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BY VANESSA SALVIA
WINK
& KINK
kevin
dougherty
FREE to Browse, Place a Profi le,
or an “I Saw You.”
FEBRUARY 9 TH -11 TH
SHOW & SALE
164 WEST BROADWAY
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A Decade Well Done
and Hard Won
Northwest Royale’s final show
KEVIN RASMUSSEN
THE ART
OF THE
LATE
GREAT
music
The EDGE presents
Dance for a Reason 2010
Saturday, January 23 at 7:30 PM — SILVA
Tix: $15
The 16th annual performance showcases
dynamic local dance talent and benefits
Greenhill Humane Society.
Wells Fargo Broadway In Eugene presents
The Pink Floyd Experience
Sunday, January 24 at 7:00 PM — SILVA
Tix: $37-$25; student & youth discounts avail.
This is a powerful tribute to the iconic
rock band, Pink Floyd.
Musical Feet presents
Back to the Street
Friday, January 29 at 7:30 PM — SORENG
Tix: $15; youth (12 & under) $13
Enjoy an imagined stroll around a New York City
block, highlighting tap, hip-hop, salsa and more.
Hult Presents
Popovich Comedy Pet Theater
Sunday, January 31 at 2:30 PM — SILVA
Tix: $28-$20; student & youth discounts avail.
A one-of-a-kind circus, with Gregory Popovich
and his menagerie of rescue dogs, cats, doves,
geese, ferrets and mice performing
unbelievable acts.
ENTERTAINMENT ON SALE:
• SHO presents Wine
Tasting & Silent Auction (THE LOBBY – Jan 30)
and Judy (SORENG – Jan 30)
• Artbeat presents In the Mood—A 1940’s Musical Revue (SILVA – Feb 5)
• Divisi presents 2010 West Quarterfinals, International
Championship of Collegiate A Cappella (SILVA – Feb 6)
• The Dance Factory presents Urban Pulse—The Hype (SORENG – Feb 6)
• Work Dance Company presents Love Game (SORENG – Feb 19)
• Eugene Ballet Company presents Punch
Popovich
Comedy Pet
Theater
TICKET OFFICE HOURS:
Tue-Fri 12-5; Sat, 11 AM -3 PM
UO ticket outlet in the EMU:
Mon–Fri, 9 AM – 5 PM
32
JANUARY 21, 2010
EUGENE WEEKLY
T
he “WELL DONE” tattoos on
Chris Phillips’s knuckles have been
there since 2004 and refer to his
nickname, “Beef,” but now that Northwest
Royale is calling it quits after “a bleeding
decade” of heavy metal music, “well done”
also aptly describes their career.
The band of self-taught musicians
formed in 2000 and rose above the fray to be
sponsored by Jägermeister and live the life
of their dreams. Drummer Phillips is humble
but proud of the band’s accomplishments,
and the stories come easily. They’ve played
alongside some of the most popular metal
bands on the planet — Slayer, Testament,
Rob Zombie, Killswitch Engage, Disturbed,
Devildriver. They met Dimebag Darrell
of Pantera at a North American Music
Merchandisers show, and he hooked NWR
up with gear. They recorded in the same
studio immediately following one of their
favorite bands, Machine Head, and on the
same board as the one that recorded Pink
Floyd’s The Wall. “We’ve done a lot of stuff,”
Phillips says. “It’s pretty crazy to think about.
Not a lot of bands from our area have done as
much stuff, from nothing.”
But getting by takes more than luck
and hardheaded determination. “Any
independent band has to have their own
fi nances pushing them and none of us can
do that,” says Phillips. “We’ve got real
lives. We’ve got real bills. Who’s gonna
pay those while we’re gone?” Some of
the guys are married, some have exes,
kids, house payments, medical bills.
Despite worldwide distribution of their
recent 5-song EP, The Bleeding Edge, and
having played their biggest show ever this
summer — to a 20,000-strong crowd at the
Rockstar Mayhem Fest in Seattle — there’s
no record label support. Any tours are paid
for from their own pocket, and there’s not
enough money or time to keep pushing for
the next level.
“I wanted to be done soon. I was
thinking it,” Phillips says, “but I didn’t
know who was thinking it besides me.”
After the band drove down to Oakland last
summer to play, discontent surfaced. It was
a “really hard” decision, but also a relief
once the band started talking about it. “We
didn’t want to be the band that lingers. We
wanted to go out now,” he says.
And so, like the way they’ve managed
their entire career, Beef and the others
— bassist Kenny Nestor, guitarists
Travis Zering and Colt Williams and
percussionist/keyboardist Blake Owens —
are bowing out on their own terms, without
band drama, without hard feelings, and
with a legacy that cements them as one of
Oregon’s most successful bands.
“I think we were ahead of our time
actually,” Phillips says. “I was just listening
to our CD from 2006 [Home Is Where The
Hate Is] trying to remember how to play it
and I’m like, ‘Wow, this kicks ass. This is
better than most of the stuff on the radio
right now. Did we fuck up? Should we have
waited and tried to get signed later?’”
But at 35, Phillips is ready to move on.
“I want this to be done so I can close the
book and put it on the shelf. I don’t know
if I will ever read that book again, but I’m
done with that book right now. And I just
opened a new one.” Phillips isn’t sure what
the other band members may end up doing,
but he’s already planning his next project
— a hip-hop group, with him on drums.
“I’m grown up now,” he says, “so it’s only
ew
gonna get better from here.”
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