One Wild Night In Klamath Falls (Part 1)
Stop me if you've heard this one before: Two squares walk into a Mongolian restaurant...................
In July of '01, my wife Mary and I planned a trip to visit her sister Ann and her family up in Salem, Oregon. This is pretty much an annual trek for us. Oregon is beautiful, especially in the summer compared to central California's dry, brown landscapes. We usually leave on a Friday afternoon and travel about half the distance, which lands us in Redding, CA. It breaks up the drive and we're not so beat when we finish the next leg of the journey. We'll stay until Wednesday or Thursday and then reverse the trip with another stop in Redding on the way home.
But this time, we'd be travelling home on Mary's birthday and I don't know anybody that wants to wake up on their birthday at the Best Western in Redding. So we decided to take a detour on the way home and head to Reno to spend an extra night playing blackjack and partying to celebrate. We'd have to find somewhere else to stay the night before.
Before our trip, we called Ann's husband, Randy, and he suggested that Klamath Falls, OR would be a logical stopping point between Salem and Reno. So we called ahead and reserved a room at the Travelodge in Klamath Falls. Now, knowing we'd be spending a night there, I surfed on over to Pollstar.com to see if any bands would be playing in town that night. Pollstar is a great resource that I use quite often when I know I'll be travelling somewhere. It lists venues and bands for pretty much any city you care to look up.
Only one band came up when I entered "Klamath Falls" and "July 25, 2001" and they were to play at a place called Waldo's. I won't mention the name of the band here so as to protect their privacy and you'll see why later. I had never heard of them before, so I checked out their website to see if it would be worth it see them live. Turns out that the band consists of just a percussionist and a singer/guitar player. Not usually my cup o' tea, but I thought I'd find out more. They had some MP3s that I downloaded (legally, so there RIAA--nyahh!) and Mary and I thought the band might provide a good time out.
During our stay in Salem, Randy set us up with a nice route to Reno which took us through some gorgeous settings. Bend was probably the largest city we passed through and the smallest burg had a one pump gas station and a post office. We decided to gas up there and I was looking around for Gomer the whole time.
We pulled into Klamath Falls in the early evening and happened to drive down Main Street, which was where Waldo's was located. Passing by, we couldn't tell much from the outside, but we did see what looked like a restaurant right next door. Cool, we thought, that we could eat and then walk right over to see the show. We continued straight ahead and our motel was only blocks away. Even better! We wouldn't have to drive and could cut loose a little with the drinks. (Cue ominous music here).
We checked in, washed up a bit and walked down to the restaurant. It was a Mongolian place called.........Waldo's---Waldo's was a restaurant, not a nightclub as I assumed. I saw a few of the band's tour posters in the window. "Huh. I guess they're playing in here later", I said, looking around for a stage of some sort. I'm a picky eater and at first I wasn't sure that I could do this place, but after checking out the situation, I took the plunge. It was set up so that you walked up to what looked like a salad bar or maybe a buffet and behind that was a chef with what seemed to be a huge wok. You filled your plate with uncooked entrees and sides, passed them to the cook at the end of the line and he prepared your meal at that time. (Your meal was served on a new, clean plate for sanitary reasons). You paid for your food at the register and went back to your table where a waitress would bring your dinner out to you.
We did all this and I went to the bar to get us a couple of beers. What a selection of microbrews this place had! We tried a local amber ale that was really good. But with over 20 micros on tap, we never stuck with the same one more than twice. Someone should have reminded me that tasting glasses at beer festivals usually aren't pints, because I tasted a lot of different beers that night.
Dinner was fantastic. I was able to get just the things I liked and even got a little adventurous. Mary had a larger variety of things than I did, but we both loved the shrimp. We asked our waitress where the band was going to play and she pointed to a set of double-doors in the back of the dining room. Through them was a fairly large room with a stage in the corner. After dinner, we made our way in to stake out a place to see the show. (By the way, the show was free, no cover even. Score!) Most of the small tables were taken up already, not by folks waiting to see the band, but by barflys. This, faithful readers, was where the drinkers at Waldo's went to be merry.
Scouting the room, we noticed that the crowd was a mix of loggers, mill workers, college-aged kids, a few neo-hippies and some actual hippies. With no place to sit at the time, we decided to shoot some pool. We also played some of that shuffleboard type game, even though neither of us really knew what we were doing. I just like scooting those discs down the board. We made it up as we went along. I think she won.
I noticed that someone was setting up a merchandise table for the band. I thought I'd go take a look at the wares. The fact that I was wearing a concert shirt of one of my favorites, Gov't Mule (check them out in my LINKS section up on the top left sidebar), changed the course of the evening a bit.
