RobInWrittenWord

Issue date: 3/7/03 Section: Diversions

“It was dark, which was fantastic,” said Nada Surf lead singer Matt Caws, “and the crowd was very nice.”This past Wednesday saw one of the biggest shows ever held at Escape. The People and Sondre Lerche opened for Nada Surf, a show that topped out at 196 tickets sold, though the overall count of the crowd was closer to 230.

Before the show, things began happening that are an unusual sight at Escape. Some parents came in to inspect the club before they let their kids come to the show, others were trying to sneak in, and this reporter even witnessed an unknown man walk to the back door, prop it open, and then return to the club. Luckily, Escape employees also observed the incident and the door was quickly closed again.

The front of the building was even more surprising. People came from all over for this show.

“It’s their only show in Oregon,” said Kristine Arlt while explaining why she came down from Portland with friends for the night. “The tickets were inexpensive,” added her friend Monica Wood.

“If I go anywhere for a show it’s usually Seattle, but that’s not very often,” said Arlt.

While a drive from Portland to Seattle may not seem that long, how about Seattle to Corvallis?

“The show in Seattle last night was 21 and up and I’m not 21,” said fan Tyson Boulais, “and I just thought, I gotta see them.”

The coldness of the air outside was quite intense, and everyone in line was very happy to get inside when the show began.

It all started with The People, a Kansas City band joining Nada Surf for the four-week tour.

“We’ve played several shows like this,” said The People’s singer, Ben Grimes.

“This is our biggest tour, though,” added guitarist Kenn Jankowski.

All of the band members seemed happy to be here in Corvallis. Grimes was especially happy to have stopped in Portland on the way down from Seattle. He was a resident there for about nine months. The best thing for them, they say, is getting to tour with Nada Surf.

“It’s an advantage playing for sold out shows of another band,” said Grimes. “It’s cool because people hear us as the band that their friends should know about so they buy our stuff.”

The People played for about 45 minutes on stage. The crowd size when the show began was not near the total that showed up, but about half of everyone who saw The People were on their feet. They were not too talkative, but Grimes did crack a few jokes, and they dedicated their song “You Got Old,” to the memory of Mr. Rogers.

“The crowd was good,” said Grimes. “Every city is totally different but they were good. They laughed at my ridiculous jokes, so I can’t complain.”

Next up came Sandre Lerche, who just won the Norwegian Grammy Award for best new artist. He came up on stage with only a Martin acoustic guitar and a Gretsch acoustic/electric.

As he began to play, his skill on the guitar was like a magnet — people flooded the floor to get a look. Unfortunately, Lerche returned from dinner just in time to play, and left for San Francisco right after he played, so he never had a chance to talk, except on stage. And he talked a lot on stage; Sandre is a very humble, grateful man with a lot of talent.

Last up came Nada Surf. Twenty-five tickets were sold after the band had already started playing.

“On this whole tour there have been more people than we expected,” said Caws.

Over two-thirds of the crowd were down on the floor, and most of the fans pressed up against the stage were singing along.

Throughout the entire show the band was quite talkative between songs. This was due to both the friendliness of the band and the lack of a sound check before the show.

“You have no idea how many times you get a sound check and it sounds great, but when you get up on stage its all messed up,” said bass player Daniel Lorca.

While working on sound between songs. Lorca found time to talk about the coming war, and Caws found time to comment on music in the United States today.

“Did you know that Beatles CD’s are $18.99?” said Caws. “They should put it in the constitution that kids should get free Beatles record’s, then we wouldn’t end up with bands like Slipknot.”

This was followed by a minute-long, off-the-cuff Nickleback imitation that was quite entertaining.

The Nada Surf set had many other surprises as well. After a while they began taking requests, something they rarely do. Another big surprise was the six-song encore. Only one other band has even done an encore at Escape. One of the songs played during the encore was “Popular,” their first song to become, well, popular.

“We don’t do it very often,” said Caws, “This is only the second time this tour.”

Not only was hearing Popular rare, but the sight on stage during the song was even more special. It was hard to see the band members due to the large number of fans that were invited up on stage.

The crowd response to the show was excellent. Fans cheered, chatted, and just seemed to have a good time all around.

“That show was fantastic,” said fan Jeremy Hansen. Hansen was at Escape to catch the show and to promote his own band’s show (Oliver) Saturday at Escape with PDX and Miscellaneous.

Here’s hoping that MUPC and Escape booking can get more big acts like Nada Surf to play there. Having Nada Surf play again wouldn’t be a bad idea, either. Everyone at the show, including the band, thought another show would be great.

“This is my favorite show of the tour so far,” said Caws.