June 1, 2004 - Provo, UT

Chris, Nick and I met Clint at the Albertson's way out in the middle of fucking nowhere. (aka right by Clint's house, in Draper. I'm a downtown kid. Anything past 6300 S. is far away.) We hop in the van and drive out to the show. There is some wicked traffic, so it takes us longer than usual.

Now Provo shows can really go either way. If there is some kind of tech-metal band (which we aren't) on the bill, kids will come. Otherwise you're pretty much shit out of luck. With, of course, the exception of about 5 people. Those five people know who they are, and we love them. The rest of the Provo scene pretty much consists of dipshits. Dipshits that smoke because it makes them look hip. I guess it's their way of rebelling against all the mormon stuff that goes on there. Not really sure, and all I know is that I haven't been back there since this show.

Anyway, Rob from Bring it Down sets the show up with BID, Cherem, Gone Without Trace, Bound In Blood and the Hi Fi Massacre. HiFi is a Provo tech metal band, and like I said before, the type of band that draws kids. So, everything goes alright to start the show off with. We do our thing and there's about twenty five kids watching us and another thirty standing outside on the sidewalk smoking. It doesn't really bother me, because that's how some shows go, but as soon as HiFi starts setting up all the kids start piling in. The other bands borrowed my cabinet, so as I was getting it off the stage, I get sort of pushed out of the way so someone else can get up on it. It's the singer for HiFi, which until that night, I'd been told he was a real nice guy. I think whoever told me that was lying. I shrug it off, move my stuff out and go sit behind the counter with the merch. Halfway through HiFi's set, two girls come up to the table and ask to buy HiFi shirts. They start asking all kinds of questions about what colors and sizes I have. I politely tell them that I'm in Cherem, and don't have answers for them but if they wait until after the set someone in the band could probably help them out. They give me a couple dirty looks and walk away.

After the set is over, the singer walks over and takes his place next to me selling HiFi stuff. I tell him good set, and he ignores me. This kid was starting to piss me off acting like that. I brush it off and tell him about the girls that asked questions. I tried to turn it into a slightly humerous story to get a positive reaction out of him. He looks at me, looks away and mumbles, "Yeah, whatever." Now, at that point I'd had just about enough of this fucking guy. I pack our merch up and get the fuck out of there.
I'm not really sure what all happened, because we'd played Provo with those dudes before and everything, to my knowledge, was cool. I guess not anymore.

Oh well. Fuck Provo anyway.