these dreams will be my anchor

2010-08-02T13:05:00.000-07:00

Hello. I was on tour with a band, and brought a bunch of DVDs and playstation games for everyone to enjoy on the bus. The bus was broken into and the case (which i have had for 13 years, with tons of band names from days of yore written in white out on the cover) was taken. Following, is a list of these items. If you would like to give me your copy (for playstation games, since i dont have a modded ps2), or make me a dvd copy (not a computer video file like avi or mpg or etc.) of the movies, that would be incredible. Thanks.

Updated DVDs that i missed:
wedding crashers
groundhog day
the jacket
harold and kumar go to white castle
the negotiator
the matrix
last house on the left (original)
devil's advocate
the man who knew too little
lord of the rings: the animated movie
PCU
Animal House

Playstation 2 games:
Grand Theft Auto: 3
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories
Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories
Sonic Mega Collection Plus
Genesis Collection
Ico (like I will find a cheap copy of this anywhere)
We <3 Katamari
Killer 7
God of War
God of War 2
Bully
Deus Ex
Mega Man Anniversary Collection
Guitar Hero
Guitar Hero 2
Guitar Hero: 80’s Edition
Metal Gear Solid 2
Ecco the Dolphin

Playstation 1 Games:
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Oddworld: Abe’s Odyssey

DVDs:
Falling Down
Stand By Me
Ferris Buellers Day Off
Back to the Future
Back to the Future 2
Back to the Future 3
Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Dark City (directors cut)
Space Balls
Goodfellas
Carlito’s Way
Napoleon Dynamite
The Sandlot
Billy Madison
Happy Gilmore
The Godfather
The Godfather 2
The Godfather 3
The Simpsons: Season 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Bullitt
Asylum of Satan/Satan’s Children
The Monster Squad
Terminator 2: Judgement Day
Scarface
Mars Attacks!
SNL Collection the best of Christopher walken
Dazed and Confused
Ghostbusters
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Clerks
Office Space
Project Kill
The Fast and the Furious
Leon: The Professional
Glengarry Glen Ross
Tron special edition
Swingers
Made
The usual suspects
The wraith
Casino
Minority report
Wargames
Seinfeld Season 1

Music DVDs:
Team narc 2003 halloween show
Pus and vinegar
Living in disorder: a forward to death dvd
Kid dynamite the dvd

And this isn’t to mention the dvds I painstakingly tracked down through various libraries across stateliness from new jersey to California to find and burn for myself. These include:

The entire akira kurosawa filmography
M
Little Nemo
Alien 1-3
Heat
Dark City Special Edition
The Simpsons season 6

Meat Loaf tour with Lisa Bouchelle, July 2 Driving

2010-07-03T04:56:00.000-07:00

So, as you may or may not know, I am being the alleged "road manager" for Lisa Bouchelle and her band as she opens the Meat Loaf tour across the north east and Canada this summer. I am driving a Ford E-350 mini bus, previously used to transport senior citizens around.

The band seem to be good peoples.

So we were to meet at a t-shirt maker in hackensack at 1pm on july 2, to drive to new hampshire. i got there an hour early. In my bid to save time, i went in search of a gas station. On the way, a low hanging branch in the right lane slammed into the two passenger sideview mirrors, shattering them completely.

I went on search of help. I went to an auto repair shop and they said they couldn't help, but directed me to a glass shop, who said that they couldn't help without the moulding bracket that had come off of the mirror, and that it would take at least 45 minutes.

Anyway, we got to get to a meeting at 3 in connecticut, the band arrived at 1:10 at the shirt place, where the shirts werent even to be ready until at least 2. we ran over to autozone to find a replacement, and could only get temporary. these dudes attempted to help us by like, gluing and taping and crimping the holder of the mirror to the temp. i got in the bus and realized that it had been re-angled by the branch, and was useless. we fixed it later. i dropped the temp convex mirror and broke that too.

so anyway, 2pm, shirts not ready, finally come at like, 2:10, there are tons of boxes of shirts, we have no idea where to fit them. make due, get on the road at like 2:25, no way making it to CT esp with ridiculous traffic. make it at 4:30. then we picked up the last member of the band, and it was pretty much smooth sailing.

some of the people dont like listening to music, i dont get it. music will definitely get us where we're going faster though, lol. soon, especially witht he mirrors replaced, i will be able to drive a respectable speed in this giant bus. in tilton, new hampshire now, the show is in gilford tonight.

Hoodwink Review - shockingly good.

2010-04-30T22:01:00.001-07:00

so i ended up with a free ticket to the hoodwink. i wanted to see saves the day play pinkerton and steel train as saves the day, so i went.

i didnt want to pay $20 parking (actually $25), so when i got there i said i was going to the racetrack, and they didnt make me pay. lol.

so i was willing to go because i heard it was a pretty small affair, and it was pretty much. the first band covered britney spears, and didnt play "hit me baby one more time". they were also terrible. the second band covered kanye west, i dont know enough about him to say if it was good or not

Next up, was Saves the Day by Steel Train. I was looking forward to this. They went on, it was obvious that jack the singer was excited to be playing the songs. Unfortunately, the sound was either bad or it just wasnt too good (i'll blame the sound). Additionally, hardly anyone knew the songs. Chris Conley watched from the side of the stage and sang to himself. The Setlist was: shoulder to the wheel, certain tragedy, my sweet fracture, all star me, freakish, an interesting version of jessie and my whetstone, three miles down, and closed with at your funeral.

After that, some band covered taylor swift and the band that covered kanye interrupted them.

Then,, some band named Emmure covered rage against the machine. Terrible vocals, terrible setlist. Played bulls on parade, bombtrack, down rodeo, people of the sun, and killing in the name of. the people chanted for one more, and they came back and played an original song, terrible.

Next, the surprise of the day: a band named [All the Day Holiday covered The Beach Boys. It was EXCELLENT! They opened with Wouldn't It Be Nice, closed with Surfin' Safari into Surfer Girl. They also played California Girls, Good Vibrations (!!!!!!) (How did they do it?!), I Know there's an Answer, Do you Wanna Dance?, I Get Around, and Don't Worry Baby. They only had limited time, so i didn't mind that that was all they played. They also played everything great! It was a total surprise how good it was. It seemed like a lot of people didn't get it or know what they were playing, and no one was more excited than me.

some band covered everclear next, hardly knew the words, it was ok.

Then, Say Anything covered The Misfits. I dont really like say anything, BUT! They were pretty good. Seemed a lot of people again had no idea. they talked about how happy they were to play a misfits set in jersey. Opened with last caress, also played die die my darling, skulls, astro zombies, where eagles dare, teenagers from mars, and closed with we are 138. They may have played a couple more, but i dont think so.

A band covered nine inch nails next but i didnt pay much attention. They played the perfect drug which was interesting.

some band did some 60s covers next i guess, dylan, simon and garfunkel, etc.

Headlining, was Saves the Day performing Weezer's Pinkerton. They absolutely nailed it, i was surprised they didnt change it around or do something stupid. HOWEVER THEY DID DO SOMETHING STUPID WHEN THEY DIDNT PLAY FALLING FOR YOU (or no other one). It seemed like about half the crowd knew the songs, if that, but there were a lot of \/\/'s in the air. After they played butterfly, they came back and played At Your Funeral. It was a good time.

a shockingly good time.

foxboro hot tubs weekend

2010-04-26T09:46:00.000-07:00

Okay, so,

Friday Night: Don Hill's New York. Line-up mandated at 4pm "police presence", Doors at 6. Capacity ~300 (probably less).

we got there at about 2:30. got on line, got handed a #39 "line placement" ticket. Found out they had just been selling tickets at the door, but we went there and were told they had stopped. hung around for a little bit and stache went to use the restroom, he came back and said "COME HERE NOW!" And they were selling tickets again. actually, they had stopped but the bouncer said to him "where's your friend? get him."

so we walked around and drank and came back around 545 and got back in our places in line and waited around and got in and i grabbed a spot on the raised area to the side-stage. honah lee went on first and were pretty good, a mix of pop punk and non-grungey mid 90s alternative. they closed with a dramarama cover.

up next was mystic knights of the cobra. "mike the magician" performed some tricks bewteen sets. so they go on, and opened with the EL CAMINO theme, and it was great. they continued their great set, putting the crowd into an uproar.

so after a while, foxboro hot tubs went on, opening with stop drop and roll and played the rest of the cd (maybe not red tide?) and high way 1. they also played a new song called "its fuck time" a few times during the set, as well as supermodel robots (the network) and blood sex and booze. lots of people into it, jason frees yelled "fuck!" when billie invited everyone to come on stage, closed with the last song from the cd, pieces of truth. some of them left the stage, and a richard belzer-looking mike dirnt was standing to the stairs (mind you i have never seen this band do an encore) and he goes "we're coming up with a plan so you guys better fucking like it"

so they come back and play st. jimmy (SHOCKING! WHAT?), then played stop drop and roll scattered through the hour-long encore 7 more times, its fuck time a few times, 27th ave shuffle again, earth angel, random covers, and closed with a quick one while he's away. excellent time, excellent set.

