As many readers already know, or have caught onto over the last eight months, I’ve been a little shady with you. I don’t believe I’ve lied, but I haven’t been one hundred percent truthful either. (How’s that for politician talk?)



Since the beginning of ’07 my wife and I have lived in Portland.



There. Now it’s out in the open.



Our daughter, Lily, joined us in June, and together we live in the northeast PDX neighborhood of Cully. If Portland has a ghetto, I’m pretty sure it’s our front yard.

All this time, I’ve still taken my gig at the Weekly Volcano seriously, and have actually contributed more since moving than I did while living in Tacoma or Olympia. Before Lily was born, I traveled to Tacoma two weekends a month and hung out at the Kitchen, Jazzbones, or the Broho. Since her birth my trips have been limited, but that’s to be expected. It’s funny how having a child erases your time for things like rock ‘n’ roll and falling down drunk.



At least until they’re 8 months old.



Anyway, it was shady of me not to be upfront about my new address until now. Sorry if you feel played.



Kind of.



While there’s a fraction of my soul that feels guilty for not living in Tacoma (at the moment), most of me thinks it’s irrelevant. I’ve been writing about music in Tacoma for almost seven years. Often, when I did live in Tacoma, I’d spend weekends camped on the couch rolling herbal jazz cigarettes and working on my Madden skills, not out at a club catching Severus for the hundredth time. For the first year of my Tacoma rock journalist career I wasn’t even old enough to go to shows. Compared to back then, my guilt-inspired trips northward to specifically spend weekends parked in the clubs I write about makes me seem damn near professional.



Furthermore, I’m just not an “I’m sorry” type of fellow. Most of me just wants to tell the few people who do have a problem with my zip code to eat shit. 



Before I go there, though, how about a double dose of good news? (Depending on how you look at things.) Of minimal importance, I’ll be moving back to Tacoma by January. You can talk smack about me until then, but the true haters are spoiled. Impeachment proceedings would take far too long.



Of real importance, MDC will play two shows at Hell’s Kitchen this Friday, Aug. 24. The seminal political punk band — Millions of Dead Cops — will play an early all-ages show with Instant Asshole and the Syrens, and a later 21-plus show with Neutral Boy, South 11th and Lowborn added to the bill. 



While many people may forever associate MDC with the ’80s Bay Area punk scene, I didn’t bring up the fact I live in Portland at the moment simply because I like boring you with mundane updates about my oh-so-average existence.



That was only part of it.



Nope. I actually had a point. MDC front man, Dave Dictor lives in Portland — and has for a while. Shortly after I moved to the Rose City, I started doing freelance work for the Portland Mercury. One of my first pieces was on MDC Unplugged, an acoustic version of MDC, which Dictor unleashes at bookstores, coffee houses and clubs around PDX — and occasionally even takes on the road.



This is how I first spoke to Dave Dictor. Of course, we were talking about MDC Unplugged, but the idea is basically the same. MDC (electric) — the version set to torch Hell’s Kitchen on Friday — is known for their politically outraged sentiment. While some of the measures, codas and clefs they produced are memorable (see: “John Wayne Was A Nazi,” “Dick For Brains,” “Corporate Death Burger,” and “Violent Rednecks”), MDC’s voice is what rings loudest.



Put it this way: the Rock Against Reagan Tour without MDC would have been far less memorable. The ’80s without MDC would have been far more corrupt and complacent.

“Unplugged is going for a harmonic edge and acoustic instruments. It’s less difficult on the sensitive ears. It’s the way I write most of my songs, and then we convert it to hardcore. Electric goes for the power, it’s more raw,” explains Dictor of the difference between MDC Unplugged — which also includes original MDC drummer Al Schultz — and MDC (electric).



“I started acoustic 30 years ago. In general it’s a soulful and sometimes a solitary way to approach music. It doesn’t need loud amps and big tour vehicles. I really love Joe Strummer’s “Redemption Song,” and Nick Cave’s soft sounding new album is great. But hey, I performed with Michelle Shocked 20-plus years ago acoustically, and jammed with Billy Brag back in the day, so this is not totally a new thing for me.



“I have never left electric. Some of the electric members live abroad, so MDC’s drummer, Alschvitz, and I have some new blood (in Portland) that helps us with the Unplugged project.”



Twenty five years later, Dictor seems irate as always on the band’s last electric release – 2004’s Magnus Dominus Corpus. That record included three of the four original members of MDC. Friday’s show at the Kitchen will do one better, as Ron Posner, Mike Donaldson and Al Schultz, along with Dictor, will constitute the all-original MDC lineup that’s been touring since their 25th anniversary in 2005.



“There is nowhere to hide to escape a dying planet, and if you consider yourself a patriot and world citizen then you’ve got to care about what is happening in the world — the extinction of so many species of animals, ugly wars started by our commander and chief. Actually I am active and try to convert my anger into positive action and a positive lifestyle. Anger only gets you so far. I don’t want to be consumed by the events that are so depressing. I try to read and stay on top of positive things going on,” explains Dictor.

“It’s tough though. It’s easy to get nihilist and then to just want to escape.”



As to what MDC is expecting from Hell’s Kitchen on Friday?



“Flash runs a great place and we had a great time playing there 18 months ago. Viva Hell’s Kitchen!”



’Nuff said. If you’ve got a punk rock bone in your body, check out MDC Friday at Hell’s Kitchen.



[Hell’s Kitchen, Friday, Aug. 24, 6 p.m. (all ages, $10) and 9 p.m. (21-plus, $8), 3829 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, 253.759.6003]



That\'s how my love grows via e-mail.