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Experimental K Records punk band Old Time Relijun is reuniting to celebrate its 20th anniversary. The above photo is from a performance at Satyricon during MusicfestNW 2008, but the band—which was from Olympia, Wash.—says the most memorable show it played in its "second home" of Portland was about a year earlier, and it had nothing to do with what happened onstage:
"We played at Ground Kontrol in downtown—kind of a weird place to play, but totally fun. Our drummer, Germaine [Baca], took off after our set to hang out with some guys from work. When she didn't come back to load out, we were kind of bummed that we had to figure out how to disassemble a drum set, but we weren't concerned.
"We found out the next day that she had been arrested for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. Downtown had turned into that messy stew of drunk yahoos in the street with pints of beer they'd snuck out of the Chinatown bars, and the cops basically shut the area down. One guy was told to pour his beer out, and while it was draining, Germaine ran over and pretended to drink from the stream. The cops were not amused, and the next thing she knew, she was being cuffed.
"Her sentencing was on the first day of a six-week tour, so she flew down to Oakland to catch up with us. Her sentence: community service by way of volunteering for Rock ['n' Roll] Camp for Girls. That's about as Portland as it gets." —Aaron Hartman, Old Time Relijun bassist.
SEE IT: Old Time Relijun plays Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave., with Secret Drum Band and Like a Villain, on Friday, May 1. 9 pm. $12. 21+.
WWeek 2015