Sunday, Bowery Electric, lineup at 8pm ("or you will be turned away"), doors at 11. capacity: 150.

we got there at 6ish and saw a bit of a line, surprisingly as i pulled up i saw bill cashman on his bike turning into the same intersection i was, i honked at him and he pretended to get hit by the car, drawing gasps from the crowd. parked, got on line as they were passing out line placements again. the person in front of me got #100 and i said "oh, are there any more?" and the guy said "no, theres only 100 tickets" and i said "oh, if only this guy in front of me were to give me his 100" and jamie goes "that's a woman" and i said "uhhhh" and then she turned around and said "does anyone really want to see this show?" and we said "well yeah, what?" and she said "i dont really care, here" gave me her #100, and walked away and left. i figured that at least one person in front of us was under 18 and would get turned away.

anyway, the people co-ordinated with the venue so the line placements were king. multiple times they said "100 is the last person" (jamie was #101). at one point, the fan who handed out the placements said "it ends with jawbreaker" (as i was wearing a shirt) and i said "it always does!"

so they started selling tickets at around 730, it came down, and i was next and it looked like they were going to stop selling but the bouncer who was told "it ends with jawbreaker came out and saw me and said "wait, there's one more." i walked up, and got the last ticket. then we had to figure out how to get stache in. he ended up getting in after trying some ways to get in, but not until the second half of FHT's first set.

so the first band on, at 11, was emily's army, billie joe's son's band (he's the drummer). they were all about 14-15 and played punk rock and it was fun. they had a song called "statutory date rape" and they threw shirts into the crowd, one of which landed on me after the people in front of me couldn't hold onto it. i then saw it was a small and decided it should be stache's consolation prize, as it was an emilys army/foxboro one off shirt (he lost it later). later, they covered "do you wanna dance?" and only about 4 people in the crowd knew it. tre, mike, and billie watched from the side-stage stairs, while adie watched from the small balcony behind me, pretty intense.

so FHT goes on, plays pretty much the same set including encore. the highlight was during its fuck time, billie starts staring at adie and jumps on the crowd and makes her way towards her, never breaking eye-contact, and then at the chorus goes "OH ADRIENNE ITS FUCK TIME!" excellent. great weekend!

Miniature Tigers/Morning Benders Review @Johnny Brenda's

2010-03-11T06:56:00.001-08:00

The short version: miniature tigers played all one one unreleased song. each new song sounded real good. but i only knew one song. morning benders played a fantastic set of songs from their newly released "big echo" LP.

the long winded tirade version:

Last April, I saw the miniature tigers open for the get up kids at the troubadour in LA. While I usually don't care for opening bands at this old old age, there was something about them that captured my attention. I loved the set, and ended up getting to a show the next day about 4 hours earlier than i would have just so i could watch them again. Again, they played a great set. I went on to find and enjoy every release they have put out, a demo EP, two 10" EPs, and a full length.

When I found out that they were going on tour, I was excited and upset at the same time. Excited because, great, I get to see this band! Upset because, they were not headlining the tour, but opening for a band I had never heard of, The Morning Benders. I decided to check out the morning benders, and was pleased with what i heard, but not entirely drawn in.

Then, my friend Mike Smeen said to check out Big Echo, the morning benders new record. I did and enjoyed it even more than anything I had heard from them so far, and this greatly excited me for the show.

So, I grabbed a ticket and drove to Johnny Brenda's in Philadelphia to catch this show. Opening was Acrylics, with a female singer with an acoustic guitar, and a full electric band behind her. They sounded good.

Up next was what I had been waiting for, The Miniature Tigers. They opened with a song I had never heard. It sounded great. They played some more songs I didn't know. They all sounded great. After the third song, some people in the crowd started shouting song titles that they knew, these requests went unheeded. They played ONE song from their entire released catalog, bumming out even the people that only knew the single, "Cannibal Queen."

Here is the Setlist:

Unreleased New Song that no paying fan knew
Unreleased New Song that no paying fan knew
Unreleased New Song that no paying fan knew
Unreleased New Song that no paying fan knew
Tell It to the Volcano
Unreleased New Song that no paying fan knew
Unreleased New Song that no paying fan knew
Unreleased New Song that no paying fan knew
Unreleased New Song that no paying fan knew

(i grabbed the set list. this is it: mansion, bullfighter, tropical, dark tower, volcano, gold skull, japanese, lolita, coyote).

As they played their new songs, the people that were there for the morning benders were enjoying it, while the miniature tigers fans were just annoyed. when they played the one song, the people sang along and looked happy. Mix in 3-4 new songs, maybe, fine. But just one song that anyone knew? That's just disrespectful.

Before Morning Benders went on, I ended up talking with another MT fan who had said the set was "Garbage" (which i dont agree with. they played real well and the new songs sound great). I said, "If morning benders played just stuff from their new, released record, it would be a different story. i like it more than the first record, and at least we have had a chance to get to know it."

So the Morning Benders took the stage. They opened with "Stitches" from their newly released "Big Echo" album. It sounded good, and they went into "Promises", and the singer, Chris Chu, shook the venue stomping on the stage, bringing everyone into the moment. The percussionist from the miniature tigers played keyboard and drum for the morning benders set, his second show with them. He also really helped bring the sound together. The band went on to play an entire set consisting of songs from their new record, and the crowd loved it. They sounded great up to their last song, "Excuses," where they really brought down the house with the whole place singing "da da dum" over and over with no music playing. Fantastic set.

Setlist:
Stitches
Promises
Wet Cement
Cold War
Mason Jar
Hand Me Downs
Pleasure Sighs
All Day Daylight
Excuses

So what this show did was turn a miniature tigers fan who had never heard of the morning benders before, into a big morning benders fan. After the new miniature tigers LP is released, I'm sure it will be enjoyable seeing them again, but unless I hear them open with an old, familiar song at the Mercury Lounge next month, I'll be in the back.

The 4/22 mercury lounge date of this tour is sold out, but the morning benders are playing there the next week, 4/28.

the hope conspiracy at the cake shop

2010-01-15T22:55:00.001-08:00

got to the cake shop and i thought there would be no one there. however it was sold out in advance, though they let some people in at the door. waited a bit for the crowd to thin and walked in. got a great spot sidestage. watched mothers of mercy, pretty good. united nations was alright until the last three songs which were really good. blacklisted played just one song i knew because i only know some early stuff. kids were real siked for them, taking down the christmas lights they had up around the stage. but people were also taking a billion pictures (of them and UN) it was annoying. by the time the hope con went on, the sidestage area was packed with people to the point of there being hardly any reason to be there. right before they went on, the guitarist from UN, who was also playing for hope con, tried to fix some of the lights because he got shocked by them. i pointed out that he let the cut exposed end right where his head could hit it. he touched the ceiling with it by accident and shorted out the entire strand.

so the hope con goes on, opening with departed into defiant hearts. i tried to keep my composure (and spot) but couldn't during the end of DH. i went back to where i was as they played a song i didnt know, but there were way too many people pushing and it was unbearable, so i walked to the back. but the kids loved it. other songs they played include escapist, truth and purpose, fallen, etc. pretty much what you saw on the list of songs they said they were going to play..... i was standing in the back by the merch tables and could not even see the stage. and then kevin goes, "who has endnote? you probably all sold it by now. this song is from it." then.... they played For Love. In a move i have not pulled since i was a young'n, i ran through the crowd to the front to sing, what youthful exuberance. it was great. then, i left.

Broadway Calls at Garageland/AVA House

2009-10-09T07:47:00.001-07:00

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.

mets at padres, august 7th

2009-08-08T12:40:00.001-07:00

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

Brand New, The Troubadour, July 18

2009-07-19T08:55:00.000-07:00

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!

face to face hometown show, club karma, victorville

2009-05-01T10:35:00.001-07:00

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.

brand new, pinback @ usc springfest

2009-04-05T01:02:00.000-07:00

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.

the get up kids at the troubadour

2009-04-04T02:57:00.001-07:00

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

ltj@canes, mission beach

2009-03-31T07:38:00.001-07:00

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

less than jake, the expendables, the flatliners @ Anaheim HOB

2009-03-30T14:43:00.001-07:00

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.

ben weasel kevin seconds kepi ghoulie

2009-03-15T11:10:00.000-07:00

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.

