So this venue is pretty weird, its a giant room up a flight of stairs thats been converted into a 5 room apartment, but with a TON of open space (though the kitchen is in a corner of this large room.). anyway, dave house played first. pretty good, i liked it.
broadway calls played second, before the menzingers and bridge and tunnel. there were a bunch of people crowded in to watch them. reading my mind, they opened with to the sheets. they went on to play (pretty much mostly in order): basement royalty, suffer the kids, back to oregon, be all that you cant be, van rides and high tides, midnight hour, tonight's alive, save our ship, and call it off. the sound seemed a little off, but i didnt let it bother me too much. they should grab a second guitar player to fill out their sound. but kids up front singing along, etc. good time.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Saturday, August 8, 2009
mets at padres, august 7th
I went down to the tilted kilt, a much more sports barsy-like hooters, with hotter girls, which is literally next to petco, to watch the yanks/red sox game before hand. burnett/beckett both pitching great, missed the first few innings of the pads game to keep watching the yanks game , but left after the 9th because mariano had already pitched and i didnt want to see them possibly lose.
i had a park pass (SRO), but old man hooked me up with a seat next to him and mike at the foul pole above the mets bullpen. spent the entire game yelling at Jeff Francoeur and the mets bullpen. mets winning 2-0 into the 7th, perez still pitching, gives up a run. relievers did alright, though as stokes went in i yelled, "your whole season depends on this!". f-bomb (krod) starts warming up, im just yelling at him. he goes in bottom ninth, i said "HEY, DONT BLOW IT F-BOMB.!" game tying triple to our corner, francouer comes in to field it we're all yelling at him "YOU SUCK FRANCOEUR!!!!" missed the runner at home by a smidgen, i yelled "nice arm franceour!"
THEN FBOMB GAVE UP A GRAND SLAM
HAHAHAHA SUCKER
i had a park pass (SRO), but old man hooked me up with a seat next to him and mike at the foul pole above the mets bullpen. spent the entire game yelling at Jeff Francoeur and the mets bullpen. mets winning 2-0 into the 7th, perez still pitching, gives up a run. relievers did alright, though as stokes went in i yelled, "your whole season depends on this!". f-bomb (krod) starts warming up, im just yelling at him. he goes in bottom ninth, i said "HEY, DONT BLOW IT F-BOMB.!" game tying triple to our corner, francouer comes in to field it we're all yelling at him "YOU SUCK FRANCOEUR!!!!" missed the runner at home by a smidgen, i yelled "nice arm franceour!"
THEN FBOMB GAVE UP A GRAND SLAM
HAHAHAHA SUCKER
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Brand New, The Troubadour, July 18
So, I either overestimated the traffic into LA, or my circumvention of the anaheim into Hollywood traffic worked, either way i was in LA in about two and a half hours...leaving me with a lot of time to spare. I killed some time, grabbed some food and swung by the venue at around 5:30 to see there was already a line, and a much longer one that I'd have thought for it being so early. With about 50 people already in front of me, i took my spot in line to get into the troubadour.
Eons later, the line was condensed and then the security decided to move all the people whose actual names were on the will call list to another line...except the entire show was will call, and confusion was abound. after it was all settled we all got into the same line same places, and went into the venue...
i was absolutely sure that someone would be in my facorite troubadour spot, which is stage right to the side so as not to be bothered by hordes of people, but still be right up front. This night, brand new's lighting called for a light fixture to be placed in a perfect spot, placing a huge speaker on the floor in the perfect spot allowing me to get a better view and have zero people behind my due to a poll and still not having to deal with a million people.
ANYWAY Dios went on, and were much better than i had anticipated. the coolest part was during their second to last song, the keyboardist threw in a riff from "You Still Believe in Me".
Well, Brand New finally took the stage, and opened with The Shower Scene. While it seemed a little slow and not exactly right, it was still fun. Then, they played one note of Quiet Things, and the crowd responded with a brilliantly loud cheer...I didn't even know that song was identifiable by one note. After that they played sic transit gloria into sowing season. they played three new songs. they also played, not in order, tommy gun (with an awesome intro reminiscent of god and devil or newer stuff), jaws theme swimming, jude law, mix tape, seventy times seven, flying at tree level, jesus, and degausser. the god and devil stuff was played the best and sounded awesome. they closed by playing you won't know, with the bassist and drummer leaving during the end but the (3) guitarists remaining on stage for an extended outtro, leaving jesse there in the end, who played soco amaretto lime by himself.
great time!
Eons later, the line was condensed and then the security decided to move all the people whose actual names were on the will call list to another line...except the entire show was will call, and confusion was abound. after it was all settled we all got into the same line same places, and went into the venue...
i was absolutely sure that someone would be in my facorite troubadour spot, which is stage right to the side so as not to be bothered by hordes of people, but still be right up front. This night, brand new's lighting called for a light fixture to be placed in a perfect spot, placing a huge speaker on the floor in the perfect spot allowing me to get a better view and have zero people behind my due to a poll and still not having to deal with a million people.
ANYWAY Dios went on, and were much better than i had anticipated. the coolest part was during their second to last song, the keyboardist threw in a riff from "You Still Believe in Me".
Well, Brand New finally took the stage, and opened with The Shower Scene. While it seemed a little slow and not exactly right, it was still fun. Then, they played one note of Quiet Things, and the crowd responded with a brilliantly loud cheer...I didn't even know that song was identifiable by one note. After that they played sic transit gloria into sowing season. they played three new songs. they also played, not in order, tommy gun (with an awesome intro reminiscent of god and devil or newer stuff), jaws theme swimming, jude law, mix tape, seventy times seven, flying at tree level, jesus, and degausser. the god and devil stuff was played the best and sounded awesome. they closed by playing you won't know, with the bassist and drummer leaving during the end but the (3) guitarists remaining on stage for an extended outtro, leaving jesse there in the end, who played soco amaretto lime by himself.
great time!
Friday, May 1, 2009
face to face hometown show, club karma, victorville
It was fun. Got there around 7ish and there were only a few people on line, definitely an older crowd. Walked in and took a spot on the "barricade," which was not a normal concert barricade, instead it was heavy plastic which jutted out on the bottom on both sides, kind of like a highway median barrier, forcing you to lean in an awk. position.
Cool to see it was an all-victorville show, with the openers, Kildozer and K.I.L. both from the town. Kildozer played a more stripped down punk rock while K.I.L. was a bit more into playing metal-ish solos every song. The singer and/or other guitarist for K.I.L. was not there, as he was in Europe with death by stereo.
So face to face went on, and played what seems like their go-to set since they've gotten back, still a good time. Though my constant shouts for "Don't Turn Away" were ignored by Trever, scott was into it, playing the song as they came out for the encore, though no one else did, with the band going into Bikeage. Great show, a good time. It was excellent seeing some of the people standing to the side of the stage take the opportunity to stagedive. My terrible terrible camera photos will be up at some point.
Now, let's talk about the "security" at this show. It's the second time in a month that I've seen bouncers not help out crowd surfers by pulling them off the crowd/catching them if thrown and letting them walk down the path in front of the stage. Instead, they were tossing people back into the crowd, then getting upset when the person came back and pretty much ruining it for everyone up front by swarming this person while they were on top of us. If the person got tossed forward, they would violently try to force them back onto the crowd (how would this help?) or pull them down onto the small floor space between stage and barricade and then swarm this person and drag them out in a headlock. I dont really get it, and the guy next to me was really losing his cool about it. And their barricade was piss-poor, as it got pushed towards the stage on pretty much every song. Nice.
Cool to see it was an all-victorville show, with the openers, Kildozer and K.I.L. both from the town. Kildozer played a more stripped down punk rock while K.I.L. was a bit more into playing metal-ish solos every song. The singer and/or other guitarist for K.I.L. was not there, as he was in Europe with death by stereo.
So face to face went on, and played what seems like their go-to set since they've gotten back, still a good time. Though my constant shouts for "Don't Turn Away" were ignored by Trever, scott was into it, playing the song as they came out for the encore, though no one else did, with the band going into Bikeage. Great show, a good time. It was excellent seeing some of the people standing to the side of the stage take the opportunity to stagedive. My terrible terrible camera photos will be up at some point.
Now, let's talk about the "security" at this show. It's the second time in a month that I've seen bouncers not help out crowd surfers by pulling them off the crowd/catching them if thrown and letting them walk down the path in front of the stage. Instead, they were tossing people back into the crowd, then getting upset when the person came back and pretty much ruining it for everyone up front by swarming this person while they were on top of us. If the person got tossed forward, they would violently try to force them back onto the crowd (how would this help?) or pull them down onto the small floor space between stage and barricade and then swarm this person and drag them out in a headlock. I dont really get it, and the guy next to me was really losing his cool about it. And their barricade was piss-poor, as it got pushed towards the stage on pretty much every song. Nice.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
brand new, pinback @ usc springfest
I found out brand new was playing a free show in LA...about 20 minutes after i had just driven home from LA last night. But whatever. I went to the show and got there during the band before miniature tigers, and this band was terrible, think a bad red hot chili peppers. Miniature tigers was good, played a shorter set than last night. Then the submarines went on, girl singer/steel drummer/guitarist, which was pretty cool. blah blah more bands.
Pinback went on right before the 'secret' headliner. I dont know them well, but they played really well and i enjoyed it, despite the idiots behind me who wouldnt stop yelling at them. The bigger singer was very vocal between songs, yelling at anything he could, like the palm reader, saying "hey look, palm reading! guess what FUCK YOU. you're making the world stupider, you cunt. " after they were told they had one song left when they clearly had at least two, they started breaking stuff down and this guy in a leather jacket comes on stage and starts talking. the pinback guy grabs the mic from him and says "who the hell are you?" and the guy says, "adam aids" so pinback guy says, "oh. does anyone know who this is or why he's onstage?" and there were crickets. he laughs, and gives the mic to the guy, who says "yeah, i have a job where i get paid to come back onstage and kill 5-10 minutes" at which point pinback guy AGAIN grabs the mic and says "oh, thats cool, since they just told us to cut our set short by 5 minutes. nice" gives back the mic, adam starts talking and pinback guy gives him a LONG kiss on the lips. hilarious. so adam aids goes "yeah so apparently no one knows who i am, well im adam aids, im big in africa" and the people go "......................." so he went away, and brand new techs were setting up.
apparently they didnt have a proper soundcheck so they checked EVERY SINGLE FUCKING GUITAR and it took forever. finally, FINALLY, they come on, opening with "you don't know" into "sowing season" and then "the quiet things that no one knows" as well as playing tommy gun, jaws theme, jesus, degausser, archers, and closed with bangkok. they played pretty tight, bangkok was a cool closer one (of the 3) guitarists dove behind his amp at the end of the song, and they had two drummers the whole set. i'd give a better review if i werent scared for my life the entire time.
This is the part where we talk about the (lack of) security at this show.
Here is a picture of the setup. notice it is called "idiots.jpg"
Thats right. in the middle of the GIGANTIC CROWD were unsecured steel barricades which you use to control a line, to keep a little cool kids club for the people in the usc events committee. well guess what, you planned this event POORLY.
So, first song. basically exactly where the arrow is pointing, i saw it tilting, i yelled at the security guard to come over, she reluctantly did. as soon as she got over there, some older white gentleman standing on the normal barricade (no event shirt/or jacket on) motioned for her to come back. she left and i said "WHAT? WHERE ARE YOU GOING ITS GOING TO FALL OVER?" i was motioning with my hands wildly, she started to come back and teh guy again made her stay where she was, she turned around and started paying attention to i guess making sure only the cool kids were allowed in the club. im yelling. "WHAT ARE YOU FUCKING DOING? ITS GOING TO FALL OVER?? ARE YOU STUPID?" and you know what happens IT FUCKING FELL OVER GOD WHAT DID YOU THINK WOULD HAPPEN?
female security guard oblivious, as were the cool kids, to the fact that THE BARRICADE FELL OVER AND PEOPLE WERE SPILLING OVER IT, i grabbed one of the cool kids and told him to get the security guard. he doesnt. so i threw him in that direction, FINALLY she comes over, tries to get control, picks it up. somehow no one is hurt. the solution was, no, not get rid of the entire shitty steel barricade, but to remove ONE SECTION(??????????????) (the one that fell over) and try to close it and have A SMALL SKINNY OLD MAN try to regulate the gap. of course he just lets people in.
so the entire time im worried that a mosh pit is going to erupt behind me or some crowd surfer will pulse the crowd pushing them forward onto me. during pinback , hardly anyone was standing behind us, during brand new it was a sea of people. three or four times i was convinced that it was game over for us against the barricade, but the people behind us took every precaution they could to keep the masses at bay.