Check back with me later for the conclusion to this one.
In July of '01, my wife Mary and I planned a trip to visit her sister Ann and her family up in Salem, Oregon. This is pretty much an annual trek for us. Oregon is beautiful, especially in the summer compared to central California's dry, brown landscapes. We usually leave on a Friday afternoon and travel about half the distance, which lands us in Redding, CA. It breaks up the drive and we're not so beat when we finish the next leg of the journey. We'll stay until Wednesday or Thursday and then reverse the trip with another stop in Redding on the way home.
But this time, we'd be travelling home on Mary's birthday and I don't know anybody that wants to wake up on their birthday at the Best Western in Redding. So we decided to take a detour on the way home and head to Reno to spend an extra night playing blackjack and partying to celebrate. We'd have to find somewhere else to stay the night before.
Before our trip, we called Ann's husband, Randy, and he suggested that Klamath Falls, OR would be a logical stopping point between Salem and Reno. So we called ahead and reserved a room at the Travelodge in Klamath Falls. Now, knowing we'd be spending a night there, I surfed on over to Pollstar.com to see if any bands would be playing in town that night. Pollstar is a great resource that I use quite often when I know I'll be travelling somewhere. It lists venues and bands for pretty much any city you care to look up.
Only one band came up when I entered "Klamath Falls" and "July 25, 2001" and they were to play at a place called Waldo's. I won't mention the name of the band here so as to protect their privacy and you'll see why later. I had never heard of them before, so I checked out their website to see if it would be worth it see them live. Turns out that the band consists of just a percussionist and a singer/guitar player. Not usually my cup o' tea, but I thought I'd find out more. They had some MP3s that I downloaded (legally, so there RIAA--nyahh!) and Mary and I thought the band might provide a good time out.
During our stay in Salem, Randy set us up with a nice route to Reno which took us through some gorgeous settings. Bend was probably the largest city we passed through and the smallest burg had a one pump gas station and a post office. We decided to gas up there and I was looking around for Gomer the whole time.
We pulled into Klamath Falls in the early evening and happened to drive down Main Street, which was where Waldo's was located. Passing by, we couldn't tell much from the outside, but we did see what looked like a restaurant right next door. Cool, we thought, that we could eat and then walk right over to see the show. We continued straight ahead and our motel was only blocks away. Even better! We wouldn't have to drive and could cut loose a little with the drinks. (Cue ominous music here).
We checked in, washed up a bit and walked down to the restaurant. It was a Mongolian place called.........Waldo's---Waldo's was a restaurant, not a nightclub as I assumed. I saw a few of the band's tour posters in the window. "Huh. I guess they're playing in here later", I said, looking around for a stage of some sort. I'm a picky eater and at first I wasn't sure that I could do this place, but after checking out the situation, I took the plunge. It was set up so that you walked up to what looked like a salad bar or maybe a buffet and behind that was a chef with what seemed to be a huge wok. You filled your plate with uncooked entrees and sides, passed them to the cook at the end of the line and he prepared your meal at that time. (Your meal was served on a new, clean plate for sanitary reasons). You paid for your food at the register and went back to your table where a waitress would bring your dinner out to you.
We did all this and I went to the bar to get us a couple of beers. What a selection of microbrews this place had! We tried a local amber ale that was really good. But with over 20 micros on tap, we never stuck with the same one more than twice. Someone should have reminded me that tasting glasses at beer festivals usually aren't pints, because I tasted a lot of different beers that night.
Dinner was fantastic. I was able to get just the things I liked and even got a little adventurous. Mary had a larger variety of things than I did, but we both loved the shrimp. We asked our waitress where the band was going to play and she pointed to a set of double-doors in the back of the dining room. Through them was a fairly large room with a stage in the corner. After dinner, we made our way in to stake out a place to see the show. (By the way, the show was free, no cover even. Score!) Most of the small tables were taken up already, not by folks waiting to see the band, but by barflys. This, faithful readers, was where the drinkers at Waldo's went to be merry.
Scouting the room, we noticed that the crowd was a mix of loggers, mill workers, college-aged kids, a few neo-hippies and some actual hippies. With no place to sit at the time, we decided to shoot some pool. We also played some of that shuffleboard type game, even though neither of us really knew what we were doing. I just like scooting those discs down the board. We made it up as we went along. I think she won.
I noticed that someone was setting up a merchandise table for the band. I thought I'd go take a look at the wares. The fact that I was wearing a concert shirt of one of my favorites, Gov't Mule (check them out in my LINKS section up on the top left sidebar), changed the course of the evening a bit.
Check back with me later for the conclusion to this one.
posted by Tony at 4:41 PM
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