Israel, son

2009-02-26T13:19:00.001-08:00

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.

Thursday in "Taste of Chaos" @ HOB San Diego

2009-02-18T23:30:00.001-08:00

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

The Wheelhouse, Hemet, CA

2009-01-31T10:30:00.001-08:00

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.

Total Fury, Broken Needle, & Punch @ Che Cafe: Reviewed!

2008-12-28T22:07:00.001-08:00

Thanks for the encouragement...got to the Che Cafe around 730, and a band was about to go on, the female fronted Punch. The guitarist was warming up with jawbreaker - ache and a one man army song, so I figured they were from SF. Then, they surprised me: kinda thrashy, pretty awesome. Unfortunately the mic was way too low, but you could tell she was screaming. Kids were singing along, into it. http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fu ... =146449855

Up next were tourmates of the 2008 Winter US Break-Even Tour, Broken Needle. More punk rock than the first band, and real good. Kids even more into it here...awesome. Closed with a cover of minor threat's "stand up". http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fu ... ID=7376802

Lastly, Total Fury of Japan went on. Fucking awesome thrashy with rock n roll thrown in and it was just great. Kids flying around. The drummer just pointing at everything and being psyched. The singer climbing on the rafters, then getting picked up and paraded around. They tried to stop playing, but we wouldnt let them. They played two more songs, and then minor threat's "filler"....into "straight edge". Awesome. Here is the setlist as written out:

I Win You Lose
Show Down
Crossed Out:High Time
Outcome
Get Tought Enough
Lie
in My Hands
Our Rules
Stand
Little Story
You Too Old
Plan Ahead
Attitude
Fall
Split Milk (sic)
Promising
High Time
World Update
Street Smart
Total Fury

Briefcase
Guilty

Awesome! And, I got an incredible total fury shirt with japanese bombers on it.

Rancid @ Soma

2008-12-08T10:48:00.001-08:00

I wasn't going to bother writing about this show but i remembered someone wanted to read about it. So, here goes. Got to soma. this time i actually took stock of how large the place really is. soma is a converted movie theater into a venue, with the width of the main room being what used to be the length from front to back of the theater and the length being the width of about 7 movie theaters side by side...in other words the place is huge, with an alleged capacity of 2400 (which i don't believe because that would mean its the size of starland ballroom which is not even close to as big as this. I got there, not remembering how big rancid actually is, being the last time i saw them was at BB kings, and before that at CB's. the show was sold out, and the place was packed. buck o nine was playing and was pretty cool, i dont know anything about them. they finished, and i snagged a spot with my back against the sound board so i could lean on it, a favorite spot of mine in my advanced years of late. after a while of tim shaw setting up gear, he came out and flashed a light to cut the house music.

t. armstrong comes out and starts singing and playing the intro to Radio, while the rest of the members take stage behind him (more or less). after this, they pretty much played the standard rancid set, nothing too special except rejected from the first record, and I wanna Riot from the b sides record, and knowledge. armstrong spent most of the set attempting or pretending to play his guitar and not singing, alternating feigned dancing with sitting on the drum riser. i guess its okay since he wrote the songs and is now 42. lars sang most of the songs except for the freeman songs, which matt sang himself. tim sang for a few parts along the way. as far as song quality: they played nihilism and it sounded okay. Salvation took me a while to even figure out what it was, and it was played poorly. However, the Matt songs they played from let's go were great: tenderloin, black and blue, gunshot. Freeman played a very extended bass solo on matt freeman, awesome. i got offended by the west coasters singing olympia, WA. unfortunately, they only played one song from life wont wait (Hoover st). they played for over an hour, closing with ruby soho and coming back for a 1 song encore to play timebomb (weak). freeman and lars were killing it up there though, which was cool, even if matt's mic was turned up too much for his raucus voice.

in the end, it was cool to see rancid, even if i wasnt that into the performance and it was such a huge venue. i can't wait to go see them again.

The shows pt1

2008-11-21T09:26:00.001-08:00

So the day came. February 20, 1997. Roseland Ballroom. One of our friends parents drove us, I believe another picked us up, still just the kids from school. So we're at the show, enjoying it a lot. I ran into one of the only cool kids from the summer camp i had been attending for many years. He was there with the best counselor I ever had (still in contact to this day), hung out with them a bit. Counselor got kicked in the face by the singer of orange 9mm while they were playing. the kid, named rob weil, kept crowd surfing and coming back, i thought that was crazy. so the show continued, i moshed for the first time ever, with alex, as face to face started playing disconnected. so the show ended, we all went home, siked on the show.

went to camp that year, some of the older kids were into 'punk', but thats really it. the kids my age were into numetal, they liked VOD a lot (all the kids were from long island). a bunch said theyw ere going to see vod with a band i had actually heard of (but didnt know), fahrenheit 451, at irving plaza the day after camp ended. i said i'd come along, live music seemed to interest me.

so i got to the show and couldnt find any of them. while i know that my parents picked me up from the show, i may have taken the subway to it, and probably did. so i was by myself, at a huge hardcore show at irving plaza, and new no bands or anything. somehow i ended up right up front at the front of the pit, while some spin kicks landed on my arm, it was nothing except a rush.

much later that year, a bunch of my friends said they were going to go to see the toasters and ruder than you at the wetlands after christmas. i convinced my sister to take me and attend the show as well, as she was in town for the holidays. so she did. the show was awesome.

the next show was alex's bands first show, president lemon, at skaters world. after going to a few sw shows and another irving plaza show, my friends and i all went to a show that alex had some hand in at some point...at abc no rio. so within 7 shows, i had gone from Roseland Ballroom...to ABC No Rio. looking back, I think that's pretty impressive. at abc, the show was '82 gremlin, useless ID, and distraught.

our parents continued to drive us to shows at skaters world, with us sometimes getting to shows in the city and our parents picking us up from them, until the oldest of us started driving, but that wasnt for a while.

In the beginning...

2008-11-21T08:38:00.001-08:00

We'll start from the beginning. End of fifth grade, "Longview" becomes a hit on the radio. I liked it. I listened to it and many other 90s alt bands on the radio and was into it, including Rancid, who had the song "Salvation" on the radio (and soon to come their other hits as well as The Offspring). My sister went away to college around this time. She would call the house and talk to me sometimes about how she was so excited to be able to go see bands play (she said "I can finally go to concerts!"). Apparently either she hadn't tried to or our parents didn't allow her to when she lived at home.

So she said she had gone to see Rancid a few times and got me something, it was a Rancid "And Out Come the Wolves" tour shirt, which I still have to this day. She also talked to me about this band she saw and was pretty into named the Voodoo Glow Skulls. I thought the name was real cool. I found out later that the first time she saw them it was at a Checkers that at nights on the weekends was turned into a showplace, fucking weird.

Over the time of talking to her, at some point she said something about "black flag is pretty cool, but you probably wouldn't be able to find their cd in normal stores." to which i said "oh! i've seen them in sam goody when i was looking for black sabbath!" she was surprised. she told me to pick something up from them. one day at the end of school year for sixth grade (1995), my friend Ed and I and possibly one or two more were in a barnes and noble in the cd section. I found "Everything Went Black" and went to buy it. He comes up behind me on line, looks at what I have, to which he says "Why are you going to buy that shit?!" I looked at what he was holding. It was Marilyn Manson's "Smells like Children". I said, "whatever man." a week later my father drove us and two other friends to action park, i offered ed to listen to the record, and he flat out refused saying it sucked. my two other friends agreed with him.

My bar mitzvah was the next year, my musical tastes were apparent. It was dubbed, "Doug's Rock-a-Rama" with the kids tables named for bands: I sat at "Nirvana," while other tables were named "Sex Pistols," "Black Sabbath," and "Black Flag." On the shirt there was a variety of bands, including Rancid, nirvana, sex pistols, meat puppets, smashing pumpkins, pink floyd, and nine inch nails (i told you, 90s alt). My sister got me a cd: NoFX's "I Heard They Suck Live." In all honesty, I didn't like it at all. She told me later it was between that and operation ivy's energy, i was confused. she said i had told her i didnt like 'ska' so she got me the nofx cd. i was thoroughly confused.