Now, let's talk about crowd surfers. This was an all ages, free to the public show. Usually, when someone crowdsurfs at this type of event (as the real barricade was set up), the bouncers/security will grab incoming people and set them down as best they can so they do not hurt themselves getting thrown over. Apparently, CSC security has a different school of thought. Their idea is, "try everything you can to not let them over the barricade and yell at them and pull them down into the crowd". so when a 15-16 year old girl was thrown over, the bouncer was taken by surprise and then didn't know how to handle the situation, instead of A) guiding her to the side or B) telling her to go to the side, i saw him reluctantly grab her off the crowd and toss her into the clear area behind the barricade, and then pushed her to the side violently. obviously scared, this girl started running from him and he pushed her again, and then chased her INTO THE COOL KIDS CLUB (which was now filled with any type of people because of the broken barricade). run right in front of me, after the girl gets by, i put my arm out stopping the bouncer, hoping this girl makes a getaway as best she can. he is confused to what im doing stopping him in his "job" long enough for her to blend in for a little while, a ton of security comes over as well as a campus security guard to look for the girl i guess and they finally figure out that there is a real problem with the barricade, but of course dont do anything about it. after they leave, i saw the girl coming back and i said 'you ok?' and she just looked sad.
so after the set is done, im leaving AND SEE THE GIRL GIVING A STATEMENT TO A COP, i walked over and the same campus security guard was there. i said "i saw everything that happened. this is the girl that was being pushed around for no reason by the security guard" and then the campus security guard said "thats enough, move along"
GREAT GUY.
i bid the girl, who was fucking crying (imagine a giant black man is pushing you around for no reason) a better night and she thanked me profusely, and i left.
Pinback went on right before the 'secret' headliner. I dont know them well, but they played really well and i enjoyed it, despite the idiots behind me who wouldnt stop yelling at them. The bigger singer was very vocal between songs, yelling at anything he could, like the palm reader, saying "hey look, palm reading! guess what FUCK YOU. you're making the world stupider, you cunt. " after they were told they had one song left when they clearly had at least two, they started breaking stuff down and this guy in a leather jacket comes on stage and starts talking. the pinback guy grabs the mic from him and says "who the hell are you?" and the guy says, "adam aids" so pinback guy says, "oh. does anyone know who this is or why he's onstage?" and there were crickets. he laughs, and gives the mic to the guy, who says "yeah, i have a job where i get paid to come back onstage and kill 5-10 minutes" at which point pinback guy AGAIN grabs the mic and says "oh, thats cool, since they just told us to cut our set short by 5 minutes. nice" gives back the mic, adam starts talking and pinback guy gives him a LONG kiss on the lips. hilarious. so adam aids goes "yeah so apparently no one knows who i am, well im adam aids, im big in africa" and the people go "......................." so he went away, and brand new techs were setting up.
apparently they didnt have a proper soundcheck so they checked EVERY SINGLE FUCKING GUITAR and it took forever. finally, FINALLY, they come on, opening with "you don't know" into "sowing season" and then "the quiet things that no one knows" as well as playing tommy gun, jaws theme, jesus, degausser, archers, and closed with bangkok. they played pretty tight, bangkok was a cool closer one (of the 3) guitarists dove behind his amp at the end of the song, and they had two drummers the whole set. i'd give a better review if i werent scared for my life the entire time.
This is the part where we talk about the (lack of) security at this show.
Here is a picture of the setup. notice it is called "idiots.jpg"
Thats right. in the middle of the GIGANTIC CROWD were unsecured steel barricades which you use to control a line, to keep a little cool kids club for the people in the usc events committee. well guess what, you planned this event POORLY.
So, first song. basically exactly where the arrow is pointing, i saw it tilting, i yelled at the security guard to come over, she reluctantly did. as soon as she got over there, some older white gentleman standing on the normal barricade (no event shirt/or jacket on) motioned for her to come back. she left and i said "WHAT? WHERE ARE YOU GOING ITS GOING TO FALL OVER?" i was motioning with my hands wildly, she started to come back and teh guy again made her stay where she was, she turned around and started paying attention to i guess making sure only the cool kids were allowed in the club. im yelling. "WHAT ARE YOU FUCKING DOING? ITS GOING TO FALL OVER?? ARE YOU STUPID?" and you know what happens IT FUCKING FELL OVER GOD WHAT DID YOU THINK WOULD HAPPEN?
female security guard oblivious, as were the cool kids, to the fact that THE BARRICADE FELL OVER AND PEOPLE WERE SPILLING OVER IT, i grabbed one of the cool kids and told him to get the security guard. he doesnt. so i threw him in that direction, FINALLY she comes over, tries to get control, picks it up. somehow no one is hurt. the solution was, no, not get rid of the entire shitty steel barricade, but to remove ONE SECTION(??????????????) (the one that fell over) and try to close it and have A SMALL SKINNY OLD MAN try to regulate the gap. of course he just lets people in.
so the entire time im worried that a mosh pit is going to erupt behind me or some crowd surfer will pulse the crowd pushing them forward onto me. during pinback , hardly anyone was standing behind us, during brand new it was a sea of people. three or four times i was convinced that it was game over for us against the barricade, but the people behind us took every precaution they could to keep the masses at bay.
Now, let's talk about crowd surfers. This was an all ages, free to the public show. Usually, when someone crowdsurfs at this type of event (as the real barricade was set up), the bouncers/security will grab incoming people and set them down as best they can so they do not hurt themselves getting thrown over. Apparently, CSC security has a different school of thought. Their idea is, "try everything you can to not let them over the barricade and yell at them and pull them down into the crowd". so when a 15-16 year old girl was thrown over, the bouncer was taken by surprise and then didn't know how to handle the situation, instead of A) guiding her to the side or B) telling her to go to the side, i saw him reluctantly grab her off the crowd and toss her into the clear area behind the barricade, and then pushed her to the side violently. obviously scared, this girl started running from him and he pushed her again, and then chased her INTO THE COOL KIDS CLUB (which was now filled with any type of people because of the broken barricade). run right in front of me, after the girl gets by, i put my arm out stopping the bouncer, hoping this girl makes a getaway as best she can. he is confused to what im doing stopping him in his "job" long enough for her to blend in for a little while, a ton of security comes over as well as a campus security guard to look for the girl i guess and they finally figure out that there is a real problem with the barricade, but of course dont do anything about it. after they leave, i saw the girl coming back and i said 'you ok?' and she just looked sad.
so after the set is done, im leaving AND SEE THE GIRL GIVING A STATEMENT TO A COP, i walked over and the same campus security guard was there. i said "i saw everything that happened. this is the girl that was being pushed around for no reason by the security guard" and then the campus security guard said "thats enough, move along"
GREAT GUY.
i bid the girl, who was fucking crying (imagine a giant black man is pushing you around for no reason) a better night and she thanked me profusely, and i left.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
the get up kids at the troubadour
Got to this show with a few people on line, hoped no one would snag my expected spot on the stage right side nook, and no one did, so i had a great spot. The couple next to me had driven from tucson for the show and got there just a little after I had, and were driving back, that night. The opening band's drums and keyboard were RIGHT in front of us.
Miniature Tigers opened up, can't really explain their sound but it was...pleasant. I enjoyed them and the drummer made me laugh. Would see again. They are opening up the upcoming east coast kevin devine tour, so check them out if you are going.
The Get Up Kids came on next, with Jim standing RIGHT in front of us, and James on the other side looking like he had just gotten out of bed. The band seemed into it and excited, and played tight, joking with each other and the audience. I thought anne arbour was on the setlist but when i realized it wasn't 2-3 songs in, i started yelling it...and after doing that for a few songs suptic said, 'you have to ask matt' and he tried getting matt's attention but couldn't, so he said into his mic, 'matt, this young man has a request' and then...they played it. 2/2 on getting them to play that song, excellent. Great time.
Setlist, in order:
Holiday
The One you want
No Love
Valentine
Up on the Roof
Never be Alone
Woodson
Red Letter Day
Anne Arbour (!!!!!!!!)
Out of Reach
Martyr Me
CLose to Home
Coming Clean
Campfire Kansas
Holy Roman
I'm A Loner Dottie, A Rebel
ten minutes
walking on a wire
-encore break-
Close to me (the cure)
man of conviction
action and action
ass pike
my apology
don't hate me
i'll catch you
Miniature Tigers opened up, can't really explain their sound but it was...pleasant. I enjoyed them and the drummer made me laugh. Would see again. They are opening up the upcoming east coast kevin devine tour, so check them out if you are going.
The Get Up Kids came on next, with Jim standing RIGHT in front of us, and James on the other side looking like he had just gotten out of bed. The band seemed into it and excited, and played tight, joking with each other and the audience. I thought anne arbour was on the setlist but when i realized it wasn't 2-3 songs in, i started yelling it...and after doing that for a few songs suptic said, 'you have to ask matt' and he tried getting matt's attention but couldn't, so he said into his mic, 'matt, this young man has a request' and then...they played it. 2/2 on getting them to play that song, excellent. Great time.
Setlist, in order:
Holiday
The One you want
No Love
Valentine
Up on the Roof
Never be Alone
Woodson
Red Letter Day
Anne Arbour (!!!!!!!!)
Out of Reach
Martyr Me
CLose to Home
Coming Clean
Campfire Kansas
Holy Roman
I'm A Loner Dottie, A Rebel
ten minutes
walking on a wire
-encore break-
Close to me (the cure)
man of conviction
action and action
ass pike
my apology
don't hate me
i'll catch you
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
ltj@canes, mission beach
I was excited on this 21+ show.
I got there 20 minutes before doors and i was second on line. when they finally opened the box office , I was the first to the window (to claim my will call ticket). Stupid girl working couldn't find my ticket though i stated "artist arena" three times. She just kept looking at the ticketmaster list and printed tm tickets. All the while the physical ticketholders line is going in behind me. cool, lady. she makes me stand to the side while she waits for her 'manager' he gets there and i said 'artist arena' and gave him the conf. code. he comes back in 20 secs, "when did you buy these" me, "january when they went on sale, fan club artist arena" and he says "OH the FAN club" and i said, 'i guess. artist arena'. found the ticket immediately. good work on the communication, morons, artist arena isnt even the fan club it just slipped out of my mouth.
so i finally get in and while i thought people would be standing in the amazing spot i wanted, instead there was a camera tripod. i stood on the ramp next to it to still be elevated a little above the crowd. i ask if he was there before they let anyone in and he said yes so i didnt feel bad about it, as i said. so then he is talking to his friend about how the spot is good because its elevated above the crowd and blocked off in front, i said 'yeah, thats why i wanted that spot but even if you werent there i would have missed out because they dont understand fan club ticketing and made me wait even though i was first in line,' just making conversation. he thought i was some big giant fan though i only waited 20 minutes on line and the 'fan club' was a myspace link...so he said that he could move the camera over a little and let me get that spot. that was the coolest thing of the night.
the flatliners - played a rocket from the crypt cover because they were in san diego. about 5 people knew it. then they said 'we're just going to have a john reis cover band from now on' and only 2 people got that.
the expendables - i wish i didnt have to sit through this atrocity again
less than jake - i think this band needs to learn something about distance. new york to philadelphia is only 80 miles, with a stop in jersey between. so why were those three set lists different, but the anaheim and san diego set lists were EXACTLY the same, when the distance between san diego and anaheim is 95 miles? at least some stupid girl got on stage and said 'ive waited so long to see you, play jen' and they did. too bad they didnt replace the song that was about to go on but added jen, because i had to hear overrated.
now, lets talk about skinny bouncers on a power trip. have you ever heard gainesville rock city? have you ever seen ltj play it? the point in the song that is 46 seconds in the studio track was used forever by less than jake as a time to shoot confetti or drop a banner or other type of thing. i had a cup of water in front of me. at this moment in the song i could not resist myself splashing the entire cup of water onto the middle of the crowd. as an effect, it looked awesome. i see this skinny bouncer on the stage with a goatee run off and come around to me, climbing on the rail to get in my face, about what, i really dont know. he didnt even say anything, or at least nothing that i could hear or understand since IT DIDNT MAKE SENSE FOR HIM TO CARE. pay a little more attention to not letting people stagedive, since you seemed so into that, instead of making me miss the first verse of the song. while i probably should have pushed you off the railing, that would have been bad for me. i should have paid you no regard at all and just sang in your face instead of just doing that for the last 5 seconds you were there. get a job
oh, cool
I got there 20 minutes before doors and i was second on line. when they finally opened the box office , I was the first to the window (to claim my will call ticket). Stupid girl working couldn't find my ticket though i stated "artist arena" three times. She just kept looking at the ticketmaster list and printed tm tickets. All the while the physical ticketholders line is going in behind me. cool, lady. she makes me stand to the side while she waits for her 'manager' he gets there and i said 'artist arena' and gave him the conf. code. he comes back in 20 secs, "when did you buy these" me, "january when they went on sale, fan club artist arena" and he says "OH the FAN club" and i said, 'i guess. artist arena'. found the ticket immediately. good work on the communication, morons, artist arena isnt even the fan club it just slipped out of my mouth.
