Showing Up For the Dead

What you are about to read is a comedic approach to an event recap, written by our very own Amanda Sundvor, who has an incredibly hard time being serious. Photos taken by Rogue’s Noah Narc. Enjoy.

Once a year motorcycle’s best and brightest flock to Portland, OR for the One Moto Show in order satiate their motorcycle desires and High Order is there to stoke the proverbial fires. If you think I’m rhyming on purpose, you’d be correct. It’s art. Deal with it.

This year’s client was none other than local legend and drunkard’s delight - Rogue Ales. As of late, High Order has been assisting them with their pro Dead Guy, anti lame party agenda. Being bringers of the party, they decided to go big for the show. Seeing as how we didn’t get the name High “Never Not Going Big” Order for nothing, we came at this thing like the young dude in the pit, just windmilling all over the place.

We approached this project on two fronts:

Front 1: The “official” One Show pre party at the Rogue Eastside pub, conveniently located 2 blocks from High Order HQ, plan and execute the pre party with Rogue Team.

Front 2: Design, build, and support Rogue’s bar and 2 mobile bars at the One Moto Show at Portland’s historic Zidell Yards.

Lets’s start where it began - at the pre party:

With the help of our friend, Mr. Sideburn Magazine Gary Inman, we booked Canadian band Vicious Cycles MC. We all know about the stereotype of friendly Canadians, but it turns out some stereotypes are true. Even by Canadian standards, these were some nice dudes. Socks were rocked and illegal mini bike in-bar burnouts were had. Check them out!

Like last year, the 21 Helmets was curated by our friends at Lincoln Design Co. Ever heard of them? If you like to enjoy your life, Ninja Turtles, Hot Wheels, Nerf, skateboarding, and all around fun, you probably have. They selected 21 artists who they think have the skills to cut the mustard and we’re not talking Grey Poupon, this mustard is helmet art. As chance would have it, this year’s artist selection included Mr. High Order himself - Sean “Taco” Light. He brought some vintage motocross “Face Plant” vibes to the party and no one has been the same since. Lives have been changed; higher vibrations reached.

We named the pre party D.O.A. - Dead on Arrival, you know, since the opening party for The One Moto Show was at Rogue supporting the launch of the additional Dead Guy beers in their growing series. Well, we know a lot of old punks and you wouldn’t believe how flooded we got with excited friends thinking we just booked their favorite band, but instead we got a different set of Canadian punks. Not sorry; they rocked. A good party is a good party, but we love a take away. Sean designed the flier and for DOA and we thought it would be great idea to make it into a poster, but with more smoke, seeing as how it was art to be appreciated beyond an IG scroll. The sizing was 4”X 16”, or something like that. Thick little soup can roll of a poster, it was. I’m exaggerating, but I have to make sure you’re still paying attention. I have a tendency to ramble. If you were one of the lucky ones that managed to score one of these bad boys, can we have it? We gave and gave until there was nothing left to give. Now, we realize that we should’ve kept one for the archives. Please, if you’re reading this, give us your art!

Let’s talk articulation, since I know that’s a topic on all of our minds right now. In our current tech climate and the land of AI, animation of an object IRL is something that’s of days gone past. So is using the acronym IRL, but be gentle with me. I’m trying to entertain you here. After years of working events, I understand that sometimes, for the sake crowd flow and logistics, Baby’s gotta be in the corner. Doesn’t matter if she carried a watermelon or not. If you haven’t seen Dirty Dancing, you won’t get that reference, but I hope you get the gist. Every square inch of Zidell is some custom creation snake charming your attention away from sponsors adoring gaze, so we had to come big… literally. Here’s where we get back to that hot topic - articulation. Taking a page out of the old Vegas playbook, we built our Dead Guy with an arm that just wouldn’t quit. As long as the crank was turning, that arm hacked at the words CHOP SHOP. Lo fi, Hi return. Make an acronym outta that, today’s youth!

Philosophers and artists, The Juggalos, once asked the world deep questions like, “Magnets? How do they work?”. Well, 14 years later we have the answer… kind of. Here at High Order, all of us had been around a fridge or two in the 90’s; it’s where the food was. When you spend that kind of time with an appliance you want to customize it and what better way than a pile of words backed by a magnet that sticks to said appliance. It was genius! From coast to coast it was sweeping the nation. Communicating important thoughts like “Greg sucks” and “Farts”. Now imagine, standing in a bar at a custom motorcycle show with no fridge to tell whomever may see it that Greg does, indeed, suck. Imagine being surrounded with so much creativity and no outlet to be creative yourself. You’re right, it DOES sound like torture. We allowed artists and onlookers alike to scratch that creative itch on our 2 giant steel walls that flanked the bar. There, they found an array of motorcycle parts and MC verbiage to create the scoot of their imagination and live out that Kustom Kulture fantasy. All while drinking a Dead Guy beer and looking at the butts of whatever band was playing. Oh, did I not mention the bar was essentially back stage? No? Well, it was.

Oh my gosh, how did this picture of Carey Hart, freestyle MX legend, get in here? Ooops.

Building black tall boy monolith’s might be some German minimalist’s dream job, but for the design language of this show, Dieter needed to take a knee. Seeing as how most biker’s standard issue uniform includes a pocket knife, we were certain that with a little encouragement, people would carve their thoughts about Greg and how much he TRULY does suck. It wasn’t long until phone numbers were being added with promises of a better future, 30 mins at a time.

When I say the term “photo moment” it makes me feel like the marketing creep that I am. Regardless, we made a “photo moment” at the bar entrance, so anyone could take a photo of that particular moment.

You ever hear that joke: “What’s a kutte with sleeves? A jacket.” No, no you haven’t. I just made it up.

A name like Dead Guy Coffin Club sounds incredibly inclusive, but alas, you must be more than dead, you have work at Rogue to get one of these bad boys. OR you just have to print the jackets like Tanner did. I folded them, so I got one because of proximity. Printing perfection is the name of the game here at High Order and 98% of the time we get it 100% of the time.

Wow! That was a lot of words. I know most people don’t read these days, so for all the 40+ people who made it this far, thank you. Stay tuned for the next time Sean let’s me write about stuff.