Wednesday, August 17, 2005

What??? What was that again? Can you speak up?

That my friends is the reaction you will most likely get from me if you try to speak with me within the next few days. That is b/c I am now freakin deaf.

And that is all due to the concert at CBGBs last night.

That show was probably one of, if not THE loudest concerts I have EVER been to (and you all know I've been to a LOT). It was so loud that I was kicking myself for not bringing earplugs. B/c honestly, it didn't even come to my mind to bring any. I rarely if ever, use earplugs. I can count the amount of times on one hand. Usually I wear them during Judas Priest concerts, and not b/c they are loud (although they are), but more to give more clarity to the sound. But damn, did I regret not bringing any last night. This was almost, if not just as bad as when I went to see Rancid about 7 years ago at Roseland and I was RIGHT in front of the main speakers. I have always attributed that show as a main cause in my hearing loss, lol.

So yeah, I still have a slight buzzing in my ears as I type this... hopefully it won't last for too long.

But anyways, about the show!

Ok, so I've never been to CBGBs before. I've heard stories before, like from Alan, but I never experienced it for myself. All I've heard was that it was a "shithole, held together by stickers."

And well, that actually is a very accurate way to describe it, lol. First off the place IS tiny! Once I got in, I was amazed that i was gonna see the Offspring in such a small place. But that's also when I realized how loud the place was gonna be b/c the opening band was already playing and it was hurting my ears, even just being in the middle.

So I whip out my cell phone and start to text Ariana all like "OMG! This place is so small yet so freakin LOUD! I'm so gonna lose more of my hearing. Hope you dont mind, heh."

So I send the text and as SOON as I hit send and put my phone away I turn around to see how the big the crowd is getting and standing DIRECTLY behind me is Dexter Holland, the lead singer of the Offspring!

He was just standing there, chillin with one of the roadies and watching the opening act. I wanted to say something to him, but it was just so damn loud (and other people also had the same idea and when they tried to approach him to chat, Dexter just put his hand to his ear all like "I can't hear a word you are saying." So that was a no go).

However, I was smart enough to bring along my copy of The Offspring- Smash album and a sharpie, so as soon as the band finished with their song, I requested an autograph and he signed the CD right there. I didnt really get to talk to him though, b/c everyone else in the vicinity also took that moment as their chance to pounce and bombarded him immediately. So at that point, he wound up moving to behind the stage. So even though i didn't really get to chat with him, it was still cool. I will definitely have to give CBGBs points for atmosphere and intimacy with the bands.

There was another opening act before the Offspring, it was a chick-fronted punk band called Theo & The Skyscrapers. I had never heard of them before, but they were actually pretty good. Only thing that sucked, is there was a song or two where she screamed and that just totally freakin blew my eardrums. Now that I think about it, that band was probably more responsible for me going deaf than the Offspring were.

After that band finished, I checked my watch and realized we were about 25 minutes ahead of schedule (from the schedule I had looked up online before the show). So I was hoping that the Offspring would come out even earlier.

Sadly that was not the case and we wound up having to wait the extra time, but thankfully it wasn't TOO bad.

One thing I noticed while waiting around was that, it was pretty packed in there, and we were sardined in quite nicely. So I began to wonder "will people even be stupid enough to attempt to mosh, considering there is ZERO room, even just by standing still??"

The answer was a resounding yes. Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups. Cuz as soon as The Offspring hit the stage the crowd went insane and a mosh pit broke out immediately to the side of where I was standing.

Now luckily I was more to the side of the club and not directly in the middle, so I wasn't pushed around too bad. And it was actually kind of fun to be right on the cusp of the mosh pit. Especially for a few of the crazier songs.

So yeah, the show was freakin awesome. They played for only about an hour, but that was fine, b/c they played pretty much every song I wanted to hear, including some older, rarer tracks. The band seemed to be having a lot of fun too, this being the smallest stage they've played since the beginnings of their career. So they were pretty interactive with their fans. Noodles (their guitarist) started to crack jokes, including two amusing (if childish) Michael Jackson jokes. They were all like "Why does Michael Jackson like twenty-nine year olds so much?" "Why?" "B/c there are twenty of them!" and the other was "Knock knock!" "Who's there?" "Michael Jackson" "Michael Jackson who?" "That's it, now here's 10 million dollars to keep it that way."