so i finally get in and while i thought people would be standing in the amazing spot i wanted, instead there was a camera tripod. i stood on the ramp next to it to still be elevated a little above the crowd. i ask if he was there before they let anyone in and he said yes so i didnt feel bad about it, as i said. so then he is talking to his friend about how the spot is good because its elevated above the crowd and blocked off in front, i said 'yeah, thats why i wanted that spot but even if you werent there i would have missed out because they dont understand fan club ticketing and made me wait even though i was first in line,' just making conversation. he thought i was some big giant fan though i only waited 20 minutes on line and the 'fan club' was a myspace link...so he said that he could move the camera over a little and let me get that spot. that was the coolest thing of the night.
the flatliners - played a rocket from the crypt cover because they were in san diego. about 5 people knew it. then they said 'we're just going to have a john reis cover band from now on' and only 2 people got that.
the expendables - i wish i didnt have to sit through this atrocity again
less than jake - i think this band needs to learn something about distance. new york to philadelphia is only 80 miles, with a stop in jersey between. so why were those three set lists different, but the anaheim and san diego set lists were EXACTLY the same, when the distance between san diego and anaheim is 95 miles? at least some stupid girl got on stage and said 'ive waited so long to see you, play jen' and they did. too bad they didnt replace the song that was about to go on but added jen, because i had to hear overrated.
now, lets talk about skinny bouncers on a power trip. have you ever heard gainesville rock city? have you ever seen ltj play it? the point in the song that is 46 seconds in the studio track was used forever by less than jake as a time to shoot confetti or drop a banner or other type of thing. i had a cup of water in front of me. at this moment in the song i could not resist myself splashing the entire cup of water onto the middle of the crowd. as an effect, it looked awesome. i see this skinny bouncer on the stage with a goatee run off and come around to me, climbing on the rail to get in my face, about what, i really dont know. he didnt even say anything, or at least nothing that i could hear or understand since IT DIDNT MAKE SENSE FOR HIM TO CARE. pay a little more attention to not letting people stagedive, since you seemed so into that, instead of making me miss the first verse of the song. while i probably should have pushed you off the railing, that would have been bad for me. i should have paid you no regard at all and just sang in your face instead of just doing that for the last 5 seconds you were there. get a job
oh, cool
Monday, March 30, 2009
less than jake, the expendables, the flatliners @ Anaheim HOB
The first band was named the flatliners (not the streetpunk band). Decent fatpunk/skapunk, took a while for the kids to get into it. Played well and seemed excited. Up next were The Expendables who the cali crowd was in love with...i thought they just sounded and looked like they wanted to be Sublime. pretty boring and showboating solos that the vocalist wasnt even playing, nice.
Finally Less Than Jake comes on to the star wars theme playing over the PA, then they play it themselves into Conviction Notice. Band is playing really well, everyone is into it. Go on to play, in order, happyman, 9th at pine, short fuse burning, overrated (least fan reaction), gainesville rock city, a GNV FLA song, al's war, sobriety, freecreditreport.com, ghosts of me and you, anchor, a b-sides song, i think i love you, plastic cup politics, lion city, closed with look what happened. Chris comes back playing rest of my life, then they play state of fl into city of gnv, and then played the soundclip from metalheads and closed with, metalheads. they played real well, chris seems a little out of place, wish roger was the front man. Very, VERY stoked they didn't play johnny quest. I had a good time.
Finally Less Than Jake comes on to the star wars theme playing over the PA, then they play it themselves into Conviction Notice. Band is playing really well, everyone is into it. Go on to play, in order, happyman, 9th at pine, short fuse burning, overrated (least fan reaction), gainesville rock city, a GNV FLA song, al's war, sobriety, freecreditreport.com, ghosts of me and you, anchor, a b-sides song, i think i love you, plastic cup politics, lion city, closed with look what happened. Chris comes back playing rest of my life, then they play state of fl into city of gnv, and then played the soundclip from metalheads and closed with, metalheads. they played real well, chris seems a little out of place, wish roger was the front man. Very, VERY stoked they didn't play johnny quest. I had a good time.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
ben weasel kevin seconds kepi ghoulie
The Girls from seattle went on first. kind of weird not necessarily something i'd be into but it was actually pretty cool. kinda indie with light synth and weird sounds and the oddest singer who kept kneeling down RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME and singing. their best song was "vas new 3". the guitarist kept just messing things up for himself: losing his only pick, getting tangled in his mic cord, getting tangled in the singers mic cord, etc. but it was funny.
toys that kill: immediately people started running up front singing along, i decided to let some dude steal my spot so he could sing since i wasnt. um they were real good, not much more to say. after they were done that guy left and i went back and this girl went next to me and asked to switch places with her (stupid me) said ok and then bluanna said oh no! you're so much taller than her (i was standing in front of bluanna now) so i said ok and let the person who flew from italy take my space and got behind girl1. ever been in the second row? yeah.
Ben Weasel: danny showed up after all. after delaying for ten minutes for no reason, everyone came onstage. such a crush from the crowd to the front, but it was awesome, danny even learned some of the solos for this show (he didnt know them in chicago). brie, who was not getting in anyones way by doing this, sat on the speakers in front of the stage, of course this invited some tall kid to do the same who kept yelling everytime they played a song he knew, and getting on his knees or standing and getting in ben's face, annoying. however justice was served when someone jumped off the stage and clocked him in the face. but like i said being second row blows.
setlist (some in order)
cindys on methadone
guestlist
cool kids club (those 3 in order)
falling apart
every night
my brain hurts
i can see clearly
let the sun shine in
mental retard
last stop tokyo
dingbat
leather jacket
peter brady
some ben weasel songs including first day of spring
joanie loves johnnie (closer)
then encored with, in order
i wanna strangle you
veronica hates me
the science of myth
teenage freakshow
this aint hawaii w/ sunshine interlude
what we hate (impeccable closer!)
awesome.
/first show review
tried to go to dodger stadium but its not viewable from the road i was on at least. then i went to echo curio and got there about an hour early and hung around in front of the gallery and checked out the inside, real small art gallery with a music theme which was real cool. so 2 rolls around and some people start showing up. apparently this art gallery is byob, but only 1 or 2 people took advantage of that. so i saw brie show up on her bike and she came inside and went up to me "You made it!!!!" and we laughed and then she went away.
so the first guy went on, dan janisch. i stood behind a speaker pole next to the doorway leading to the other room, then brie stood right behind me and we both danced to this guy and that was cool. so this guy was kinda folky and had a bunch of harmonicas, it was real good. this little kid started saying he was timing the songs on his ipod.
so then kepi ghoulie goes on. i dont know any groovie goulie songs so it was all new to me, but it was real cool. there was a bassist, AND kevin seconds playing a guitar case with a tambourine taped to it as percussion as well as that same little kid (ill guess 10 years old) playing "the egg" which was an egg shaped plastic container with beads in it like a mini maraca. janisch also played harmonica for a couple songs. it was really awesome. he mentioned something about the tour having a free date after san diego to which i said "when is the san diego show?!" and he said "oh march 25th you all should come down." i'll be there.
then kevin seconds went on. i switched to the other side of the gallery stage by the door outside. kepi played the guitar case for this set. kevin was great. i dont know any of his solo stuff so i cant say what songs he played. however the kepi set was actually better i think. so anyway kevin is done and then i say to play 99 red balloons since he told us that after the show the night before in riverside he played an impromptu set in a del taco parking lot and played that song. so he said "do you guys want a sham cover or a nena cover" and we yelled "NENA!!!" and he said "you guys just cant handle sham! ....neither can i." and he played 99red balloons and it was awesome.
so 3 hours later i ended up at the knitting factory WITH THE SAME ONSTREET PARKING SPOT. was the first person there, got inside after a while, snagged the same spot as the night before, and was i guess in my own little groove to some song over the PA and noticed some one in my PERIPH doing the same thing i glanced over and it was brie in the same spot she was last night, cool. so the girls pretty much the same though the guitar player didnt mess himself up as much.
The Underground Railroad to Candyland went up next and were awesome! Excellent music and times. Better than TTK. The drummer of ttk played the keyboard and a floor tom and it was just a great show and music.
so right before weasel goes on they play blister in the sun over the pa and brie and i had a funny singalong for that and then weasel went on and i had my excellent spot this time. so much better being able to brace against the stage than against another person. i guess i could also yell in ben's face more. played the same set as the night before. awesome. so i said bye to brie and she said she was going to try to make it to the san diego show which is awesome. then i drove home.
And to cap it off, about 10 minutes from home, the harddrive picked, on random, 99 luftbaloons from the gta vice city soundtrack.
toys that kill: immediately people started running up front singing along, i decided to let some dude steal my spot so he could sing since i wasnt. um they were real good, not much more to say. after they were done that guy left and i went back and this girl went next to me and asked to switch places with her (stupid me) said ok and then bluanna said oh no! you're so much taller than her (i was standing in front of bluanna now) so i said ok and let the person who flew from italy take my space and got behind girl1. ever been in the second row? yeah.
Ben Weasel: danny showed up after all. after delaying for ten minutes for no reason, everyone came onstage. such a crush from the crowd to the front, but it was awesome, danny even learned some of the solos for this show (he didnt know them in chicago). brie, who was not getting in anyones way by doing this, sat on the speakers in front of the stage, of course this invited some tall kid to do the same who kept yelling everytime they played a song he knew, and getting on his knees or standing and getting in ben's face, annoying. however justice was served when someone jumped off the stage and clocked him in the face. but like i said being second row blows.
setlist (some in order)
cindys on methadone
guestlist
cool kids club (those 3 in order)
falling apart
every night
my brain hurts
i can see clearly
let the sun shine in
mental retard
last stop tokyo
dingbat
leather jacket
peter brady
some ben weasel songs including first day of spring
joanie loves johnnie (closer)
then encored with, in order
i wanna strangle you
veronica hates me
the science of myth
teenage freakshow
this aint hawaii w/ sunshine interlude
what we hate (impeccable closer!)
awesome.
/first show review
tried to go to dodger stadium but its not viewable from the road i was on at least. then i went to echo curio and got there about an hour early and hung around in front of the gallery and checked out the inside, real small art gallery with a music theme which was real cool. so 2 rolls around and some people start showing up. apparently this art gallery is byob, but only 1 or 2 people took advantage of that. so i saw brie show up on her bike and she came inside and went up to me "You made it!!!!" and we laughed and then she went away.
so the first guy went on, dan janisch. i stood behind a speaker pole next to the doorway leading to the other room, then brie stood right behind me and we both danced to this guy and that was cool. so this guy was kinda folky and had a bunch of harmonicas, it was real good. this little kid started saying he was timing the songs on his ipod.
so then kepi ghoulie goes on. i dont know any groovie goulie songs so it was all new to me, but it was real cool. there was a bassist, AND kevin seconds playing a guitar case with a tambourine taped to it as percussion as well as that same little kid (ill guess 10 years old) playing "the egg" which was an egg shaped plastic container with beads in it like a mini maraca. janisch also played harmonica for a couple songs. it was really awesome. he mentioned something about the tour having a free date after san diego to which i said "when is the san diego show?!" and he said "oh march 25th you all should come down." i'll be there.
then kevin seconds went on. i switched to the other side of the gallery stage by the door outside. kepi played the guitar case for this set. kevin was great. i dont know any of his solo stuff so i cant say what songs he played. however the kepi set was actually better i think. so anyway kevin is done and then i say to play 99 red balloons since he told us that after the show the night before in riverside he played an impromptu set in a del taco parking lot and played that song. so he said "do you guys want a sham cover or a nena cover" and we yelled "NENA!!!" and he said "you guys just cant handle sham! ....neither can i." and he played 99red balloons and it was awesome.
so 3 hours later i ended up at the knitting factory WITH THE SAME ONSTREET PARKING SPOT. was the first person there, got inside after a while, snagged the same spot as the night before, and was i guess in my own little groove to some song over the PA and noticed some one in my PERIPH doing the same thing i glanced over and it was brie in the same spot she was last night, cool. so the girls pretty much the same though the guitar player didnt mess himself up as much.
The Underground Railroad to Candyland went up next and were awesome! Excellent music and times. Better than TTK. The drummer of ttk played the keyboard and a floor tom and it was just a great show and music.
so right before weasel goes on they play blister in the sun over the pa and brie and i had a funny singalong for that and then weasel went on and i had my excellent spot this time. so much better being able to brace against the stage than against another person. i guess i could also yell in ben's face more. played the same set as the night before. awesome. so i said bye to brie and she said she was going to try to make it to the san diego show which is awesome. then i drove home.