That year, 7th grade, we had a new kid on our block, i was the first to make friends with him. He had moved from florida. He was really into less than jake and face to face, along with 90s alt. Him and our friends formed a band and 'played' my bar mitzvah, it was cool.

So the next school year, i received a postcard in the mail, talking about an "offspring secret show," at tramps with the joykiller. I was pretty jazzed, and asked my parents if i could go. They said yes. The postcard said that tickets were going on sale at generation records on a certain date. I ended up heading down a day or two later, I cant remember which. It was my first time using the subway by myself, I remember getting onto the wrong platform and not knowing what to do so i left and went to my dad's office to ask what i should do, ha. So I get to gen records and obviously its sold out already. they say to try ticketmaster. So i look around the pretty cool store and area (i'd heard a lot about bleeker and the village) and went back to the office. down the block was an HMV record store, which had a ticketmaster in it.

So I went to the store, I went up to the counter, and my friend ed had just bought tickets to something! i asked what to, and he said that him and alex and a bunch of people were going to the sno-core tour...with face to face, less than jake, and voodoo glow skulls. i said, "i love vgs! and i know ltj and f2f are good because of alex" so they said the offspring show was sold out (just a funny corollary: two of the people that played with f2f at that show are now in the offspring)...i thought for about...3 seconds, and said i wanted to buy a ticket to the sno-core tour. It was only $17.50 after ticketmaster charges.

face to face and guttermouth at sunset strip HOB reviewed

2008-11-14T08:10:00.000-08:00

Got there a little after 7 to make sure i got a ticket, then was informed that face to face would take the stage at 10:50....cool. The parking situation in this area of hollywood is downright dire. After grabbing a bite to eat and watching the end of the jets/patriots game, i drove to santa monica and back and then paid $10 to park at a tiny strip mall. It was odd.

I walked into the place. It's just like the anaheim HOB, with an extra small tier of bar space, which made it much more comfortable (the anaheim HOB is tiny). I'd only been to the atlantic city and san diego HOB which are both much bigger, and incomparable to these other two.

On the way in, I hear from the security guard checking IDs that there is someone who has collapsed on the floor and may be seriously injured. Next, a different one walks outside and goes "Oh, god." I walk in.

Guttermouth is on stage, commenting on the "body." After a little while they start playing again. I really don't know much about them. But now, I know this: Guttermouth is funny. Played a song about kung fu, chicken box, and closed with perfect world. They were all dressed in skimpy workers clothing and short shorts, with sunglasses and creepy moustaches. It was excellent.

After that, I went to get a nice spot where I wouldn't be bothered by dem mosherz, and then saw that there was barricade space, and good spots too, I snagged one between where scott and trever would be. It's kind of funny, the only bands I've ever stood against a barricade for were face to face and..........that's it, but like 4 times now. Anyway, they went on, and killed it, playing these songs, in order.

You Lied
Struggle
Bill of Goods
I'm Not Afraid
Ordinary
I Won't Lie Down
What's in a Name
Disconnected
You've Done Nothing
Pastel
Blind
I Want
Walk the Walk
Nothing New
I'm Trying
Big Choice
A-OK
It's Not Over
1000X (request)
Bikeage

It was awesome, there didn't even seem to be that many people there, but it didnt stop the drunk contingent from trying to get up front and being drunk. The best was during It's Not Over, some kid managed to jump over me and land on the stage and kept trying to get to scott, pretty funny. Not too many crowdsurfers compared to other times...thank god. After the set, scott gave me the setlist, which was pretty cool.

face to face in anaheim

2008-11-09T14:03:00.001-08:00

So I rolled up to the Downtown Disney parking lot with no time to spare, in fact, they had probably already started playing. Ran through downtown disney to the house of blues only to find that the will call windows were closed...I asked a passing HOB employee what the deal was, she took my id and came back an agonizing 2 minutes later telling me there were no tickets for me. I just started stuttering like "uhh but uhhh uhhhh uhhhhh" and she asked when and how i bought the ticket...I told her about 5 days ago through ticketmaster. She left for another agonizing 3 minutes and came back telling me that she was going to let me in because I was in the computer but they for some reason had no physical ticket.

I then took off up the stairs into the venue...i thought that a big reason the show had sold out was because the band rufio was having a reunion and the other HOB shows hadnt sold out...I was incorrect. running into the main room, it was completely packed. I believe I walked in and face to face was playing ordinary, but i could be wrong. I likely missed 3-4 songs.

THE SET!!! aside from the songs I missed, they played these songs (no order unless indicated): A-OK, disconnected, you've done nothing, i'm trying, pastel, struggle (i think!), big choice (also, i think.), velocity (A SONG I HAD REQUESTED ON A SIGN AT THE SHOWS IN APRIL! THANK YOU TREVER), blind, ordinary, I won't lie down, and shoot the moon (another song i requested on their myspace after not playing it in april either...had a poor reception from the audience unfortunately, probably only 1/5 the crowd sang along if that.). They closed with It's Not Over, and then came back with a two song encore...the first song was Bikeage which was cool (also the second time in a week i have seen a band cover that instead of playing their own songs which i'd rather hear), and finally closed with 1000X.

There was a circle pit going on for basically the entire show, seems to be the case usually in california apparently. awesome show, i left feeling so much better about the show than the night before where i went to this same venue to see the bouncing souls, who had spoiled me a week earlier with a pre-96 set, the set they played in anaheim had good songs but just didnt seem to play what i wanted to hear.

The Fest 7 in Gainesville, Florida

2008-11-05T10:47:00.000-08:00

Flew in thursday night, first thing bought was yuengling. It was late, so we just went straight to the hotel and checked in (Super 8). The next day, woke up earlier than I should have and around 11, we headed over to the fest hotel to get ready to register.

We're just standing around as no one knows where to go or anything, and I notice people i recognize walking by. It was the bouncing souls, and they tried to check in and only one of their rooms was ready. Trying to figure out how to decide who got it, Shamus suggested Odds and Evens. They did it, and the loser (the drummer) protested that he "wasn't ready". Then shamus suggested that there should be an outside referee, and they appointed him. Thusly, he caused greg to lose, even as DJ values siked him up for the challenge.

Upon our entry upon the premises of the holiday inn, we went up to the registration spot and got on a pretty short line with really only about 50 people in front of us, within 20 minutes we were registered and checking out the 'flea market'. Pretty unremarkable, except when they switched out one of the tables selling glass with a pro-obama table, keeping the small price signs, which led to funnyness like a picture of obama with a sign over it that said "Glass pipes, $15".

We went up to the third floor rooftop pool reception and hung out for a while, everyone that jumped in the pool freaked out over how absolutely freezing it was, which was funny. After a few hours, we decided to walk around towards the downtown and the venues.

First, we went to "Common Grounds", for myself to see Ringers, and for shamus to see them, chinese telephones, the falcon, and underground railroad to candyland. As I was very worried about not being able to get into venues (a fear that i later found out was completely unfounded but not until it was too late the last day), I left after only seeing 4 Ringers songs. But they were good.

I headed over to The Venue, which was the main venue for The Fest. First up in the small side room, was Gimme Drugs. They were really, really good. I really was into Jesse(????)'s vocals, and just enjoyed the music. Next, up first on the mainstage, was Rehasher, who I don't know very well but what I know, I like. It was their first show in 2 years, and they were great. When their set was coming to a close, they said "OK, we ran out of songs, but we're going to play two covers....this band is breaking up. fuck you! dont break up you assholes!" and went on to play the ergs pray for rain and saturday night craporama...and it was awesome! The kids that knew what was going on freaked out, myself included. Right after they finished and i was so jazzed about it all, I turned around only to see my friend Kate running at me and yelling my name, I was surprised, amused, and happy. Up next on the main stage was Ann Beretta, playing their last (electric) show. I got a great place to stand, two steps up from the floor directly in front of the singers view, so he could see my Worthless shirt the entire set. He saw it, and glared and grimaced the entire time. They didnt play fire in the hold, but they did play another song that sounded like a Worthless song. All in all, band isnt so bad when they arent ripping off worthless. After them was Strike Anywhere, opening up with two older songs, and I thought that maybe i'd be real into the set after all. Not so, as after that they just started playing lots of stupid new shitty songs. I left only to come back later as they were closing with sunset on 32nd.