Oh and I just found the setlist for the show! This is what they played last night:

All I Want
Long Way Home
Come Out and Play
Cant Repeat
Want You Bad
Bad Habit
Tehran
Cant Get My Head Around You
Smash
Staring at the Sun
Kick Him When He's Down
Gotta Get Away
Kids Arent Alright
Have You Ever
Gone Away
Self Esteem

(I don't think this was the EXACT order, but it's close enough)

And you can see what other people thought of the show right here: http://www.offspring.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14021
(If I remember, I'll try to fix the link later so you can just click on it, since I can't do it here b/c of my stupid mac).

As for after the show, that was pretty cool too. They bouncers and roadies were pretty laid back and let just about anyone go "backstage." (There really isn't a room per se, just an area behind the stage with a curtain and stuff). So I went back there with a bunch of people and got to meet and say hey to all the band members really quickly. And I tried to get them all to sign my CD but the only one I was able to get was Dexter again (b/c initially he had signed the CD Jacket and I wanted it on the CD itself, so this time I got it). But that was alright b/c just the entire experience of that show was freakin awesome. I so wish I had a camera with me (I had run out of film the week before and I also didn't know if cameras would be allowed). Oh well, my bad. But the memories I'm sure would last me a lifetime.

So yeah, going to that show last night just made me think of a bunch of other cool concert moments I've had. I've actually seen and met some pretty big bands before, and I don't know if everyone knows about all those instances. So here are a few snippets of what happened at some of those encounters:

-Got a ride out to Philly with Rachael and one of her friends (sadly the name escapes me at the moment but I'm sure I'll remember it as soon as I post this), to go see Cake at the Electric Factory back in Nov of '01. Thing is, we didn't have tix. Rachael had met the drummer from Cake a few days before and he said he'd put her and some guest on the guest list. Well we showed up the arena and lo and behold, our names were NOT on the guest list. This really sucked as we had taken a good two and a half hour drive to even get to the place. Luckily Rachael's friend's brother and his wife were inside. So we called them and they came over near the entrance and we explained to them our story while we were outside. And well apparently the female guard that was standing there overheard our story and whispered to us- "Go ahead in." We were like "Whaaaa??" And she was just like "Come on." So we just ran inside. I proclaimed as we entered "You're awesome, I could hug you! Thanks!" And that my friends, is just about the luckiest a person can get at a show. B/c you NEVER hear about people just being let in like that (unless you have connections). So yeah, the show itself was really cool, and then afterwards we waited outside near the back exit for the band to come out. As soon as the drummer came out, Rachael went nuts yelling at him. He came over to us and apologized profusely for forgetting to put her on the list and to make up for it, he started giving us a bunch of stuff. We got the whole band to sign our ticket stubs, got a few pics with the band, they gave us some water (as it was hot out and we were all gross and sweaty from the concert) and finally they presented Rachael with a special huge cookie that was given to them by their Record company (I forget which it was but I believe it was Sony Canada) that had a pic of the bands logo on it along with some other stuff. So yeah, that was all pretty cool.

- A few weeks after that I went to go see Fuel and Sevendust at the Hammerstein Ballroom (12/01), but didn't have a ticket. I went with Jordan and his cousin worked as one of the roadies or bouncers there, and he let us in through the back entrance. As we walked in, we ran into the members of Sevendust and chatted with them very briefly before heading to the crowd to watch the show.

- Another few weeks after that (1/02) I saw Hoobastank at the Bowery Ballroom and after the show they hung around signing autographs so I waited around and had all of them sign my ticket stub and chilled with them a little asking a few questions and stuff. They were really nice guys.

-For the big Fordham Concert we had my senior year (3/02) I was part of the Concert Committee. So as such, we got to help BRING the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, the Dropkick Murphys and Jadakiss to the school to perform. Another cool thing being part of the committee was we got to serve as "assistant roadies" for the day. We helped bring in all the equipment, and even got sort of a special performance during their sound check. During the concert itself, since I had a staff t-shirt, I was able to get backstage and even ON the stage to skank around during "The Impression That I Get." And finally after the show I took one of the huge concert posters and got all the members of both the Bosstones and the Dropkick Murphys to sign it. I also got some of the Bosstones to sign one of my CDs and we chatted with all of them for a bit. It was a freakin awesome day.

-The other Fordham concert I was a part of was the Spring Weekend concert (4//02) where we got Wyclef Jean to perform. I met him backstage briefly as well.

-Met Weezer at the Virgin Megastore in Times Square. Jordan scored free passes to the free show they were having there and gave me the extra. So we got to meet the band and get their autographs on the new CD and then they put on a 10 song performance for us (there were maybe just about 250 people there). So that was freakin sweet.

-Me and Steve P. met Judas Priest (with Ripper as the singer) after their show up in Poughkeepsie, NY at the Chance back in July of '02. They were all really cool guys and I got them to all sign my ticket stub. They were quite friendly and hung around and chatted with the fans for a good amount of time.