And to cap it off, about 10 minutes from home, the harddrive picked, on random, 99 luftbaloons from the gta vice city soundtrack.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Israel, son
jan 13: got up at 5am. shamus took me to the train station, i took the train to union station LA, then took the flyaway bus to LAX. got behind some people, including julie, in my group on line and couldnt find the rest of the group, so i called michelle and she got us straightened out. so we all met up and went back on line. after a fierce interrogation, i went to check in and requested an aisle and was told bluntly "YOU HAVE A WINDOW" then was told to go around the side to have my checked bag scanned...where they took my shoes to check and took my carry-on, to be returned right before we got on the plane.
we had an ice breaker, where we said where we went to school and what the best thing we did in our shoes was. i was 3rd. i saw a kid standing across from me in a red sox hat, so i said "my name is doug, i went to ramapo college in new jersey, and the best thing i did in these shoes was see aaron boone hit the home run in 2003" and he said "OHHH ITS ON!!!" and i pointed him out to go next. name was zack.
so we finally were to get on the plane. those of us who had had out bags taken were put in a "special" line. when it was finally my turn, this woman said "Do you recognize your bag?" and i said yes and picked it up. Then she said "im sorry sir you cannot take your bag on the plane" and i said ".....can i take something out of it?!?" and immediately this one guy said "COME WITH ME SIR" and took me behind a screen and searched me...thoroughly. my shoes were checked about 4 times total. they went over everything in my pockets with a crazy detector, even a sandwich. so i was finished with that and i asked if i could take something out of my bag, they asked what. i said "my book and my cd player" and they said "you can take your book but not your cd player." i asked why not, the woman said bluntly, "It would cause too many problems". then i asked if i had an ipod if i could take that and the woman said "oh, do you want to take your ipod?" and i got mad. i said "no, i dont have one, im saying that you say its ok for an ipod and not a cd player? so if i had enough money to buy an ipod that i could have music on the plane? real cool" at that point, the TSA worker overseeing the el al security said "please calm down sir" then i took out my weird nj and a book...and they went through EVERY PAGE OF THE MAGAZINE even going back after they missed one.
so i was thoroughly upset getting on the plane with no music or snacks or notebooks or nyquil (which i ended up needing). i was unable to sleep on the plane AT ALL. i got on and there was some guy in my seat. i told him it was my seat. he and his friend, who was in the middle seat, tried to get me to switch to his middle seat, i said no. then the guy who stayed in the middle kept asking me how to use his own phone. when we finally got over the atlantic, the ride got bumpy including an apparently 500m drop before and after which i was losing it from the turbulence. when i tried to get some drugs from the flight attendants, they didnt even show up for 15 minutes, and then never came back.
around hour 13, i got up to walk around and ran into zack and his sister, molly. i immediately made a truce with zack and he was real cool. i made everyone laugh quite a bit especially as i was going crazy at hour 13 with no sleep etc. we really bothered one of the israelis sleeping by looking out the window on the exit door to see napoli.
anyway, a terrible flight aside from talking to zack and molly.
jan 14: landed. met Momo, the president of oranim. then we also met our tour guide, Raz. "My name is Raz. It is not razzle dazzle or raspberry or short for anything you americans might want to call me. i have a very strong foot from playing soccer, and i will kick you" we were also introduced to Noam, our medic/armed escort. he said, " okay. i want you all to drink lots of water, always have a liter and a half on you. people get dehydrated within 48 hours of getting to israel. the sun is very strong" on our way to the hotel, molly sat next to me, saying "hey friend". i saw some arabic graffiti on the way.
my roommates at this first hotel were kevin law and danny. it was named ma'ale ha'amisha. to get to the rooms, you had to go down this windtunnel with stairs and what looked to be a ramp for people with luggage. however the floor was slippery and it was much steeper than it should have been, causing many people to go flying. i tried it without knowing and almost lost my balance, but caught myself. after a meeting with momo who creeped on molly (and it was funny), we all hung out for a while.
after the opening session, a bunch of us went to the bar, where we had some deep conversations with the medic and raz and each other. it was another groups last night, they were younger and getting rowdy. one kid was dancing terribly on a table, it was funny.
Jan 15: we went to jerusalem this day. starting on a promenade across from the old city, raz told us about how the residents expanded out of the city walls and such. we went to the jewish quarter, where raz took us through jaffa gate, to king david's tomb, to areas in the old city that had been excavated to the original street level, had falafel. went to the southern wall excavation and the kotel.
after that we went to the hotel, and to the bar after dinner. our group received an acoustic guitar, and noam played for us, it was pretty cool, starting to really bond together at this point, what with it being the second drunken night in a row.
Jan 16: This day, we left the jerusalem area and went to tel aviv, i think is at next to michael. stopping in rabin square and learning about him and his assassination. drove along the beach, went to old jaffa and saw a tree hanging in a pit growing. we found out what a "tel" was as raz told us with a man doing yoga in the background. we went to the wishing bridge and put our hands on our respective astralogical signs. we ran into some afrikans who were really really into us. then we went to the flea market type thing at Nahalat Binyamin, where i met up with sunny. we hung out and talked and everyone i saw from the group thought i picked up a hot israeli chick. while we were waiting for the group to meet, brenda put on a street show as a robot. it worked because he had an immediate 30 person audience. then we went down to independence hall and learned about the events around the war of independence and what led to the creation of tel aviv and the state of israel.
after that, we went to our next hotel, Armon Yam in bat yam on the beach. my roommates were brenda (brendon: in the opening session, raz was talking to him and saw his name tag and said "Brenda? what is this? This is a girls name!" and it stuck the whole trip) and josh. we had shabbat dinner, and then went to the beach restaurant/bar across the street to enjoy drinks and fun, continuing the party.
Before dinner, we were strarting to party in kathryn, alex, and deinice's room, including playing "never have i ever" (which ive never played before) and after the activity, it was full-swing. tons of booze, it was like a dorm room party and was mentioned as such. we had the whole floor to ourselves, though, and we made full use of the fact. we used the balcony as a smoking lounge using divya's hookah (BIG MISTAKE, as she had the flu). danny pissed off the stairs onto a car that started moving, hilarious. at some point i called it in, and then at 2 josh came into the room and said they were going to the pizza place with noam escorting. i got up to a host of amazingly drunken people. at some point josh went outside and got scammed on by two israeli chicks who looked about 14. they said they were 20. so we ate some food and went to the liquor store and went back. i stayed up a little longer and then went to bed. we had no wake up call, just to meet for lunch at 1:30.
Jan 17: On this day, we did nothing. I woke up at 8 and went down to breakfast...and noam, karen, and some more were up, and had been up the entire night. We enjoyed the day on the beach, including ultimate frisbee, horses, Raz's son Ohmer and his wife, and more time on the beach. I ran into an art show/jazz show on the sidewalk which was cool. after dinner, we had an activity outside to show what we knew about and what shabbat meant to us (we were a very non-jewish group). brenda was in my group and came up with the idea to make it a real world skit. i was the music guy, and said "I was going to see my favorite band Meshuggah but they couldn't plug in on Shabbat so I came to this shabbat dinner". this may have been the day before. anyway, then we got on the bus to go to club kinsey in netanya.
After a bit, we made a u-turn and went back to the hotel. while i saw it immediately, some people didnt believe it until raz got on the microphone. he said "ahhh, as you may see we are getting back to the hotel. we had to come back. i got a call and they said there was a situation, i cant talk about it. but we have to go back." as soon as he was done, the bus hit something, it felt like it was running something over. raz said, "ahh... i was just messing with you. we forgot something at the hotel (the GPS) and now we have real problems." we stopped, it was a car door that had opened at the wrong time. the dent allowed us to correctly identify the bus for the rest of the trip.
i sat next to zack, and tivoli was sitting in front of us. we ended up serenading her and singing many songs, culminating in a buswide rendition of bohemian rhapsody, started by me. it was so badly butchered, though Noam kept it going and on track. when it was done, raz got on the mic and said "it's good that freddie mercury is dead because i dont think he would have been able to stomach what you just did to his song" so we got to the club, it wasnt really my scene but i still enjoyed myself dancing with peoples. not really much to say.
Things i forgot about Jan 17:
About halfway through the day i started to feel sick, and slept for a while during the afternoon. Then we had an activity, "singled out" birthright edition. I actually made it to the final 4 for the guys, with katheryn as the bachelorette. brenda won, i believe.
Jan 18: We left bat yam and went north to the roman port town of Caesaria, the amphitheater was awesome. then we headed east, through some parts of the west bank it seemed, passed Ha'amageddon (or so raz claimed. wikipedia says its by beer sheba). then we got to tel izrael and the izraeli valley where some historic battles took place. we walked down the tel, i talked to michelle f. a bit about her previous experiences on birthright and etc. At the bottom, we got to a tunnel which sometimes had water in it and people went through it. My fear of a water death precluded me from going in, but everyone was fine.
after that, we continued east, went to a falafel/shawarma place, where i noticed that my cold was continuing to develop, and mentioned it to Noam, who replied, "So?" hah. then headed along the sea of gallilee / lake kinneret to the kinneret cemetary. after that we headed north into tiberias and went to the Hamat Tyvera hot springs, which was a pretty cool time. spent some quality time here with everyone. when we got out, and back to the bus, matt d. got really sick from the temperature change. we got to the hotel, apparently named Shalom Plaza.
After dinner a bunch of us played kings cup, a drinking game ive never played before. I ended up losing but it was ok. then we started playing charades, which was pretty damn fun. i called it a night after a bit.
Jan 19: Woke up and felt like garbage. went down to breakfast to everyone asking if i was ok, apparently it was showing. we drove into the golan heights, which entailed us going up some mountains and the temperature dropping. we werent told we would be in such a cold place so i didnt bundle up with what i had. as we got to Gadot to look into jordan across a minefield, me condition deteriorated quickly. sloane noticed and her and noam tried to calm me down. neda sat next to me to keep me warm, thanks! then we went to mt. bental to look into syria. i got some tea before going to the bunker atop the mountain to listen to raz. my condition was still quite poor. we saw some soldiers giving their guns to girls in another group to pose with, and raz mentioned that we could never do that. someone in our group either wasnt with us or didnt hear him, and as we walked back, was caught by raz with one of the guns, but nothing happened.
so we went down the mountain....and i completely crashed. i started sweating profusely, my ears popped beyond anything useful, i had tunnel vision and almost passed out. we got to see philip, an american ex-patriate, very militant, from a functioning army bunker on the lebanon border. i watched from the back trying to stay with it. after this, we went to a mall where i drank some more tea and stuff. noam showed me around the grocery store to get juice but then seemed much more interested in showing me the wine, which was funny.
after that, we went to Tsvat/Svat/whatever, and visited an old synagogue which was cool. then we went through the alleyways to see avraham, an artist from detroit who was a total stoner and talked about how things were amaaaaaaaaaaaaaazing. I somehow made it through, got to the bus and we went back to the hotel. I slept through a bit of dinner and then went to the group session, which was supposed to last only a half hour, started at 830. we got out at 1130, but its ok because it was funny.
we ended up breaking into groups of 3 with each group doing a day in the life of sloane, michelle, or raz. our group was michelle, and we had matt b. act as michelle's thoughts, at one point saying "fuck, i need to get laid". every group had someone playing arielle and josh, as well as raz. matt d. did an incredible rendition of raz, with brian g. a close second. Raz' reaction to both was "i'm not russian". so I went to sleep afterwards, possibly one of the only nights I didn't party.
