This show from October 1st, 1999 took place at the legendary Portland music club Satyricon as part of the NXNW Festival, Portland's answer to SXSW.
The recording of this show was given to me by my friend Erik Johnson 10 years ago. I'm not sure who did the actual recording. At that time I listened to the recording for maybe 5 minutes, before throwing it into a shoebox with other Fontaine recordings. I had pretty much forgotten about the cd until last week, when the band was asked to be a part of a special series of shows to commemorate Satyricon, which is slated to be torn down to make room for more high rise office buildings in downtown Portland.
I really have no recollection of this show. It blends in with the other dirty dozen or so shows we played over the years at Satyricon; half-drunk hazy smoky affairs in dimly lit, very loud spray painted black walled urine smelling concrete bunker, where kurt met courtney used needles broken bottles groping girls in bathrooms. And contained some damn fine music lovers within as well. I saw many a fine show there myself, including Geraldine Fibbers, Freakwater, Elliot Smith, Fernando, and of course Dead Moon.
But listening to this recording takes me back to a great time for Richmond Fontaine. We were about to release our third record Lost Son and embark on some of our best (re: whiskey, painkillers and speed) U. S. tours. We finally felt like a band again with the steady hand and heart of Sean Oldham who had occupied the drummers throne for some 6 months leading into this show. We had gained some local recognition and a pinch of national press. And we had a wealth of great songs to choose from.
Some points of interest: the manic drumming of Sean Oldham, the pedal steel slinging and lead guitar work of Paul Brainard, the nimble bass runs of yours truly and the impassioned punk rock singing and stellar songwriting of young Willy Vlautin. Also check out one of the first live versions of "Winner's Casino", a full year before it was recorded for the Winnemucca record. And I love the manic, non-stop stomp of "Winner's Casino", "Mule", "Pinkerton", and "Concussion". Whoever came up with that combination of songs should get some kind of award! We were playing a Festival set, so we had to pack as much as we could into a 45 minute set. But most of all, I love the confidence and swagger the band possesses. We knew we were onto something, and no one was going to tell us otherwise.
We hope you enjoy this show, a little gift to all our fans. Let us know what you think. We'd like to put up more live shows on our website, if people are into it. Long Live Satyricon!

Dave Harding