Discouraged with the lack of Stoner metal/ doom festivals in the Pacific Northwest, I set out to put on a simple festival… more or less, I booked two monster shows to bring attention to the fertile NW doom/ stoner rock/ psyche scene, and also showcase a few of the great Portland venues. I anticipated a visit from Aussie doom enthusiast and founder/ editor of myspace-based doomzine Downtune Despondency , Doom Kitty. Therefore, I planned to have the festival happen during her NW swing (first weekend of January ’07). Problems were abound down under, and her trip North American tour was cancelled. I then opted to set the dates later in the month to avoid the doldrums of post-holiday/ mid winter broke and lazy. With the dates set 2 weeks forward, the fest participants were able to avoid the blustery, windy weekend of the 5th and 6th and the snowy week before the 12th and 13th. Fair weather came in just days before the fest, now on the 19th and 20th.Both nights were fairly well attended, and proved to be phenomenal shows:On Friday, January 19th at The Tonic Lounge the earth did quake with the sounds of:Guyve
Hezzakya
Kilauea (RIP)
Roanoke
Facepilot…and on Saturday, January 20th at Sabala’s at Mt. Tabor (RIP) the volcano opened at the rumble of:El Cerdo
Mendozza
Grey
Diesto
ParanautUnfortunately, our friends Slave Traitor of Seattle, and Cambodia of Vancouver, BC were unable to make the trek. We do welcome them for future Portland appearances. Love to all of the bands. Thanks to the venues, and very special thanks to Earache and Todd J. for the awesomely frightening flyer artwork. Thanks to Tony and RGP Studios
for the printing of the flyers. Also; I apologize for being a poor MC.
In 2008, the festival took on a very ambitious approach. I expanded the fest to include a third night (Sunday) and a bonus festival in Eugene on the following Saturday. Seismic Emanations II was April 18, 19, and 20 in Portland at Tonic Lounge , Someday Lounge , and Ash Street Saloon respectively, and Seismic Aftershocks was April 26 in Eugene at The Oak Street Speakeasy .
Early in the planning there was hope of bringing larger acts, Valis (Small Stone Records) and Across Tundras (Crucial Blast/ Saw Her Ghost Records) to Portland for the festival. Unfortunately, scheduling conflicts and inter-band conflicts did not allow for this. I do look forward to these bands coming through in the future though.
Each lineup in the festival went through changes, and some great bands did not survive to see the festival kickoff (RIP: Astral Bastards, Shadow of the Torturer, Hezzakya, and A Plague of Hatred), while other bands could not pull together the funds to be there, and good friends, Bacchus were blockaded by a spring snow storm that few completely avoided. I am grateful to the bands that stepped in and helped out, and I hold no one to blame for Murphy’s concoction . Through much hair pulling and adaptation, a beautiful festival came about. These 4 days brought me great joy, and it was good. The final line ups were:
4/18: Disseverence , Mongoloid Village , Sod Hauler , Facepilot , and me as “Danse Macabreâ€
4/19: Perpetual Conversion , Floating Goat , Damnweevil , , and Roanoke
4/20: Wheel of Pain , Nanda Devi , Black Noise Cannon (RIP), and a special 3piece performance by Guyve
4/26: Roanoke , Facepilot , Mendozza , and Perpetual Conversion
Eternal thanks go out to Paula for her organizational help and Eugene liason duties, the venues(and bartenders), bands(and loyal fans), our great sound techs(Bill, Neil, Dave, and Ashley), artists(Eric, Todd, Jacqui , Kirk , and Nate R. for Obscuritan Design ), Tony from RGP, DJ Nate C. , and not least of all, our ’08 sponsor, The Third Eye Shoppe.
In this bleak dawn of 2009, I’ve felt the need to revive the festival. This year will be a much less ambitious festival of 2 nights, and will unfortunately be by special invitations. I apologize to all the great bands/artists that have contacted me about playing the festival in ’09 that I will not be able to accommodate. I have a very meager budget, and will hope to pay the touring bands that do play SE 3. I’ve never done this festival for money, and don’t generally make any material gains from this. I merely give what I can in order to bring great acts together for a heavy music festival. It is all for love. If you can make it out to the festival, feel free to introduce yourself.
Support local; support heavy.
William J. (Feedenbacker)I edited my profile with Thomas' Myspace Editor V4.4
(Flash animation by Nate R. {Winepress Records})
(4/18 by Earache- http://www.myspace.com/earache69)
(4/19 by Todd J.- http://imperialtattoopdx.com/)
(4/20 by Jacqui aka Beastbeastbeastie- http://www.myspace.com/beastiebeast)
(4/26 by Kirk E. aka Serpentine Design- http://www.myspace.com/portlandflyerguy)
