Mike Peters in Portland, Oregon, September 7, 1998

Unfortunately I couldn't stick around for the customary after show chat with Mike after Bumbershoot, since there were other bands playing that my sister wanted to see (Morphine and The Squirrel Nut Zippers), but after that amazing performance, I knew I had to go down to Portland to see another show. Over the objections of my sister (who kept wanting to know why we were going to drive 3 hours and pay $13 to see Mike play for 30 minutes!), we headed off to Portland the next afternoon...

Well, Portland was a stark contrast to Bumbershoot's bright and carefree atmosphere. After getting lost over a whole bunch of bridges and navigating through massive construction, we finally found the Aladdin Theater. It was in a relatively dreary, industrial part of town, nothing like the festival atmosphere of Bumbershoot.

Only a few of us from Bumbershoot made it down to Portland--just me and my sister, Leah and Lisa. Mike was the middle performer, sandwiched between two folk musicians, Willie Porter and the headliner Catie Curtis. A quick glance at the audience, and I knew this was going to be a tough crowd. I'm not quite sure how to describe this audience without being politically incorrect. Ahem. Anyway, the four of us managed to find a nice front row spot to the right of the stage, and became the Mike Peters cheering section. We saw someone with an Alarm jacket on, so we invited him to join us (I think his name was John). Ian Wilson dropped by to talk with us a little about the upcoming Interactive tour and why the heck there was some guy videotaping the shows (for promotional purposes--see the devoted Mike Peters fans!!)

Willie Porter was very entertaining, singing a song about a rude clerk at Borders (much to Leah & Lisa's amusement!), and even making up a song on the spot. But of course we were there to see the next performer....

Mike was in great form as usual, but it just wasn't his crowd that night. He even threw The Stand in to try to get things moving, but the crowd kept slowly drifting out. I'm so used to seeing Mike play in front of at least an appreciative, if not downright devoted audience, it was strange to see him struggle to keep people's attention. It got so bad, the crowd outside was so loud, you could hardly concentrate on Mike singing High on the Hill. Our little cheering section (plus about 3 other enthusiastic fans in the audience for a total of 8 of us), did our best to keep things going, but I was actually relieved that he played a very short set. I'm writing this almost three weeks later, so my memory may be a little off, but I believe the set list included Breathe, Transcendental, The Stand, Rise, You Are To Me, My Calling, High on the Hill, and Strength. Very, very, very short set--thankfully, considering the crowd. I think less than 25% were paying attention by the end. When we left right after Mike's set, we heard (and ignored) comments such as "Too whiny" and "he wasn't very good" and "too loud". Never seen anything like it before, and I hope I never do again.