Jan 20: I woke up and felt much better. Though not 100%, i was much better. I tried to keep an open seat to let one of the soldiers joining us sit next to me (my one question to momo at the opening session was, "How many of the soldiers will be female?") but zack sat next to me. we picked up the soldiers and it was pretty awesome. we went to the dead sea. the seafloor is very sharp on your feet, so attempting to float as soon as possible is good. raz came by with some mud and people started muddying themselves up.
after that we continued south and got to the bedouin area we were staying, and all took camel rides. i rode with tiffani. after that we got welcomed to the area by one of the bedouins who was playing some instrument and it sounded awesome. then they served us tea and coffee which were both awesome. after that, we hung out a bit and set up in the tents to sleep. then it was dinner time, served to us in the dining tent while sitting on mattresses on the ground, family style, every group of 6 got a huge tray of a stuffed chicken and lamb meatballs, it was awesome. the best dinner we had. i sat with arielle and mimi and avichai and danielle and someone else who i dont recall.
after dinner we had a group activity in the tent to introduce the soldiers to us all. i was in barak's group and we were assigned to write a country song. danielle was asking him stupid questions, i said we needed to ask things like what whisky he liked and if he ever sat on a porch with a shotgun. he was very amused. we learned that he likes beer more than whisky, and he said "When americans lose their private rights then the rest of the world is soon to follow" which i found profound. he also likes to play a drinking game with his buddies based on taki, a card game like uno. we wrote a song to the tune of ring of fire.
after that, we had a campfire outside the tent. noam played guitar, i went between our campfire and the small tent with tea right by us a couple of times, but after a while i decided to call it a night since i wasnt feeling 100% yet. after trying to sleep for about 20 minutes, i listened to some music and eventually went back outside...
a bunch of people were still out there but were incredibly drunk. i stayed for a while, if i recall it was matt d., noam, me, molly, tiffani, karen, sam, barak, and a bunch more at the time. people started petering out as it was getting late. sam mentioned that he wanted to watch the sunrise but wanted to go to sleep. i told him to just sleep in front of the campfire, it would keep him warm. then he said that if i got my matress he'd get his. i said i wasnt really that serious about it. in 3 minutes he came back with his and i said "well i cant back out now." and got mine. molly kept tending to the fire since she is apparently a pyromaniac when noam stopped playing, barak started playing music on his phone, which was perfect. i laid on my mattress next to molly who was sitting by the fire tending it properly. we stole firewood from the other groups who had abandoned their fires, while there was still one group who was by theirs. we were running out of wood when finally the last group left, and we were victorious.
...at this point, it was me, sam, molly, barak, tiffani, and noam. and karen but she was out of commission, completely drunk. one of the bedouins came by with a giant log for our fire. at that point molly said "well, my work here is done. goodnight!" and she left. the bedouin hung out for a while and brought another giant log for us. i tried sleeping but it wasnt happening that much, but it didnt matter. karen almost fell into the fire a few times and refused to go back into the tent. alex came out randomly at this point, and then another bedouin came by and demanded we smoke his cigarettes because we looked cold. then he just hung out with us for the rest of the night without saying anything, surreal. alex went back inside after a bit.
finally, daybreak came. of course, the sun didnt come up for over an hour. there was an impressive desert landscape and i noted that it would be awesome if the sun came up through this dip in the mountains, but i noted that it was very unlikely to happen. finally after waiting forever, the sun came up...in that exact spot. awesome.
Jan 21: So we left the tent area and went to the ramon crater/ makhtesh ramon. i was reeling a little from the lack of sleep. on the way back to the bus, tiffani pulled me aside for a heart-to-heart regarding her sleeping arrangements the night before, ha. great girl. so back on the bus i tried sleeping for a while, until arielle fucking decided that the shade being halfway down wasnt enough for her. so she woke me up pulling it down, and then didnt secure it and it flew back up and hit me in the head and then she quickly grabbed it again and brought it down, hitting me again...and i immediately lightly bopped her in the head, to her surprise and anna's, who was across from us and witnessed the whole thing. anna kept talking about how the image of how fast i did it was burned into her mind. then arielle apoligized to me which surprised those who could hear.
so after a while we ended up at the red canyon and hiked it a bit, a little intense on the way down, but i was unaware that would lead to us having to traverse it up top, heights notwithstanding, but it wasnt as bad as it could have been in my mind. then we hiked up the side of the mountain and i was a little winded, and i had already pretty much run out of water...we then drove to eilat and my leftover sickness combined with lack of sleep combined with no water/the hike left me really out of it.
finally we got to eilat, and went to a mall on the beach, and i drank the health back into me with a delicious strawberry drink. then there was an actual non-fast food type place that i could have gotten a delicious looking turkey sandwich...but 4 people ordered salads in front of me. the guy in the storefront next to us said "if you want to eat today, order from us!" and he wasnt kidding. after waiting ten minutes and no end in sight, i tried to get a bagel but they were taking forever too, so i got a crepe with cream cheese which was apparently a dessert, but at least i got my food before tivoli and molly! then i was asked about what i was always writing down (lyrics) which was funny. arielle also asked me at one point.
after the mall i walked to the beach and saw some guy who owned a bar yelling at these two touristy people who had brought mcdonalds onto the beach: "You americans think you can just bring food onto the beach onto my seats! gah!" and some more that i forget. then he left and i heard the woman (it was an elderly couple) say to her husband, "Would you like a chip?" and i laughed and said, "oh, you must be from england." and they said yes and i mentioned how funny it was that that just happened. they agreed. i tried sleeping on one of the chairs but the guy came by and said it was 20 sheckels to use the chair, so i left.
i walked around the boardwalk a little bit. on my way back i ran into noam. we had a small conversation, and as i was walking away he said, "Jah will be with you." and i was like "wait did you just say that?" and he said "oh, you know it" which was amazing. we all met together and went to the hotel, the nicest of the whole trip...except the weird bathroom which instead of having a shower stall just had a curtain and a mop. oh, in the last hotel in tiberias i roomed with just zach. at this hotel i was rooming with harold (who was sick and coughing up a storm) and matt davis (previous sick dude).
so after a while we all got together to walk to the boardwalk / club for the night. i thought it should take less than the 30 minutes that raz suggested, and i said so...and he seemed to challenge me telling me to check the time when we got there...then immediately said that we were going to take a "short cut". i was convinced that he was fucking with us but he wasnt. i was pissed that he was actually completely right.
so we got to the boardwalk and oz was like "hey you guys want sushi or pizza? lets go here and i thought he was referring to this cafe...but he was actually referring to the pizza hut next to it. i refused to go, and we got a huge contingent of people to go to the cafe where they put tables in an odd configuration to seat us all. deniece got a gigantic beer. i got gnocchi and they gave me the wrong sauce. sam ordered exactly what i did. at first it was good but after i paused a bit and started again it was way too salty. matt d. ordered a bagel sandwich and a "cheese plate" thinking it was a small appatizer, instead it was a gigantic mound of cheeses that he couldnt even come close to finishing and was astounded at it. our food was a little pricey, while we were waiting for our food (which came out much quicker than i thought it would be), brian g. came over with some pizza from pizza hut, saying how quick and cheap it was...and let us try some and it was actually really good.
so anyway we all finished the food and headed over to club unplugged. it was pretty early by israeli standards, so it was pretty much just us in this small club. david started busting out the moves while he was still sitting down, and started doing the most hilarious stuff, and i realized he was what finkel and i refer to as "undercover funny" and i was very amused. lots of dancing and enjoying ourselves, taking some breaks outside. at one point i was outside and heard everyone chanting "RAZZLE DAZZLE! RAZZLE DAZZLE!" and raz was busting out the moves on the floor. noam was sleeping the entire time, hilarious.
so then a few of us were outside and i saw a group of (azuz????) kids try to get in but they were already really drunk and one looked like he was tweaking. they weren't allowed in. they all got together across the alley as we were sitting at the couches outside the club. i saw raz sit down and start eyeing them down, which was my first tip off that something could go down, the fact that he was concerned. i got out my camera and started filming. it was pretty uneventful until 3 or 4 of them walked back up to the club and got into the bouncers faces. the owner was there too...after a bit it got hairy and the owner cracked one in the face with his elbow and pushed them down the street. i jumped out of my seat, still filming to get a better shot...to the israelis in our group shouting at me "NO! DONT TAKE PICTURES!" which was really weird. it got to my head and made the walk back to the hotel really really interesting. within 30 seconds of the situation, 3 idf soldiers (with m-4s) walked up, i noted to one of our israelis, "oh, that's not that surprising to you is it?" She said no...but then in two minutes, there were ten forming a wall in front of the club, and it seemed serious. our group leaders got everyone inside under the guise of "one last dance" though some stayed outside...but i was told to stay inside because i had been filming, crazy. but yeah we eventually ended up back at the hotel after an intense walk (due to my thinking we'd get jumped). I didn't bother partying really since i was so tired at this point.
Jan 22: After some much needed rest, got up and we started our trip to Massada. On the way we stopped at mt. sodom and saw lot's wife, ha. after a while we got to massada, somehow we ran out of time and at the last minute, we ended up taking the tram to the top instead of walking. on the top some people got bas mitzvahed, and then we had to quickly leave as we had run out of time. the park ranger had to run down the mountain , yelling at his taxi driver not to drive away.
we finally made it to the hotel, i was rooming with zach and sam. we had dinner, and eventually ended up being me, molly, dikla, barak, and noam playing guitar in the lobby. dikla was shaving her new hat to make it look worn, and kept trying to get the guys to do it for her, lol. i was going to stay until 1:30 but was pretty tired, then at 1:15 barak called it in and molly followed suit. I left a couple minutes later. a pleasant evening.
Ah, before I forget. When we were in jerusalem at the kotel the first time, sam had bought a shofar and was pretty poor at playing it. there was to be or just had been a ceremony for new soldiers, so there were a ton around. one from a group close to us came over and started to play the shofar, doing a poor job at first and his comrades laughed at him. but then, our hero emerged victorious and played some beautiful tunes for us. also, when we were atop masada, barak said to me while we were looking to the dead sea, "Do you like that view?" and i said "very much." and he said "I hate it. it saddens me." He continued, saying that the sea had eroded and used to be much more magnificent.
Also before we got to our hotel in jerusalem, we stopped at a gas station/convenience store, and raz' wife and son showed up. again, what a cute kid!
Jan 23: I woke up, refreshed completely and ready to go. We went to Yad Vashem, israel's Holocaust museum. It was pretty interesting, but we were kind of rushed through. We were given headsets to hear the tour guide (not raz) speak. Though I didn't learn too much that I didn't already know, it was very interesting to see everyone else' reaction.
After the main museum, we were given sandwiches. Raz said there were pastrami sandwiches and i was looking for one and apparently bothered him by taking so long. He asked what i was looking for and i said a pastrami sandwich. I picked up another sandwich and he said "there you go!" and i thought, this looks like a turkey sandwich. I said, "are you sure?" and he said "well what does it look like?!" and i said "um...pastrami doesnt look anything like this in the states 8) " apparently it was turkey pastrami, which led to the conclusion. just another raz tidbit.
After that we went to the childrens museum, which was entirely disorienting. It was 5 (i think?) memorial candles...reflected hundreds of times with mirrors in otherwise complete darkness. surreal.
After that we walked up mt. herzl, Israel's cemetary for high political figures and military personnel in the vein of arlington natl cemetery. raz was very upset by a couple picnicking in the park in the cemetery. after a speech at herzl's grave, we saw yitzak rabin's and other prime ministers' until we walked up to the current plot being used. There we saw michael levin's grave, a kid from philadelphia who was determined to fight in the IDF, and joined up right before the 2006 lebanon war, and was killed. his grave was decorated with assorted philly memorabilia, including a phillies helmet and a "gotta have a wawa:" nametag (i'm sure no one on the trip saw the significance in that and wondered why i was taking pictures of it, ha).
Across the way, where raz said he is upset as he has had to lead his speech further and further back over the years due to more deaths, and then our soldiers led a mock funeral ceremony. This all took place while a man was visiting the grave of his brother right next to us, which was pretty crazy. After that, we went back to the hotel for a small amount of time to get ready for shabbat at the wailing wall, as nozzy would not drive after sundown (i think it was a birthright thing). We get to the old city, walking through zion gate to get inside. When we got to the kotel area, there were people dancing and having a grand old time. We started to as well, singing and acting out that david melech yisrael song, complete with hand motions. At first we were all together, until some old guy was offended that males and females were touching each other. After dancing a while we all were allowed to go to the wall... I walked up and didn't feel like dealing with the thousands of people I'd have had to wade through and wait for to get to the wall, so I turned back, as I had already had my time with the wall on the first day.
After we had all regrouped, we started walking back to the hotel, it was about an hours walk. While still in the old city, danny asked raz if he could stop at a liquor store we had passed. raz said no, then turned around and mouthed something. I thought that because one of the birthright people was there for "inspection" raz was SAYING no, but mouthing to go. Danny was confused, and i said that i thought raz was saying to go....which he definitely wasnt yet. danny got his stuff but everyone followed him and raz had to run back to get them all back on track. sorry about that one, raz. so we walked back to the hotel and didnt stop at all for liquor.
Once back, we had dinner, and the festivities began. buying beers per bottle from the bar they had, we spent way more than we needed to. sam bought me a beer, and then i got 4 more (ALL OUT FOR ME, I KNOW). I got the maccabee beer, which tasted uncannily like yuengling. we all stuffed into julie's room, with vh1 on. we started to play a sort of drinking game, drinking when certain lines were sung (usually the title of the song)...until we got to november rain, and i said 'OH! EVERYTIME SLASH SOLOS, YOU DRINK!' which led to awesomeness. apparently i was very into it, and barak later said he'd love to drink with me, to which i was very surprised and honored. we moved to a different room where they had lined the floors with mattresses, more sitting room and the place was completely packed. after a while, julie instigated a makeout party, i'll withhold the names ;) . At one point after this, Carmel (israeli soldier girl) said to me, "I've never drank this much before!" to which I laughed....and later still she said to me, "I've never been drunk before!" and i was confused. she kept using the rest and barak said, "everytime carmel throws up, drink!" it was great. at some point not too late i called it in. i probably should have stayed up, but whatever.