Finally, Less Than Jake was set to play, I was happy to see them in their hometown. To the soundclip at the beginning of Hello Rockview, they came out dressed as cops and went straight into Last one Out of Liberty City, and then played My Own Flag. Other songs they played included automatic, sugar in your gas tank, johnny quest, never going back to new jersey (with intro), doug hastings, jen doesnt like me anymore, help save the youth of america from exploding, all my best friends are metalheads (with intro), scott farcas, look what happened, the ghosts of me and you, plastic cup politics, two songs from the new record, and closed with gainesville rock city. Even though they didnt play other songs I wanted to hear, it was a great set, at one point coming out with boxes upon boxes of doughnuts and throwing them into the crowd. I lost my voice shouting for them to play "malt liquor tastes better...". After the set I felt like I was seriously done for, even though I hadn't even moshed at all.

Headlining the first night were The Bouncing Souls doing an entire pre-96 set....and it ruled. They stuck only to material from good bad argyle and maniacal laughter and didnt go further back. Songs included i like your mom, the guest, 80s movies, joe lies, some kind of wonderful, old school, neurotic, and all of maniacal laughter. The 80's movies quote was: none, they just yelled and kept going in the song. Everyone was into it. Finally, they said "we're going to play one that isnt pre-96" and played True Believers. Great set.

After this, Paint it Black had planned on playing in the lot across the street from the venue. I left the venue even as cops were coming in to shut the show down, apparently. Across the street was a vacant lot, and beyond that and across another street, was a parking lot with a crowd of people...and a Uhaul truck. I ran over and heard only drums and singing. Kids were jumping off the top of the truck. When the song ended the band kind of just stopped, until kids started singing another song. Dan dove from the truck and sang. The next thing you hear is someone yelling "460! RUN!" to which someone else replied, "Horses? I dont see any horses!" The next thing you hear are tons of whistles, cop cars and firetrucks at the venues. And horses. cops on horses. With whistles. Those cops assaulted everyone with the threat of trampling by horse...for no reason. After the cops made everyone disperse (........?) I walked to my car, and not four blocks away almost got mugged. Great use of police. Then, I was not one block away on the same street when these two drunk black girls pushed each other in front of my car. Again, GREAT policing in that town.

Saturday. Headed over to the Market Street Pub and caught this band The Swellers. Personally, I have no idea what they were like. At some point I headed over to the venue, again, to make sure that I would be able to get in. Up first was Atom and His Package. Very unremarkable. Then Coalesce went on, to some of the worst dancing I have ever seen. Band was pretty alright. Up next, The Lawrence Arms played and only played two songs i knew. Great, drunken stage banter though, even if they forgot to say what number show they were playing. After them, None More Black took the stage. Opening with We Dance on the Ruins of this stupid stage, they also played nothing to do when you're locked in a vacancy, oh theres legwork, peace on mars, everyday balloons, dinners for suckers, banned from teen arts, wallpaper looks like paint, zing pong, opinions and assholes, peanut butter, and closed with drop the pop, to the end of which i lost my mind and ran a bunch of people over. Great set. After that, Paint It Black played a set, commenting on the attack of centaurs at the attempted show the night before, "Half man/half pig". After them, Municipal Waste took the stage, and proceeded to throw out many, many small shot bags of vodka to the crowd, and had everyone take the shot at the same time. Hilarious. Then, they proceeded to play one of the craziest, funnest sets I have ever seen. I dont know any of their songs really, but it was still a good time. They even covered SOD's "United Forces".

After Municipal Waste, I headed over to The Kickstand to catch the degenerics. I got there early and saw Slingshot Dakota, who was pretty cool, and the sidekicks. When The Degenerics went on, there was so much jersey around. cashman. jay insult, j. porter. fid. it was an awesome time and they played an awesome set. After them, the Star Fucking Hipsters went on, I watched a song but then left and got the car and waited for shamus so we could head out to the middle of nowhere...

About 5 miles out of town, there was a small warehouse/storage area over some train tracks off a highway. One of these garages had been turned into a practice space. And in this space, they were holding a show. While I forget the name of the first band, I certainly remember the name of the second. None More Black played to about a hundred people, with Colin saying "This is the REAL fest!" They played an abbreviated version of the set they had played earlier, but were that much drunker, and that much more excited. It was absolutely awesome. Following this, I felt like I was dead, and didn't care to see the new mexican disaster squad play their last show, or the shook ones, etc, so I went to the hotel and passed out.

On the final day of the fest, shamus and I checked out of our super 8 motel, headed to the downtown area, and ended up at the market street pub first, and caught Jawsome. I didnt really like them. Next, I planned to see san diego's own Dan Padilla at the Atlantic, but the line refused to move. So I headed over to the venue and saw a bar across the street that was part of the fest and went into it. Called Durty Nelly's, this irish bar looked pretty cool. The band also looked pretty cool, Deep and Holy Sea. However, they took way too long to go on and i was restless so i left and seriously walked like 3 miles within this 2 block area back and forth, waiting for something worth checking out. After going into various venues and being bored, I finally got on line for the venue. The Arrivals went on first and were all right. I wasn't into Off With Their Heads at all. Toys that Kill were much better when I saw them at babe's warehouse in long beach.

Then, The Ergs went on. I'm not going to go super into detail here, but for the first set they played a mix of really old songs and newer songs. The set was good. Towards the end, a comment from the band: "We have a few songs left, and then we're up next". Up next was them playing all of dorkrockcorkrod, and it was a blast. Mikey didnt know the words to a few songs, but that was only funny. Coming to the end, I thought they would close with upstairs downstairs, but instead DID NOT PLAY IT!>!?>!JIOfjeoiajfd and played two covers instead. While bikeage is a great song, I'd rather have heard them played upstairsdownstairs and destroyed everything.

After that, we headed to the failsafe warehouse again, hearing that the lawrence arms were playing at 10pm. Unfortunately, the show actually started at midnight, and they werent playing. We caught a few bands including anti-lectual, who played a horrible cover of a face to face song (ordinary), as well as another band who covered coffee mug. After that, we headed over to the fest hotel which we were staying at that night, and shamus got caught in an elevator.

Crime in Stereo/Broadway Calls at the Radio Room 10/19/08

2008-10-20T09:22:00.001-07:00

So I went out to see crime in stereo for the first time since is dead came out, and ive been looking forward to it. Some local bands opened up, Blue in the Face, a man/wife duet with him on guitar and her on keyboard kinda boring but alright. Up next was the band that booked the show, Breaker Breaker One Niner. They were really good and they also covered pinhead gunpowder "life during wartime". Up next was broadway calls, surprisingly awesome. all the people there knew them which surprised me.

Next up was crime in stereo, and i was excited to hear the ...Is Dead songs live finally. Set up, went on, loud as hell. Kristian jumping all over the place, but unfortunately no one was joining him. Opened with some kind of 'crime in stereo intro' and played a song i did not know....Then they went on to play XXXX, third atlantic, almost ghostless/above the gathering oceans, and ...but you are vast before sending out small skeletal to me. Finally, they had what i am assuming was the bass player from silent majority (as the tour was with polar bear club as well) come up and played what i am still assuming was a silent majority cover. it was a great set and i just wish it wasn't so short.

at that point it was midnight and as ive seen PBC a few times already i headed home. good show, would attend again.

My top shows, with blurbs.

2008-09-03T10:34:00.001-07:00

1.SnoCore '97 (Roseland, 2/20/97) $17.50 face to face, The Pharcyde, Voodoo Glow Skulls, Less Than Jake, Orange 9mm, The Flip

My first show. I can’t not put it on the list, personally, I was going for VGS, everything else was kind of a bonus. My friend got kicked in the face by the singer of orange 9mm, I got a flashlight shined on me while holding a bowl (I wasn’t even smoking) and I moshed for the first time ever during face to face’s “disconnected”.

9.Ska Against Racism Tour (Montclair State, 4/26/98) $10 Less than Jake, The Toasters, Mustard Plug, Five Iron Frenzy, Mu330, Kemuri, Bruce Lee Band, One Cool Guy

Getting tickets to this show was a nightmare, but it didn’t matter because there were tickets available at the door. I found a ticketstub on the ground and kept it. If anyone was at this show, you’ll know how awesome it was as it was raining the whole time, and was outside. LTJ mosh pit in a torrential downpour? Yes please. The best was when they vented the tarp over the stage and it was like a waterfall.

10.Skapunk Show at Irving (5/16/98) $10 Suicide Machines, Mephiskapheles, Limp, Telegraph

I was a lot more cavalier about things such as leaving my glasses in random places at this time, I left them on some stand or something, and they were still there when I got back to them. My friend made me crowd surf during mephiskapheles. The whole show was cool, one of the first shows with suicide machines’ new drummer.

