December 30 2005: Sleater-Kinney, Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, Quasi – Crystal Ballroom, Portland OR

Um, yes. All those bands on one bill, for fifteen dollars. Thank fucking Christ this show didn’t happen a week later because I would have never lived that down. As it stands, it is the last show I saw in Portland before moving east and it was, without doubt, probably the best way to bid adieu to the rose city.

And to preface this, imagine me in Lilongwe, capital city of the African nation of Malawi, checking my email at an internet café, and friend Harmony has sent me something. The subject line is “Rock & Fuckin’ Roll.” The text reads as follows: “12/30 SLEATER KINNEY, JICKS, QUASI...I will pick you up a ticket... happy holidays.” And I just fucking shit myself right there. Because I know, I KNOW, this is going down as show of the century.

So Quasi opens up and they do mostly new material and it sounds pretty good, but I’m there to hear “Hot Shit” material because I haven’t seen them play since I actually picked up that record maybe 9 months prior because I procrastinated on that shit and I will never make the same mistake with a Quasi record again. Because that album kills me. It’s unbelievable. And even more unbelievable that I’d seen Quasi support “Hot Shit” twice and both times I was just there for the oldies. Fuck me, I know. They only played “Good Times” and “Seven Years Gone” from that record this time but those two were good enough for me.

Malkmus and His Jicks played pretty well, and are always fun. “Pencil Rot” was done way less keyboardy, way more guitary, and it sounded great. Always fun to see the Jicks.

And Sleater-Kinney played I think every single song from “The Woods” and a decent amount of oldies and kicked serious fucking ass. Wow oh wow do I love Sleater-Kinney. And for the encore Corin said, “hey, we’re gonna do a cover for you” and the Jicks returned to the stage: Malkmus on guitar, Joanna on bass, Moen on cowbell, Mike on Juggling Balls at center stage, Sleater-Kinney on their regular instruments, and they go into “Fortunate Son.” Fucking shit, it was amazing. A person just couldn’t stay still. I mean, it ain’t me. IT AIN’T ME! I AIN’T NO FORTUNATE ONE! Wow.