Jan 24 : Zach never even came back to the room, hah. On any travel day i am extremely anxious, so i had a pretty poor attitude this entire day, with the mentality of 'lets get out of here already'. we walked to the knesset and played frisbee in the park for a while. we went back to the hotel, seeing a small child dragging a street sign with an arrow, which was pretty funny. While we were waiting for the closing session, we all had a giant bro-down in the hallways with noam on guitar. at one point he played "good riddance", a song to which I personally DIDN'T have anything connected to, unlike most people (for some reason i didnt, i dunno why). Well, now i do. I lost it and was consoled by jen who said "i hope those are tears of joy!" then he played "leaving on a jetplane" which i suppose more people felt a connection to. after a bit i started another bohemian rhapsody singalong, excellent. finally we had to go to the closing session talking about our best experiences, etc. i said that i learned i already knew a lot more than i thought i did about israel. at some point during this meeting, some of the soldiers started leaving, and it was sad. Then, most of us went to ben yehuda st (some people staying stayed behind). Walking up, a car came racing down the street almost hitting us, my east coast side took over and yelled "fuck you!" , flipping them off. matt b. and his brother ben were so amused. i got my first bagel and it was excellent. i was eating with barak and sam, and right next to us was alex and some of the other girls. these people kept coming up to us asking for money, and this one kid probably about 18 and definitely a drug addict was bothering us for tsedakah. sam countered, asking if the guy could buy him food. the guy was annoyed and sam kept it up. to show he didnt need our money, he started to give us 1/10th sheckels...when he got to me he put his hand in my pocket?! to drop it, and i freaked out on him, yelling "yo get the fuck outta my pocket bro" the girls were astonished, thinking i would punch him. barak said "oh, i thought i might need to back you up there." i told them all, its about looking crazier than "they" think you are, not actually doing anything 8).
we left and finally got to the airport, it was a sad sad time saying goodbye to our israelis, especially noam. once we got in the airport and through the initial inspection, i got very focused on getting to the gate asap, and with all of my carry on bags as needed...so i missed the real goodbye session, but i already had had mine so it was ok. this return flight was the polar opposite of the one on the way in, even with my middle seat in the second to last row. sitting between debi and aron, we all pretty much fell asleep immediately, effectively killing at least 6 hours. they both used my shoulders as something to lean on, i am apparently a huge cuddle bear. cute. i watched the pelican brief, pausing often, thus it lasted most of the flight, ha. the flight attendants were so much nicer this time around too. and i onlyhad to bother one person any time i wanted to get up. seriously a much better flight.
when we landed we were all confused by how customs worked and said goodbye at the wrong times, but then we finally came out. i was one of the first, and made a sign "BR-1138" as people came out to join so we could all say goodbye. at that exact time i wasnt truely sad yet. that happened when i woke up the next day actually, but it hit me really, REALLY hard. aside from that, matt d. gave me a ride to the oceanside train station.
an amazing, incredible time. i advise anyone who hasnt gone on this trip and is eligible, GO.
we had an ice breaker, where we said where we went to school and what the best thing we did in our shoes was. i was 3rd. i saw a kid standing across from me in a red sox hat, so i said "my name is doug, i went to ramapo college in new jersey, and the best thing i did in these shoes was see aaron boone hit the home run in 2003" and he said "OHHH ITS ON!!!" and i pointed him out to go next. name was zack.
so we finally were to get on the plane. those of us who had had out bags taken were put in a "special" line. when it was finally my turn, this woman said "Do you recognize your bag?" and i said yes and picked it up. Then she said "im sorry sir you cannot take your bag on the plane" and i said ".....can i take something out of it?!?" and immediately this one guy said "COME WITH ME SIR" and took me behind a screen and searched me...thoroughly. my shoes were checked about 4 times total. they went over everything in my pockets with a crazy detector, even a sandwich. so i was finished with that and i asked if i could take something out of my bag, they asked what. i said "my book and my cd player" and they said "you can take your book but not your cd player." i asked why not, the woman said bluntly, "It would cause too many problems". then i asked if i had an ipod if i could take that and the woman said "oh, do you want to take your ipod?" and i got mad. i said "no, i dont have one, im saying that you say its ok for an ipod and not a cd player? so if i had enough money to buy an ipod that i could have music on the plane? real cool" at that point, the TSA worker overseeing the el al security said "please calm down sir" then i took out my weird nj and a book...and they went through EVERY PAGE OF THE MAGAZINE even going back after they missed one.
so i was thoroughly upset getting on the plane with no music or snacks or notebooks or nyquil (which i ended up needing). i was unable to sleep on the plane AT ALL. i got on and there was some guy in my seat. i told him it was my seat. he and his friend, who was in the middle seat, tried to get me to switch to his middle seat, i said no. then the guy who stayed in the middle kept asking me how to use his own phone. when we finally got over the atlantic, the ride got bumpy including an apparently 500m drop before and after which i was losing it from the turbulence. when i tried to get some drugs from the flight attendants, they didnt even show up for 15 minutes, and then never came back.
around hour 13, i got up to walk around and ran into zack and his sister, molly. i immediately made a truce with zack and he was real cool. i made everyone laugh quite a bit especially as i was going crazy at hour 13 with no sleep etc. we really bothered one of the israelis sleeping by looking out the window on the exit door to see napoli.
anyway, a terrible flight aside from talking to zack and molly.
jan 14: landed. met Momo, the president of oranim. then we also met our tour guide, Raz. "My name is Raz. It is not razzle dazzle or raspberry or short for anything you americans might want to call me. i have a very strong foot from playing soccer, and i will kick you" we were also introduced to Noam, our medic/armed escort. he said, " okay. i want you all to drink lots of water, always have a liter and a half on you. people get dehydrated within 48 hours of getting to israel. the sun is very strong" on our way to the hotel, molly sat next to me, saying "hey friend". i saw some arabic graffiti on the way.
my roommates at this first hotel were kevin law and danny. it was named ma'ale ha'amisha. to get to the rooms, you had to go down this windtunnel with stairs and what looked to be a ramp for people with luggage. however the floor was slippery and it was much steeper than it should have been, causing many people to go flying. i tried it without knowing and almost lost my balance, but caught myself. after a meeting with momo who creeped on molly (and it was funny), we all hung out for a while.
after the opening session, a bunch of us went to the bar, where we had some deep conversations with the medic and raz and each other. it was another groups last night, they were younger and getting rowdy. one kid was dancing terribly on a table, it was funny.
Jan 15: we went to jerusalem this day. starting on a promenade across from the old city, raz told us about how the residents expanded out of the city walls and such. we went to the jewish quarter, where raz took us through jaffa gate, to king david's tomb, to areas in the old city that had been excavated to the original street level, had falafel. went to the southern wall excavation and the kotel.
after that we went to the hotel, and to the bar after dinner. our group received an acoustic guitar, and noam played for us, it was pretty cool, starting to really bond together at this point, what with it being the second drunken night in a row.
Jan 16: This day, we left the jerusalem area and went to tel aviv, i think is at next to michael. stopping in rabin square and learning about him and his assassination. drove along the beach, went to old jaffa and saw a tree hanging in a pit growing. we found out what a "tel" was as raz told us with a man doing yoga in the background. we went to the wishing bridge and put our hands on our respective astralogical signs. we ran into some afrikans who were really really into us. then we went to the flea market type thing at Nahalat Binyamin, where i met up with sunny. we hung out and talked and everyone i saw from the group thought i picked up a hot israeli chick. while we were waiting for the group to meet, brenda put on a street show as a robot. it worked because he had an immediate 30 person audience. then we went down to independence hall and learned about the events around the war of independence and what led to the creation of tel aviv and the state of israel.
after that, we went to our next hotel, Armon Yam in bat yam on the beach. my roommates were brenda (brendon: in the opening session, raz was talking to him and saw his name tag and said "Brenda? what is this? This is a girls name!" and it stuck the whole trip) and josh. we had shabbat dinner, and then went to the beach restaurant/bar across the street to enjoy drinks and fun, continuing the party.
Before dinner, we were strarting to party in kathryn, alex, and deinice's room, including playing "never have i ever" (which ive never played before) and after the activity, it was full-swing. tons of booze, it was like a dorm room party and was mentioned as such. we had the whole floor to ourselves, though, and we made full use of the fact. we used the balcony as a smoking lounge using divya's hookah (BIG MISTAKE, as she had the flu). danny pissed off the stairs onto a car that started moving, hilarious. at some point i called it in, and then at 2 josh came into the room and said they were going to the pizza place with noam escorting. i got up to a host of amazingly drunken people. at some point josh went outside and got scammed on by two israeli chicks who looked about 14. they said they were 20. so we ate some food and went to the liquor store and went back. i stayed up a little longer and then went to bed. we had no wake up call, just to meet for lunch at 1:30.
Jan 17: On this day, we did nothing. I woke up at 8 and went down to breakfast...and noam, karen, and some more were up, and had been up the entire night. We enjoyed the day on the beach, including ultimate frisbee, horses, Raz's son Ohmer and his wife, and more time on the beach. I ran into an art show/jazz show on the sidewalk which was cool. after dinner, we had an activity outside to show what we knew about and what shabbat meant to us (we were a very non-jewish group). brenda was in my group and came up with the idea to make it a real world skit. i was the music guy, and said "I was going to see my favorite band Meshuggah but they couldn't plug in on Shabbat so I came to this shabbat dinner". this may have been the day before. anyway, then we got on the bus to go to club kinsey in netanya.
After a bit, we made a u-turn and went back to the hotel. while i saw it immediately, some people didnt believe it until raz got on the microphone. he said "ahhh, as you may see we are getting back to the hotel. we had to come back. i got a call and they said there was a situation, i cant talk about it. but we have to go back." as soon as he was done, the bus hit something, it felt like it was running something over. raz said, "ahh... i was just messing with you. we forgot something at the hotel (the GPS) and now we have real problems." we stopped, it was a car door that had opened at the wrong time. the dent allowed us to correctly identify the bus for the rest of the trip.
i sat next to zack, and tivoli was sitting in front of us. we ended up serenading her and singing many songs, culminating in a buswide rendition of bohemian rhapsody, started by me. it was so badly butchered, though Noam kept it going and on track. when it was done, raz got on the mic and said "it's good that freddie mercury is dead because i dont think he would have been able to stomach what you just did to his song" so we got to the club, it wasnt really my scene but i still enjoyed myself dancing with peoples. not really much to say.
Things i forgot about Jan 17:
About halfway through the day i started to feel sick, and slept for a while during the afternoon. Then we had an activity, "singled out" birthright edition. I actually made it to the final 4 for the guys, with katheryn as the bachelorette. brenda won, i believe.
Jan 18: We left bat yam and went north to the roman port town of Caesaria, the amphitheater was awesome. then we headed east, through some parts of the west bank it seemed, passed Ha'amageddon (or so raz claimed. wikipedia says its by beer sheba). then we got to tel izrael and the izraeli valley where some historic battles took place. we walked down the tel, i talked to michelle f. a bit about her previous experiences on birthright and etc. At the bottom, we got to a tunnel which sometimes had water in it and people went through it. My fear of a water death precluded me from going in, but everyone was fine.
after that, we continued east, went to a falafel/shawarma place, where i noticed that my cold was continuing to develop, and mentioned it to Noam, who replied, "So?" hah. then headed along the sea of gallilee / lake kinneret to the kinneret cemetary. after that we headed north into tiberias and went to the Hamat Tyvera hot springs, which was a pretty cool time. spent some quality time here with everyone. when we got out, and back to the bus, matt d. got really sick from the temperature change. we got to the hotel, apparently named Shalom Plaza.
After dinner a bunch of us played kings cup, a drinking game ive never played before. I ended up losing but it was ok. then we started playing charades, which was pretty damn fun. i called it a night after a bit.