23.Shillelagh Club (1/22/99) $8 Excess dB Blanks 77, Vision, Violent Society, LES Stitches, Where Fear and Weapons Meet, Banner of Hope, The Skabs

This was a mix of shows, as my friends and I were going to the punk show, and then a show heath had at JT’s fell through, so the hardcore bands were added. Before this show, none of my friends liked LES Stitches, but this show changed it, with the singer hanging from rafters, ETC. Violent society ruled at this show.

31.Teaneck American Legion (3/20/99) $8 Excess dB Dropkick Murphys, Oxymoron, The Ducky Boys, *The Ploys*, *Hudson Falcons*

This show is legendary. The Ducky Boys were awesome, and played a killer “Stand By Me” cover. During Oxymoron, some kids and myself found this awesome table to stand on right by the band, who was playing in the corner. We realized what it was when heath got on the PA telling “everyone please get off the pool table”. Then the Dropkick Murphys played, and it was insanity. I cut my hand on someone’s spike, and who knows how? The angle made no sense. When the cops arrived, dkm said something to the effect of “The cops are here, but we’re going to play until they make us stop.” Like I said, legendary.

41. East Coast Attack Tour- CIH (6/18/99) $8 Aus-Rotten, The Casualties, (Violent Society cancelled), The Unseen, The Devotchkas, Thulsa Doom, The Virus, Society's Failure, The Stand

Your typical coney island high punk show, right? Dropped off by someone’s parents, and picked up by another’s. I got punched in the eye during thulsa doom, and somehow didn’t have a shiner. Even more remarkable was the CIH staff letting me re-enter. Violent Society couldn’t make it because pat had to go to a wedding, so aus-rotten was added. This show ruled.

93. Roseland Ballroom (9/15/00) $14 Less than Jake, The SUicide Machines, One Man Army, Pollen

One Man Army in 2000. The Suicide Machines (DDT CIRCLE PIT?). Less Than Jake, along with pyrotechnics. Rolling apple.

146. The Garage (2/10/01) *Revolution Summer*, Ensign, Strike Anywhere, De La Hoya

Now, I don’t recall if this or the December strike anywhere garage show was better, but this one definitely had a better lineup. Personally, I can recall Mike Mclean on top of the crowd screaming along.

152. The Garage (3/2/01) Rest Assured?, The Assistant, Tear it Up, The Blue Star Diary

Look who played this show! I recall going home to get something after the first band just because it was 5 minutes away. I came back and listened to the down in flames demo tape about 3 times….then TIU covered the DIF theme. The assistant was awesome and leigh yelled at yarm for talking. Then rest assured played, and it was your usual Bergen county random kid/MF mosh. T-shirt.

163. Surprise Birthday party for me! @ Liss's House (4/13/01) Folly, Leftover Crack, Give us Barabbas, The Voicecracks, Sit on it Potsie, It Takes all Kinds, Tommy Lasorda, The Fleshies, Lucas

Well, duh! Barabbas, leftover crack, and most importantly folly playing to just all of my friends after the dumb kids left after LOC. Then stza kicked a hole in the wall, real cool.

191. Hanover House (6/29/01) $8 Bane and we missed or didnt watch the rest of the bands

This show is legendary, but only to davey and I. Bane was supposed to be playing “This Island Earth” Fest this day, but double booked. I decided that I was going to see bane no matter what. Got there at like…830. Bane ended up going on at about 1:30, playing the eeriest set ever. Zach swung his guitar around his neck and the strap came loose and it went flying.

216. Alissa's (8/11/01) $6 BrianSUrvivor GOod Clean Fun, This Day Forward, *Taken*, *The Break*, The Survivors, Oblongata, Folly, Plan of Action

Folly debuted a new song, “Broken”. I really wanted to see this day forward, and they had had a philly show fall through (I didn’t know they were from philly at the time). I told brian to put them on the show, and he told me to get in contact with them. I did, and them and taken ended up on the show. I went to this show after my sister’s wedding. Every band that I saw was good.

267. US Homebase (11/23/01) $10 Converge, American Nightmare, The Hope Conspiracy, The Dedication, Stalemate

Even though I wasn’t into AN anymore and it took them an hour to set up, the rest of the show made up for it. I recall this show being really, really dark.

292. Ethical Humanist Center (1/25/02) $8 From Autumn to Ashes, Most Precious Blood, ETID, On the Might of Princes

No one from this board was at this show. OTMOP was awesome. MPB was awesome. FATA was awesome, LI return home show or something like that. I remember talking to Joe 9 Iron at this show and he was talking about how “That Vicky girl is always following me around.” While I was walking back to my car, I got a call from chris connallon that he and peet Johnson were at my house and where was i? I got home in record time (something like 40 minutes or less), and we all dinered.

304. Krome (2/22/02) Excess dB Thursday, Piebald, MPB, FATA, *The low end theory*

“No stagediving”, the rule was circumvented by erik whaylen quickly. FATA ruled, and played ‘short stories’ for the first time I ever saw it before it was a single on the radio which meant it wasn’t just a bunch of people jumping on stage to crowd the drummer who would sing it then, instead the girl came out and it ruled. MPB also ruled. Thursday was really awesome, and colin and myself also disregarded the no stagediving rule during this side of brightness (definitely a song to stagedive for, really).

410. 113 Louis St. (1/23/03) Homage to Catalonia and the cassettes

Probably not a lot of people remember this show. It was in a living room (or an attic?) everyone had blankets, and it was just really cool. It just sticks out in my mind.

510. CBGBs (10/1/03) $3 Rancid

Rancid. CBGBs. $3. Standing on the box in front of the speaker on the right side of the stage and fingerpointing in Tim (Armstrong AND shaw)’s face the entire time? Yes please. During the last seconds of timebomb, the last song, I jumped off a chair that was on the box, and people actually caught me and held me up. What?

519. Hamilton st. (11/1/03) $8 “7 Seconds” by Scream Hello, “[Early] Black Flag” by Tear It Up, “Minor Threat” by Kill Crush Destroy, “Bad Religion” by The Procedure, *”Bad Brains”* by The Degenerics, “Gorilla Biscuits” by Ensign, *”[Late] Black Flag”* by Tear It Up

Minor Threat by kill crush destroy. The end-all, be-all of cover sets, EVER. I was standing in the back kind of and heard the opening notes of Salad Days, I thought they were still messing around. No. I realized that they were actually opening with it, and freaked out. Awesome set.

542. Ian's House Barley Island (1/17/04) $3 The Fiction Effect, The Little Rascals, A New Enemy

:Originally was at bloomfield ave with: -The Hope Conspiracy-, -a new enemy-, -lords-, -breather resist-

554. Goon Squad (2/21/04) $5 Thumbs Up, Bottom Line, 86 Mentality, Sex Positions, Crime in Stereo, *Kill Crush Destroy*

Both of these shows kind of meld together. A new enemy was awesome, and so was sex posi, 86 mentality, and CIS. This was the first night I saw CIS where I knew the music, and it ruled. They complained about how left turns are illegal in NJ, and I made that crying noise, and a legend was started.

616. Irving Plaza (9/21/04) $45 Green Day

Pay no attention to the ticket price, it was green day, the day their cd was released, at irving plaza, playing the entire record. The stache and I went, along with dave who just went record shopping. This was the craziest I’ve ever seen for a ticket situation, as there was literally NO ONE selling, and ridiculous offers were being thrown out for them: “I’ll give you $200 and the shirt off my back”, “I’ll give you $150 and my shoes”, etc. After all of American Idiot, then they played all the hits I wanted to hear. Some guy in a Tool hat tried to fight me for moshing during Longview, and all I said was “dude, it’s LONGVIEW!” and he backed off. Awesome show.

713. Manasquan Women’s Club (7/23/05) *Go It Alone*, %Allegiance%, %Blue Monday%, Modern Life is War, Kill Your Idols, Forward to Death

Sped here after the avail show at the church in philly, every band we saw was awesome. I think mliw and kyi had the split available early for this show. Also, mliw was playing a bunch off witness since it had just come out. KYI was on point, FTD ruled.

721. Stone Pony (8/21/05) $20 The Loved Ones, Bouncing Souls, Lifetime

Ostracized.

789. Maxwells (4/23/06) $10 *Permanent*, *Pink Razors*, *The Draft*, Avail

Probably the best time I’ve seen Avail. I missed the rest of the show because I was seeing brand new in the city. I heard some people say after this that it was the worst time they had seen avail and that they “[were] done”. Those people shall remain nameless.

