to the front and we all piled in. The ground was shaking, and a cop yelled out that Mt. Hood had finally blown (as had been anticipated for months).

Jimmy spun the van out to the street as a wall of magma slopped its way down the slope-- there was no way we were gonna get to I-5 at this rate. When the lava caught up to us our tires instantly melted and we sloshed along at somewhere near 50 mph down towards I-5. As the floorboards started to melt the soles of our shoes, Bob and Sharon-- blending their technological expertise-- wrenched a plastic/titanium-alloy billboard from its moorings and we all hopped on.

Pete clutched the obscure vinyl he'd recently purchased, Clint began thinking seriously about taking up cigars again, and I was frottaging on one of the more interestingly textured segments of our "magma-board." As we were swept along Jimmy got a call in to Keats (our manager) who informed us that there was a "safe house" two blocks before I-5, which by now was a sea of molten rock.

"Now!" yelled our man at the helm and we all leaped, clutching a street sign and swinging ourselves up over to the rooftop. We were relieved that we had kept the bag of mangy bagels from the hotel, so we had a snack and took in the scenery.

Well, actually, what really happened was the following:

Another well-rested day. Is this really a rock tour?

Sunny, we all wandered our own way. Some got grilled salmon sandwiches at Powell's Books, others happy with coffee and some composite carbohydrates. Doug Fir had WiFi, so I sent off yesterday's blog blurb.

Van ride down the rain-forested coast to Eugene. All in good humor. Hey, look! The rain stopped and it's sunny again!

Pacific Coast Highway above Eugene delivered a topnotch stopoff spot for us: Devil's Churn. The lava from Mt. Hood had solidified by the shore and the mix of barnacles, crabs, kelp trees and sea anemones was quite charming to us all. When one sticks one's fingers into the center of an anemone the tentacles curl inward, creating a disconcerting sticky sensation on one's fingertips. No fingers were paralyzed during the proceedings.

Mission of Burma without Bob on solidified magma.


Mission of Burma where we got crabulous sandwiches (causing us to be late for soundcheck).

The crowd at WOW Hall in Eugene was pretty small-- 50/60 people-- but the show was great. Tunnel Kings opened: they are all still in high school, but wrote their own material-- and it wasn't too bad, either! I added them to the show because it reminded me of my own high school experience being in Sproton Layer (the biggest bands we opened for were Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen and Carnal Kitchen, which featured Steve MacKay who played sax with the Stooges). Both 50 Foot and Burma all found them very charming, and actually quite talented.

50 Foot's set had fantastic sound. Maybe it was the wood floors. Monsters of Rock. Totally.

Because of the smaller crowd and three bands, we did only one 15 song set, rather than our usual two 9-songers. We've been playing "13" and going directly into "Man in Decline"-- "13" ends floaty w/my tremolo harmonics, then Bob crossfades a loop, then we all melt into the tremoloed float introduction to "Man". When Clint finally hammers the opening notes, the crowd gets it. Hey, just like the record! And, in my humble opinion, it really is fucking cool.

Pete and I watched a bit of TV before K/O-- Animal Planet had a curious show superimposing modern scuba-divers with CG prehistoric sea creatures-- armored fish from the Devonian Period to Mosasaurs in the Cretaceous. All night the trucks rumbling outside our motel had me worried that a Dimetrodon from the Triassic was coming to finally finish me off.

Remaining Mission of Burma tour dates:

09-19 Sacramento, CA - Harlow's *
09-20 San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall *
09-22 Los Angeles, CA - Troubadour *
09-23 San Diego, CA - Brick by Brick *#

* with 50 Foot Wave
# with Kill Me Tomorrow