Jan 19: Woke up and felt like garbage. went down to breakfast to everyone asking if i was ok, apparently it was showing. we drove into the golan heights, which entailed us going up some mountains and the temperature dropping. we werent told we would be in such a cold place so i didnt bundle up with what i had. as we got to Gadot to look into jordan across a minefield, me condition deteriorated quickly. sloane noticed and her and noam tried to calm me down. neda sat next to me to keep me warm, thanks! then we went to mt. bental to look into syria. i got some tea before going to the bunker atop the mountain to listen to raz. my condition was still quite poor. we saw some soldiers giving their guns to girls in another group to pose with, and raz mentioned that we could never do that. someone in our group either wasnt with us or didnt hear him, and as we walked back, was caught by raz with one of the guns, but nothing happened.
so we went down the mountain....and i completely crashed. i started sweating profusely, my ears popped beyond anything useful, i had tunnel vision and almost passed out. we got to see philip, an american ex-patriate, very militant, from a functioning army bunker on the lebanon border. i watched from the back trying to stay with it. after this, we went to a mall where i drank some more tea and stuff. noam showed me around the grocery store to get juice but then seemed much more interested in showing me the wine, which was funny.
after that, we went to Tsvat/Svat/whatever, and visited an old synagogue which was cool. then we went through the alleyways to see avraham, an artist from detroit who was a total stoner and talked about how things were amaaaaaaaaaaaaaazing. I somehow made it through, got to the bus and we went back to the hotel. I slept through a bit of dinner and then went to the group session, which was supposed to last only a half hour, started at 830. we got out at 1130, but its ok because it was funny.
we ended up breaking into groups of 3 with each group doing a day in the life of sloane, michelle, or raz. our group was michelle, and we had matt b. act as michelle's thoughts, at one point saying "fuck, i need to get laid". every group had someone playing arielle and josh, as well as raz. matt d. did an incredible rendition of raz, with brian g. a close second. Raz' reaction to both was "i'm not russian". so I went to sleep afterwards, possibly one of the only nights I didn't party.
Jan 20: I woke up and felt much better. Though not 100%, i was much better. I tried to keep an open seat to let one of the soldiers joining us sit next to me (my one question to momo at the opening session was, "How many of the soldiers will be female?") but zack sat next to me. we picked up the soldiers and it was pretty awesome. we went to the dead sea. the seafloor is very sharp on your feet, so attempting to float as soon as possible is good. raz came by with some mud and people started muddying themselves up.
after that we continued south and got to the bedouin area we were staying, and all took camel rides. i rode with tiffani. after that we got welcomed to the area by one of the bedouins who was playing some instrument and it sounded awesome. then they served us tea and coffee which were both awesome. after that, we hung out a bit and set up in the tents to sleep. then it was dinner time, served to us in the dining tent while sitting on mattresses on the ground, family style, every group of 6 got a huge tray of a stuffed chicken and lamb meatballs, it was awesome. the best dinner we had. i sat with arielle and mimi and avichai and danielle and someone else who i dont recall.
after dinner we had a group activity in the tent to introduce the soldiers to us all. i was in barak's group and we were assigned to write a country song. danielle was asking him stupid questions, i said we needed to ask things like what whisky he liked and if he ever sat on a porch with a shotgun. he was very amused. we learned that he likes beer more than whisky, and he said "When americans lose their private rights then the rest of the world is soon to follow" which i found profound. he also likes to play a drinking game with his buddies based on taki, a card game like uno. we wrote a song to the tune of ring of fire.
after that, we had a campfire outside the tent. noam played guitar, i went between our campfire and the small tent with tea right by us a couple of times, but after a while i decided to call it a night since i wasnt feeling 100% yet. after trying to sleep for about 20 minutes, i listened to some music and eventually went back outside...
a bunch of people were still out there but were incredibly drunk. i stayed for a while, if i recall it was matt d., noam, me, molly, tiffani, karen, sam, barak, and a bunch more at the time. people started petering out as it was getting late. sam mentioned that he wanted to watch the sunrise but wanted to go to sleep. i told him to just sleep in front of the campfire, it would keep him warm. then he said that if i got my matress he'd get his. i said i wasnt really that serious about it. in 3 minutes he came back with his and i said "well i cant back out now." and got mine. molly kept tending to the fire since she is apparently a pyromaniac when noam stopped playing, barak started playing music on his phone, which was perfect. i laid on my mattress next to molly who was sitting by the fire tending it properly. we stole firewood from the other groups who had abandoned their fires, while there was still one group who was by theirs. we were running out of wood when finally the last group left, and we were victorious.
...at this point, it was me, sam, molly, barak, tiffani, and noam. and karen but she was out of commission, completely drunk. one of the bedouins came by with a giant log for our fire. at that point molly said "well, my work here is done. goodnight!" and she left. the bedouin hung out for a while and brought another giant log for us. i tried sleeping but it wasnt happening that much, but it didnt matter. karen almost fell into the fire a few times and refused to go back into the tent. alex came out randomly at this point, and then another bedouin came by and demanded we smoke his cigarettes because we looked cold. then he just hung out with us for the rest of the night without saying anything, surreal. alex went back inside after a bit.
finally, daybreak came. of course, the sun didnt come up for over an hour. there was an impressive desert landscape and i noted that it would be awesome if the sun came up through this dip in the mountains, but i noted that it was very unlikely to happen. finally after waiting forever, the sun came up...in that exact spot. awesome.
Jan 21: So we left the tent area and went to the ramon crater/ makhtesh ramon. i was reeling a little from the lack of sleep. on the way back to the bus, tiffani pulled me aside for a heart-to-heart regarding her sleeping arrangements the night before, ha. great girl. so back on the bus i tried sleeping for a while, until arielle fucking decided that the shade being halfway down wasnt enough for her. so she woke me up pulling it down, and then didnt secure it and it flew back up and hit me in the head and then she quickly grabbed it again and brought it down, hitting me again...and i immediately lightly bopped her in the head, to her surprise and anna's, who was across from us and witnessed the whole thing. anna kept talking about how the image of how fast i did it was burned into her mind. then arielle apoligized to me which surprised those who could hear.
so after a while we ended up at the red canyon and hiked it a bit, a little intense on the way down, but i was unaware that would lead to us having to traverse it up top, heights notwithstanding, but it wasnt as bad as it could have been in my mind. then we hiked up the side of the mountain and i was a little winded, and i had already pretty much run out of water...we then drove to eilat and my leftover sickness combined with lack of sleep combined with no water/the hike left me really out of it.
finally we got to eilat, and went to a mall on the beach, and i drank the health back into me with a delicious strawberry drink. then there was an actual non-fast food type place that i could have gotten a delicious looking turkey sandwich...but 4 people ordered salads in front of me. the guy in the storefront next to us said "if you want to eat today, order from us!" and he wasnt kidding. after waiting ten minutes and no end in sight, i tried to get a bagel but they were taking forever too, so i got a crepe with cream cheese which was apparently a dessert, but at least i got my food before tivoli and molly! then i was asked about what i was always writing down (lyrics) which was funny. arielle also asked me at one point.
after the mall i walked to the beach and saw some guy who owned a bar yelling at these two touristy people who had brought mcdonalds onto the beach: "You americans think you can just bring food onto the beach onto my seats! gah!" and some more that i forget. then he left and i heard the woman (it was an elderly couple) say to her husband, "Would you like a chip?" and i laughed and said, "oh, you must be from england." and they said yes and i mentioned how funny it was that that just happened. they agreed. i tried sleeping on one of the chairs but the guy came by and said it was 20 sheckels to use the chair, so i left.
i walked around the boardwalk a little bit. on my way back i ran into noam. we had a small conversation, and as i was walking away he said, "Jah will be with you." and i was like "wait did you just say that?" and he said "oh, you know it" which was amazing. we all met together and went to the hotel, the nicest of the whole trip...except the weird bathroom which instead of having a shower stall just had a curtain and a mop. oh, in the last hotel in tiberias i roomed with just zach. at this hotel i was rooming with harold (who was sick and coughing up a storm) and matt davis (previous sick dude).
so after a while we all got together to walk to the boardwalk / club for the night. i thought it should take less than the 30 minutes that raz suggested, and i said so...and he seemed to challenge me telling me to check the time when we got there...then immediately said that we were going to take a "short cut". i was convinced that he was fucking with us but he wasnt. i was pissed that he was actually completely right.
so we got to the boardwalk and oz was like "hey you guys want sushi or pizza? lets go here and i thought he was referring to this cafe...but he was actually referring to the pizza hut next to it. i refused to go, and we got a huge contingent of people to go to the cafe where they put tables in an odd configuration to seat us all. deniece got a gigantic beer. i got gnocchi and they gave me the wrong sauce. sam ordered exactly what i did. at first it was good but after i paused a bit and started again it was way too salty. matt d. ordered a bagel sandwich and a "cheese plate" thinking it was a small appatizer, instead it was a gigantic mound of cheeses that he couldnt even come close to finishing and was astounded at it. our food was a little pricey, while we were waiting for our food (which came out much quicker than i thought it would be), brian g. came over with some pizza from pizza hut, saying how quick and cheap it was...and let us try some and it was actually really good.
so anyway we all finished the food and headed over to club unplugged. it was pretty early by israeli standards, so it was pretty much just us in this small club. david started busting out the moves while he was still sitting down, and started doing the most hilarious stuff, and i realized he was what finkel and i refer to as "undercover funny" and i was very amused. lots of dancing and enjoying ourselves, taking some breaks outside. at one point i was outside and heard everyone chanting "RAZZLE DAZZLE! RAZZLE DAZZLE!" and raz was busting out the moves on the floor. noam was sleeping the entire time, hilarious.
so then a few of us were outside and i saw a group of (azuz????) kids try to get in but they were already really drunk and one looked like he was tweaking. they weren't allowed in. they all got together across the alley as we were sitting at the couches outside the club. i saw raz sit down and start eyeing them down, which was my first tip off that something could go down, the fact that he was concerned. i got out my camera and started filming. it was pretty uneventful until 3 or 4 of them walked back up to the club and got into the bouncers faces. the owner was there too...after a bit it got hairy and the owner cracked one in the face with his elbow and pushed them down the street. i jumped out of my seat, still filming to get a better shot...to the israelis in our group shouting at me "NO! DONT TAKE PICTURES!" which was really weird. it got to my head and made the walk back to the hotel really really interesting. within 30 seconds of the situation, 3 idf soldiers (with m-4s) walked up, i noted to one of our israelis, "oh, that's not that surprising to you is it?" She said no...but then in two minutes, there were ten forming a wall in front of the club, and it seemed serious. our group leaders got everyone inside under the guise of "one last dance" though some stayed outside...but i was told to stay inside because i had been filming, crazy. but yeah we eventually ended up back at the hotel after an intense walk (due to my thinking we'd get jumped). I didn't bother partying really since i was so tired at this point.
Jan 22: After some much needed rest, got up and we started our trip to Massada. On the way we stopped at mt. sodom and saw lot's wife, ha. after a while we got to massada, somehow we ran out of time and at the last minute, we ended up taking the tram to the top instead of walking. on the top some people got bas mitzvahed, and then we had to quickly leave as we had run out of time. the park ranger had to run down the mountain , yelling at his taxi driver not to drive away.
we finally made it to the hotel, i was rooming with zach and sam. we had dinner, and eventually ended up being me, molly, dikla, barak, and noam playing guitar in the lobby. dikla was shaving her new hat to make it look worn, and kept trying to get the guys to do it for her, lol. i was going to stay until 1:30 but was pretty tired, then at 1:15 barak called it in and molly followed suit. I left a couple minutes later. a pleasant evening.
Ah, before I forget. When we were in jerusalem at the kotel the first time, sam had bought a shofar and was pretty poor at playing it. there was to be or just had been a ceremony for new soldiers, so there were a ton around. one from a group close to us came over and started to play the shofar, doing a poor job at first and his comrades laughed at him. but then, our hero emerged victorious and played some beautiful tunes for us. also, when we were atop masada, barak said to me while we were looking to the dead sea, "Do you like that view?" and i said "very much." and he said "I hate it. it saddens me." He continued, saying that the sea had eroded and used to be much more magnificent.
Also before we got to our hotel in jerusalem, we stopped at a gas station/convenience store, and raz' wife and son showed up. again, what a cute kid!
Jan 23: I woke up, refreshed completely and ready to go. We went to Yad Vashem, israel's Holocaust museum. It was pretty interesting, but we were kind of rushed through. We were given headsets to hear the tour guide (not raz) speak. Though I didn't learn too much that I didn't already know, it was very interesting to see everyone else' reaction.
After the main museum, we were given sandwiches. Raz said there were pastrami sandwiches and i was looking for one and apparently bothered him by taking so long. He asked what i was looking for and i said a pastrami sandwich. I picked up another sandwich and he said "there you go!" and i thought, this looks like a turkey sandwich. I said, "are you sure?" and he said "well what does it look like?!" and i said "um...pastrami doesnt look anything like this in the states 8) " apparently it was turkey pastrami, which led to the conclusion. just another raz tidbit.
After that we went to the childrens museum, which was entirely disorienting. It was 5 (i think?) memorial candles...reflected hundreds of times with mirrors in otherwise complete darkness. surreal.