825. CBGBs (9/24/06) $10 %Between the Wars%, *band*, *Capital*, None More Black, Grey Area

Probably the first time I saw a lot of people care about None More Black, all the newer songs they played from the second LP were on point. After the show I told Paul they should put out a live record because I felt it really captured the energy of those songs. His response was that they had broken up. Oh, and Grey Area was awesome, but not as awesome as they were when they showed up kid dynamite at cb’s the year before. Ernie even told some of the same stories.

858. 538 Johnson Ave (3/31/07) $5 Paper Dragons, *Mother Night*, *band*, Modern Life is War

This show.

869. Smithtown Masonic Temple (5/13/07) $10 Splitting Headache, %Cranked Up%, *Capital*, %Crime in Stereo% (played ½ song), ---show moved to practice space back lot---, Kill Your Idols (Last show) (Shutdown by police 2x)

Also, this show.

897. Welfare Records (1/4/08) $10 Reprobates, War of Words, Ringers, %Violent Society%, The Pinkerton Thugs

I was so fucking tired at this show. I was literally sleeping inside the show on a couch for like an hour before the first bands, and in between bands, until I was able to snag an awesome balcony-type spot (more lofty than balcony) right before Ringers….who I had never heard and proceeding to be awesome, doing everything how I thought it should sound. Then, the pinkerton thugs went on. I had wanted them to play mostly the new record and definitely the last song on the first. They did exactly that pretty much, closing with that last song ( I believe) and making it simply amazing. Violent Society may or may not have played, if they did they showed up late. I had to get back to NJ to catch a plane in the morning, and most importantly, sleep. I raced home in maybe three or three and a half hours.

924. Safari Sam’s (5/19/08) $12 International Superheroes of Hardcore (first show), New Found Glory

This was like seeing NFG without a bunch of teeny boppers…because it was. Played an actual all-request set. I had an awesome close to the stage high vantage point and kept yelling at chad. Got them to play Vegas….which I have been trying to get them to do for 4 years, after they denied my request of “forget everything”. It was too really really hot in the club and I had to leave where I was to get some air after about ¾ of the set.

927. Alex’s Bar (5/28/08) $20 Girls With Guns, The Mystic Knights of the Cobra, Foxboro Hot Tubs

This show ruled. No tickets, just a mad dash to get on line. Anyone who was there about 30 minutes early got in, I got there like two hours early. Ended up on a couch right in front of the sound booth next to Mike Dirnt’s wife and mother in law. Girls with Guns were terrible two nights earlier, but really really good this night, it was weird. The Mystic Knights of the Cobra were AWESOME/BIZARRE. Really odd, and weird and good. Foxboro, what can I say? Billie Joe literally crowd surfed on a surfboard to the stage, and it was madness the whole night.

#? Reggie’s Rock Club (8/22/08) $? The Repellents, The Chinese Telephones, The Jetty Boys, Ben Weasel and Danny Vapid performing “My Brain Hurts”

Got there a little late, but there was no one there. Saw a space against the stage, and took it. Fought off my hunger (I had only eaten a hot dog at 1030 at the cubs game) and stayed there. Every band got progressively better. Then, after a very long time setting up, the weasel happened. It was magical hearing that record, my favorite (I had said that if sw got back together I wouldn’t go because they probably wouldn’t play any songs I knew since I really only knew that record) for over ten years. Being up front and able to shout and go crazy for it was awesome too.

Ben Weasel and Danny Vapid at Reggie's

2008-08-24T13:22:00.000-07:00

The Facts: Ben Weasel recruited Danny Vapid to play the entire My Brain Hurts screeching weasel album. I had always said that if sw got back together i probably wouldn't go...since i really only knew one album, which was MBH. So when i heard this, i was excited.

The Idea: get extra tickets and sell them to cover the airfare and maybe hotel.

The plan: there was none. I kept asking Mandi, who was coming from jersey, what she was doing hotelwise etc. refusing to get back to me for over a month, I took things into my own hands, for myself, about 3 days before I left.

The Hotel: The Chicago Hilton (HOTWIRE!), excellent, excellent. I couldn't believe anything anything about it. There was hardly any line to check in (at 1130pm). They gave me a room with a king bed. I went up to the 13th floor, and searched for my room, 1304. i went down a side hallway, and kept walking, towards the double doors at the end (of course that wasnt my room). Looking at the numbers on the doors, until i was at the double doors....numbered #1304. I stepped in. King Murphy bed on the right with down pillows, luxuriously comfortable bedding. A couch (pull out bed) , nice chair and coffee table to the left. Mini bar (i refused the key), complete bar area. Con: only a shower and not a giant bathtub. I went to the indoor pool on the 8th floor the next day, nice. When sean and mandi got there they didnt want to knock on the door because they thought i was lying.

The Lead-Up: I woke up friday morning, checked out the pool, walked around the loop area. The entire time i was thinking of ferris bueller and singing songs from it to myself. I walked directly to the sears tower just to see if i could, and then i hopped on an 'el' train and then switched and ended up at Wrigley Field. I got a hot dog at the 7-11 across the street as i had nothing else to eat and was hungry. it was about 1020 and i thought the game started at 1205. I bought a ticket at the gate and was directed to walk right in. I had to walk through a bar, and then was in the hallways...I decided I wanted to see the field of a famed park such as this as soon as possible, and walked out. There weren't many people out, a group of blue and/or white shirted people in left field, a guy in a pale green shirt, and me. I walked directly to the visiting bullpen where the pitcher was warming up. I got behind him to see all the movement. It was real cool. Got a few foul balls. Then the group of people in left field started breaking up, i realized they were the ushers. One came to the section i was in, and we made small talk, he said he was surprised they let me to the seats, i didnt realize he meant because the field was closed. hahaha. the game was cool, i had a good time. i left in the middle, swam, and went to the show.

The Show: Got there what i thought was late, apparently wasnt, able to grab a spot against the stage.

The Repellents: The singer sounded like the guy from osker. into it

The Chinese Telephones : also awesome! better than the band before

The Jetty Boys : Also awesome.

Ben Weasel: got crushed against the stage, played my brain hurts through, it ruled. also played this aint hawaii, sunshine, falling apart, and more. i had to leave at some point after the album because i felt i was going to pass out, and then i almost did.

the show the next day was pretty much the same. i got a good spot to watch from, and at one point during the sceince of myth ben and i shared a mo' and when he went into the verse he fucked up and i kept singing and he smiled. IT WUZ SO KOOL.

anyway, back at the hotel, finally ate for the second time , and it was the most delicious turkey club & fruit ever. got alright sleep. mandi and sean lovett got there around 730am, they slept, i swam and read a bit. got outside and mandi wouldnt stop complaining, cool. got a shitty shitty shitty motel in niles, il, far, far away from anything useful. but it was still funny. 3 people to a king sized bed sleeping the wrong way, tv on to drown out the sound of people fucking, awesome. ha

woke up at 5am and sean drove me to the airport.

Ergs!, Hunchback @ 924 Gilman

2008-07-29T14:04:00.000-07:00

So, waking up saturday, i got shamus riled out of bed (still drunk). got an oil change, and got shamus and we left for the famed 924 gilman st. venue in oakland, for a show i could have seen in new brunswick for the past 6 years but for some reason (i'm stupid), never did. drove through the san joaquin valley with no A/C, and it sucked. burned my arm even after looking at and almost taking the sunblock with me, saying "no, i woudlnt need that". got to 924 around 7 (left at 11).

ran into jay insult at some point, who was already in his "OHMNYGOD IM AT 924 GILMAN" stateofmind. he had some choice photo ops, especially my favorite, which was "Sweet children" written on a rafter.

Hunchback went on, again, were good. not as theatrical until the end what with rolling on the stage/floor, and balancing on a walker. The Ergs! were up next. they went on, a few kids were dancing, having a grand old time, kids were singing, also having a grand old time. seemed to play the same set. looked like they were having ablast. joe ranted about how he didnt want to tell everyone about 924 gilman and how cool it was to play there as all those people already knew, about as much as we wouldnt want to hear someone go to cbgb's and talk about how cool it was to play there. closed with hey jealousy, a request on my part, and everyone got excited. excellent set.

the next day, decided not to drive through the valley again with no A/C, but to take the mostly more coastal route, stopped at sound and fury for about 5 seconds, and then just kept going. i didnt take into account santa barbara traffic on a sunday night, and it sucked. later, we hopped on the pacific coast highway and ended up caught in more sunday beach traffic, but would have been nothing compared to taking the 101 into LA. got down into santa monica and took the dreaded i-10/405 combo all the way to the 5, and it was glorious, no traffic whatsoever on the 405 (STILL CANT BELIEVE IT) until the last 3 miles, and that was because of a john meier concert. fuck that guy.