-Saw Our Lady Peace in Central Park back in Oct. '02 in what was basically a very large tent near the ice skating rink there. It was a full acoustic set and we were RIGHT up against the stage mere feet from the band (so I got a bunch of great pics). After the show we met the band, I got Raine's autograph on one of my CDs, and we took a few group shots together. That was definitely a freakin highlight in my concert career (since OLP is one of my fave bands).

-Met Evanescene at the Electric Factory (4/03) after their concert. Got them all to sign my CD and chatted with them for about a minute, asking them about some songs off their original EP.

-Got to meet the members of Good Charlotte at a pre-concert Meet & Greet back in Oct 03. They were also pretty cool guys and got them to sign my CD, took my pic with them and they also put on a short acoustic set for us fans (there were less than 100 of us). Then the show itself rocked. [And as an aside this was the night of Game 7 of the ALCS between the Yankees and Red Sox. We watched some of the game on the TVs at the bar in Roseland after the show (I saw around when they tied the game). Then I ran to the train station and headed right over to the stadium (using my Supervisor ID to get in) enough to see the last two innings of the game, including the historic Aaron Boone homerun.]

-In Jan of '04, as a member of the Hoobastank fanclub I was able to score free passes to another pre-concert Meet & Greet this time with Hoobastank at the Nassau Collisseum. This was a freakin awesome time b/c it was basically we got to chill in the band's dressing room, which had a large screen TV that was showing the football game, and there were literally only BARELY 10 fans in there. So we all chatted, watched TV, took pictures (I got one with each member), got autographs, etc. We were down there for a full half hour. It was freakin awesome, and to this point is the coolest band meeting experience I've ever had (also doesn't hurt that the concert itself kicked all types of ass- it featured Story of the Year, Hoobastank, P.O.D. and Linkin Park).

And that's about it (that I can remember) in terms of MEETING bands, but there have also been a few other pretty awesome concert experiences I've had. A few notable ones were:

-Saw Metallica at the freakin Roseland Ballroom! It was actually the first time i had ever seen them. They only played tracks off Garage Inc, but it was still awesome. Then i followed that up a year later by seeing them again with the Symphony at MSG.

-I went to Woodstock 99- just WAAAAAY to many memories from that show to list here. But I must say it was the greatest concert experience of my life. (And just an awesome life experience in general).

-Saw 3 Doors Down, P.O.D. and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones in one show at Irving Plaza for only 92 CENTS! (This was back before 3DD and POD got huge, so that was pretty cool).

-DFP 4.0- one of the best "big" shows I've ever been too. Not only b/c of the band lineup (which was SOLID) but also b/c of some of the things that went on during the show, like me, my cousin Jay and Goombah running into the drunk guy at the food court and scoring a free meal from him.... ahh good times.

-Seeing The Living End at the Bowery Ballroom for like $4.27. They put on one of the most amazing performances I've EVER seen. Everytime me and Anita saw each other around for like the next YEAR me and her would just randomly shout "Best show ever!!!" (I'd still rank it within my top 10 for sure).

-Me and Joe V. getting on stage to skank with the Bosstones at the Chance and then stage diving. (This was also the show that What's Your Problem Brian? opened for them).

-Fuel & Aerosmith at PNC, mostly b/c not only was it a great show, but we had a troop of like 20 of us there. Much fun was had.

-My buddy Joey D winning passes to see StainD Unplugged at the MTV Studios and inviting me to come along. The place was tiny, we were right in the front, and you can actually see both me and Joey plenty of times throughout the DVD of the show.

-Getting to the front of the crowd and singing the chorus to a song with Oleander at Irving Plaza. Then catching one of the drummer's drumsticks at the end of the show.

-Saw Audioslave across the street from my old job play outside on the roof of the Late Show with David Letterman building.

-Won free tix to see Oleander and Nickelback at the World back in Jan of '03. Was a very kick ass show.

-Going to the free Green Day show outside of the J&R Music World back in Sept '04.

And HELL, it's just too hard to remember and list off all the other cool things. I KNOW I left out a few other AWESOME shows I've been to, but other than them just being great performances nothing else to really make note (which is why I didn't list them here even if they would be on my top 10 of all time). But if anyone has any concert experiences or any fun memories of shows we may have gone to together, feel free to share.

But anyways, this post has officially gotten WAY longer than originally intended so I will cut it off here. So Keep Rockin!

1 Comments:

Blogger NicaDomi said...

Dude....split up the posts. MY ADD can't handle it.

8:53 PM  

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