After that we walked up mt. herzl, Israel's cemetary for high political figures and military personnel in the vein of arlington natl cemetery. raz was very upset by a couple picnicking in the park in the cemetery. after a speech at herzl's grave, we saw yitzak rabin's and other prime ministers' until we walked up to the current plot being used. There we saw michael levin's grave, a kid from philadelphia who was determined to fight in the IDF, and joined up right before the 2006 lebanon war, and was killed. his grave was decorated with assorted philly memorabilia, including a phillies helmet and a "gotta have a wawa:" nametag (i'm sure no one on the trip saw the significance in that and wondered why i was taking pictures of it, ha).
Across the way, where raz said he is upset as he has had to lead his speech further and further back over the years due to more deaths, and then our soldiers led a mock funeral ceremony. This all took place while a man was visiting the grave of his brother right next to us, which was pretty crazy. After that, we went back to the hotel for a small amount of time to get ready for shabbat at the wailing wall, as nozzy would not drive after sundown (i think it was a birthright thing). We get to the old city, walking through zion gate to get inside. When we got to the kotel area, there were people dancing and having a grand old time. We started to as well, singing and acting out that david melech yisrael song, complete with hand motions. At first we were all together, until some old guy was offended that males and females were touching each other. After dancing a while we all were allowed to go to the wall... I walked up and didn't feel like dealing with the thousands of people I'd have had to wade through and wait for to get to the wall, so I turned back, as I had already had my time with the wall on the first day.
After we had all regrouped, we started walking back to the hotel, it was about an hours walk. While still in the old city, danny asked raz if he could stop at a liquor store we had passed. raz said no, then turned around and mouthed something. I thought that because one of the birthright people was there for "inspection" raz was SAYING no, but mouthing to go. Danny was confused, and i said that i thought raz was saying to go....which he definitely wasnt yet. danny got his stuff but everyone followed him and raz had to run back to get them all back on track. sorry about that one, raz. so we walked back to the hotel and didnt stop at all for liquor.
Once back, we had dinner, and the festivities began. buying beers per bottle from the bar they had, we spent way more than we needed to. sam bought me a beer, and then i got 4 more (ALL OUT FOR ME, I KNOW). I got the maccabee beer, which tasted uncannily like yuengling. we all stuffed into julie's room, with vh1 on. we started to play a sort of drinking game, drinking when certain lines were sung (usually the title of the song)...until we got to november rain, and i said 'OH! EVERYTIME SLASH SOLOS, YOU DRINK!' which led to awesomeness. apparently i was very into it, and barak later said he'd love to drink with me, to which i was very surprised and honored. we moved to a different room where they had lined the floors with mattresses, more sitting room and the place was completely packed. after a while, julie instigated a makeout party, i'll withhold the names ;) . At one point after this, Carmel (israeli soldier girl) said to me, "I've never drank this much before!" to which I laughed....and later still she said to me, "I've never been drunk before!" and i was confused. she kept using the rest and barak said, "everytime carmel throws up, drink!" it was great. at some point not too late i called it in. i probably should have stayed up, but whatever.
Jan 24 : Zach never even came back to the room, hah. On any travel day i am extremely anxious, so i had a pretty poor attitude this entire day, with the mentality of 'lets get out of here already'. we walked to the knesset and played frisbee in the park for a while. we went back to the hotel, seeing a small child dragging a street sign with an arrow, which was pretty funny. While we were waiting for the closing session, we all had a giant bro-down in the hallways with noam on guitar. at one point he played "good riddance", a song to which I personally DIDN'T have anything connected to, unlike most people (for some reason i didnt, i dunno why). Well, now i do. I lost it and was consoled by jen who said "i hope those are tears of joy!" then he played "leaving on a jetplane" which i suppose more people felt a connection to. after a bit i started another bohemian rhapsody singalong, excellent. finally we had to go to the closing session talking about our best experiences, etc. i said that i learned i already knew a lot more than i thought i did about israel. at some point during this meeting, some of the soldiers started leaving, and it was sad. Then, most of us went to ben yehuda st (some people staying stayed behind). Walking up, a car came racing down the street almost hitting us, my east coast side took over and yelled "fuck you!" , flipping them off. matt b. and his brother ben were so amused. i got my first bagel and it was excellent. i was eating with barak and sam, and right next to us was alex and some of the other girls. these people kept coming up to us asking for money, and this one kid probably about 18 and definitely a drug addict was bothering us for tsedakah. sam countered, asking if the guy could buy him food. the guy was annoyed and sam kept it up. to show he didnt need our money, he started to give us 1/10th sheckels...when he got to me he put his hand in my pocket?! to drop it, and i freaked out on him, yelling "yo get the fuck outta my pocket bro" the girls were astonished, thinking i would punch him. barak said "oh, i thought i might need to back you up there." i told them all, its about looking crazier than "they" think you are, not actually doing anything 8).
we left and finally got to the airport, it was a sad sad time saying goodbye to our israelis, especially noam. once we got in the airport and through the initial inspection, i got very focused on getting to the gate asap, and with all of my carry on bags as needed...so i missed the real goodbye session, but i already had had mine so it was ok. this return flight was the polar opposite of the one on the way in, even with my middle seat in the second to last row. sitting between debi and aron, we all pretty much fell asleep immediately, effectively killing at least 6 hours. they both used my shoulders as something to lean on, i am apparently a huge cuddle bear. cute. i watched the pelican brief, pausing often, thus it lasted most of the flight, ha. the flight attendants were so much nicer this time around too. and i onlyhad to bother one person any time i wanted to get up. seriously a much better flight.
when we landed we were all confused by how customs worked and said goodbye at the wrong times, but then we finally came out. i was one of the first, and made a sign "BR-1138" as people came out to join so we could all say goodbye. at that exact time i wasnt truely sad yet. that happened when i woke up the next day actually, but it hit me really, REALLY hard. aside from that, matt d. gave me a ride to the oceanside train station.
an amazing, incredible time. i advise anyone who hasnt gone on this trip and is eligible, GO.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Thursday in "Taste of Chaos" @ HOB San Diego
So...didn't know if i wanted to go up to leaving work even. Found out the show was sold out while I was at work. Figured I'd just walk up and get a ticket cheap off someone. Easy right?
Walked up front, they went on on opening with a song from common existence or envy and then played counting 5-4-3-2-1 and played a bunch of new songs (one was really good) , that other bad song from city 'at this velocity' (why couldnt they have played almost any other song from that record, most of them are real good), understanding, signals over the air, for the workforce, jet black, autobiography, and jet black new year, and closed with war all the time (excited, didnt hear that last time). It was fun, worth $10
oh i took a picture of the thursday merch prices... $20 tees, $40 hoodies, CDs $12, envy split vinyl $20. nice
Walked up front, they went on on opening with a song from common existence or envy and then played counting 5-4-3-2-1 and played a bunch of new songs (one was really good) , that other bad song from city 'at this velocity' (why couldnt they have played almost any other song from that record, most of them are real good), understanding, signals over the air, for the workforce, jet black, autobiography, and jet black new year, and closed with war all the time (excited, didnt hear that last time). It was fun, worth $10
oh i took a picture of the thursday merch prices... $20 tees, $40 hoodies, CDs $12, envy split vinyl $20. nice
Saturday, January 31, 2009
The Wheelhouse, Hemet, CA
So after debating it a little, I decided to actually go to this show. After a while of driving in what seemed like the middle of nowhere, I got to the small town of Hemet, essentially a giant strip mall. It took some time to actually find the venue hidden behind other stores closer to the street, but I did.
Let me describe The Wheelhouse - it's essentially a roller rink...with no re-entry. And a make-shift bar (it was a table with liquor on it and a cooler fridge with beer and mixers next to it)...and a smoking section outside that cost $3 for a "pass". But enough about that, it was fucking punx! I got there and Knocked Out Cold was on, and there was a giant circle pit of young/teen/early 20s punx, it was so cool to see after not expecting much. During the entire set kids were dancing and yelling the lyrics. awesome.
Up next, was I believe Silent Noise. And they were really bad, it was like seeing dropzone at skaters world or something. The punx were having none of it. After a few songs they sat down in the middle of the huge pit and turned their backs to the band...only to lead to people going between them and the band, giving the band a much closer audience. Upset that they've led to more people paying attention, the punx started moshing into the close audience, leading almost to fights, and completely to hilarity. They even played a cover that no one knew.
Finally they were done, and The Maxies, "from greenland" (so-cal) took to the stage. In the vein of voodoo glow skulls, but with a keyboard instead of horns. For about ten minutes, the stage was empty except for instruments, leading me to think, "I'm pretty sure the band should be onstage either soundchecking or playing," but then they came out in costume and masked. They threw some masks to the crowd (think phantom of the opera style masks, i guess). They were really tight, and the kids loved them, dancing the entire time. I enjoyed it. At the end of the set they said they were going to do a specials cover...and then played their cover of "Enjoy Yourself." It was cool, but its not really a specials cover now is it? Good set.
After they were finished, Narcoleptic Youth started setting up. After about ten minutes, they straight up started playing. There was a decent sized crowd in front of the stage singing along and stagediving onto each other, and a huge circle pit behind them. Awesome. Despite mic difficulties they ripped through their set to everyones delight, it was great.
When they were done, Agent Orange went on, with an even bigger crowd of people in front of the stage, including me right in front of mike. All of the other times I'd seen AO was either at the 710, a bar where like 20 people came out, or the oc club in san clemente where there were a lot of people but it was 21+ and a "no dancing" rule was in effect. This skating rink was the perfect environment. I havent been pushed onto a stage in a while by people just being that excited about a band. Behind us, again, a huge circle pit. Opening with Pipeline, the place exploded, stagediving, jamming, etc. Played almost every song you might want to hear, EXCEPT LIVING IN DARKNESS WHAT THE FUCK. Also skipped miserlou this time. Aside from the songs they didnt play, the ones they did were awesome. Mike saying awesome stuff like "HOW ABOUT SOME SURF MUSIC?" and "Um, it would probably be better if the skate ramps were actually in here. Get on that!" from the first skate punk band, it was pretty fitting. Awesome show.
Let me describe The Wheelhouse - it's essentially a roller rink...with no re-entry. And a make-shift bar (it was a table with liquor on it and a cooler fridge with beer and mixers next to it)...and a smoking section outside that cost $3 for a "pass". But enough about that, it was fucking punx! I got there and Knocked Out Cold was on, and there was a giant circle pit of young/teen/early 20s punx, it was so cool to see after not expecting much. During the entire set kids were dancing and yelling the lyrics. awesome.
Up next, was I believe Silent Noise. And they were really bad, it was like seeing dropzone at skaters world or something. The punx were having none of it. After a few songs they sat down in the middle of the huge pit and turned their backs to the band...only to lead to people going between them and the band, giving the band a much closer audience. Upset that they've led to more people paying attention, the punx started moshing into the close audience, leading almost to fights, and completely to hilarity. They even played a cover that no one knew.
Finally they were done, and The Maxies, "from greenland" (so-cal) took to the stage. In the vein of voodoo glow skulls, but with a keyboard instead of horns. For about ten minutes, the stage was empty except for instruments, leading me to think, "I'm pretty sure the band should be onstage either soundchecking or playing," but then they came out in costume and masked. They threw some masks to the crowd (think phantom of the opera style masks, i guess). They were really tight, and the kids loved them, dancing the entire time. I enjoyed it. At the end of the set they said they were going to do a specials cover...and then played their cover of "Enjoy Yourself." It was cool, but its not really a specials cover now is it? Good set.
After they were finished, Narcoleptic Youth started setting up. After about ten minutes, they straight up started playing. There was a decent sized crowd in front of the stage singing along and stagediving onto each other, and a huge circle pit behind them. Awesome. Despite mic difficulties they ripped through their set to everyones delight, it was great.
When they were done, Agent Orange went on, with an even bigger crowd of people in front of the stage, including me right in front of mike. All of the other times I'd seen AO was either at the 710, a bar where like 20 people came out, or the oc club in san clemente where there were a lot of people but it was 21+ and a "no dancing" rule was in effect. This skating rink was the perfect environment. I havent been pushed onto a stage in a while by people just being that excited about a band. Behind us, again, a huge circle pit. Opening with Pipeline, the place exploded, stagediving, jamming, etc. Played almost every song you might want to hear, EXCEPT LIVING IN DARKNESS WHAT THE FUCK. Also skipped miserlou this time. Aside from the songs they didnt play, the ones they did were awesome. Mike saying awesome stuff like "HOW ABOUT SOME SURF MUSIC?" and "Um, it would probably be better if the skate ramps were actually in here. Get on that!" from the first skate punk band, it was pretty fitting. Awesome show.
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