Things learned:

I need A/C
I need brakes
Don't take the PCH on a sunday.

ergs!, hunchback, tiltwheel at the tower bar

2008-07-29T13:55:00.001-07:00

vena cava, hunchback, tiltwheel, rich white males, the bugs, the ergs

So we went to the tower bar "late" we thought, actually well before the show was to start, so we came back at a better time. anyway, lots of people, lots of drunk, happy people. The Rich White Males were on, dressed as rabbits and possibly other furry animals. I didn't stick around, as the place is way too small to watch a band I only like a bit, but I'll still watch them at a bigger place. Vena cava played, then tiltwheel was supposed to go on, but we saw some people run to their car and come out with guitars and The Bugs jumped on the show. it was ok, but i was waiting for the other bands really.

So tiltwheel got on, played a pretty short set, but real fun. shamus kept patting davey on the head, it was a good time. Later, Hunchback set up, i'd never seen them before actually, so i was surprised at the theatrical show they put on, the keyboard/antenna man attacked the crowd, who then attacked him back....i thought it was all joking, but apparently not. still awesome though. Would watch again.

The Ergs! went on next. My first time seeing them actually knowing their songs (stupid, i know). Ripped through the set, playing almost every song i wanted to hear, actually. A mix of upstairs/downstairs and dorkrockcorkrod (probably what they always play). Everyone in the bar was having an absolute blast, singing, dancing, etc. Before they could play their last 2-3 songs, for some reason, the bar decided to kick everyone out (only 1:40am at this point).

Outside, the incredibly drunk Shamus was playing in the middle of the road, etc, and talked me into going to the show the next day. It went something like this:

s: doug, we should probably go to the show tomorrow at 924 gilman
d: hmmm....okay.
s: doug, we should go to the show otmorrow, i'll pay for gas.
d: ok
s: doug, we can we go to the show tomorrow?
d: ....Yes!

etc.

none more black and the ergs at the barbery, reviewed

2008-07-05T22:37:00.000-07:00

bearface, the first band: i think they said it was their first show. music wasnt bad, but between every song they just talked to each other, the last song and the instrumental were real good though. seemed to drag a little

the ergs - played well, a bunch of kids into it, i enjoyed it.

none more black - opened with we dance on the ruins of this stupid stage.
closed with drop the pop.

also played :

nothing to do when you're locked in a vacancy
under my feet
my wallpaper looks like paint
zing pong
opinions and assholes
i see london
who crosses statelines without a shirt?
d is for doorman
10 ton jigawatts
you suck but your peanut butter is ok
majestic
oh theres legwork
peace on mars
genuine malaise and misery
i'll buy you the fucking single
everyday balloons
dinners for suckers
banned from teen arts

played pretty well i thought. colin almost forcing them into getting 30 more minutes was crucial. a bunch of kids were there, it was really really crushed at the front, i couldnt handle it. shirtless moshers arent that cool, but at least they knew the words. i thought they should open with oh theres legwork but when they played it, the intro isnt really as distinctive, so i guess it made sense not to.

awesome show. talked to a cute girl about face to face playing in california and she said she recognized me from the cb's none more black show hanging off the speaker because she was right behind me. unfortunately im stupid and didnt talk to her more.

upcoming shows

2008-06-23T10:35:00.001-07:00

likely shows to attend:

june 28 1916 I ave national city 6pm graveyard drifters, el hombre lobo, apathetic youth, la raza pura, modern aggression, reset status

mon june 30 san diego fair (del mar) wierd al (concert free with admission)

jul 11 8pm 6116 brooklyn ave infitada, abrade, liberate, the americans, abject

july 13 King's music (3592 Main St. Lemon Grove ) social sickness, X-Communicated, the Imposters, Gross Negligence and Boneless

jul 17 o'connells bar murphys law

jul 22 House of blues jesse lacey

7/23 The Maac ( 1385 3rd Ave., Chula Vista) Furious styles, kids like us, mongloids, life or death, wages of war

july 24 6116 brooklyn ave 8pm annihilation time, mother speed, SBV, broken patterns (ex tear it up), titanarum

july 25 the ergs, hunchback, vena cava

july 31 KIMBARA (530 calle 8 between avenidas pio pico and quintana Roo Zona Centro) spanish bombs, Shipwrek AD, Red Awakening, A Better Hope Foundation, MYPAQ

aug 7 canes agent orange

sep 19 soma Rancid

seasick, ANS @ brooklyn ave encanto

2008-06-22T16:26:00.000-07:00

So I drove 10 minutes to Encanto, San Diego, also known as one of the most "hood" sections of san diego. Driving through on an earlier date, my roommate and I saw a drugpin getting taken down by the cops (during the day).

So i drove up to the house: 6116 Brooklyn Ave aka the brooklyn bazaare, aka the ninja lair. a few kids are there, just hanging around in the driveway drinking. a cop was 2 houses up and paid no mind to the gathering of white kids and hispanic kids in the hood.

Find out that while the show is at the house, the bands actually play on the back porch of the house, with the PA speakers pointing directly at the next house, across the driveway, a distance of 10 feet at most. you stand in the driveway and watch, pretty cool.

THe first band goes on, Clocked In. Not just a black flag reference, as they had their own song called clocked in (about work obviously). pretty good.

up next was a band i had been meaning to check out for a while named gross negligence... i went to get a bottle of water, and unfortunately due to my stubborness to not turn around and the lack of unsynchronized lights and terrible drivers AND ENDING UP GETTING CAUGHT IN STADIUM TRAFFIC AND DRIVING ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE STREET i fucking ended up MISSING this band. but i digress...

up next was Mother Speed, pretty good band. kids circle pitting in the driveway (which was on a minor slope) , pretty cool. as if to test the will cops (who werent there) the singer repeatedly called for people to smoke pot in the next 5 minutes because "its probably better than whatever else you would be doing", and during a lull in the song runs into the house and comes out with a whitewalled bong, pretty amusing.

unfortunately, about half of the kids left after that band as it was about midnight at this point, but it didnt really matter. seasick was up next, and pretty much killed it. nick is a madman and the band played well. the singer of the previous band jumped off the roof into the circle pit, pretty crazy. covered the cromags. good set

ANS was up next. While there werent too many kids left, the ones that were were PUMPED. played crazy for the whole set, even as mark was playing his second set of the night on guitar. covered poison idea. singer commented at about 1am, "I cant believe no one has called the cops yet!?" i found out later that apparently the cops are "too scared" to shut down shows there.

2008-06-19T16:02:00.001-07:00

So we went on down to tj and have a few beers, shoot some pool in an empty bar, head over to the Escape Club on AVENIDA REVOLUCION. There are a few kids there, not much, hang out a little before heading in.

The venue, the escape club, was the upstairs half of a bar, pretty damn small. upstairs was a small showspace with high ceilings, stage on the side of the room with a railing and staircase to the crowd, weird setup. on the far end was merch and a small seating area that opened up to the street. there was also a balcony type thing, including a weird part that came right up to the stage with a ladder going up to it.

Vena Cava went on and it was alright, I wasn't that into it.

After that I ended up talking to this awesome mexican kid for a while all about everything, he had a pretty cool POV on shit, then i went to watch the next band.

Tiltwheel went on after that and played a pretty short set a lot more kids were paying attention to them than vc, mostly SD kids though, it seemed. However afterwards, that mexican kid came up to me and told me he thought it was awesome.

After that, some very loud band named BLUMBKLAAT went on. not really sure what was going on.

After that, Citizen Fish went on. I watched from the balcony for a little bit, there was a giant circle pit, it was pretty cool, not that rough it didnt look like. They played well and for a while, and then got off.

Finally, at 12:45, Leftover Crack went on. Brad played on the part of the balcony that came out to the stage, while the rest of the band played on the stage. played a bunch of songs, scott was standing on the railing and jumping up to the balcony a lot, touched a disco ball on the ceiling and almost fell on the crowd multiple times. kids were surging onto the stage from the weird staircase and had to be pushed back by the sound guy, it was pretty weird.

cool show

Hello!

2008-05-29T20:01:00.001-07:00

so, i guess im going to use this from now on, add me pleaseze.