stevienowonder

there was no way to get advance tickets. andy and i played some CS that day, had some taco bell, and headed for detroit. after using a slightly unorthodox route (which turned out suprisingly well) to get to alvins, we waited in line, in the freezing cold, for doors to open. there were a ton of kids for alvins (alvins is a small bar in detroit) and it was tight packed. we noticed a really fat kid smoking, and that always cheers me up. we waited and waited and finally alia showed up. we celebrated her arrival, and waited for the bands to start. the first band up was the St [something] Boys Acedemy.

the St [something] Boys Academy played a pretty normal ska-punk formula, and the band were all very large, and sported greaser style hair. they wore matching outfits, and made sure to let us know they were from detroit. at any rate, not alot of skanking too place.

next on deck were Big D and the Kids Table. Big D had plenty of energy and seemed to have a light hip hop influence. i liked them for sure, im looking for their album. Big D featured some occasional skanking, although mostly by andy.

Then MU330 was on, playing a quite good, if a little overdone ska-punk. they bought the beats and there was increased skanking by all.

The Voodoo Glow Skulls. calling themselves "ska influenced punk" they were definatly more abrasive than the other bands. apparently some people had complained about their involvement being that they werent "straight ska". the vocalist was quick to point out to all of us that there were no real ska bands on this tour, and they were all ska-punk bands. he was very fucking angry. i was not into the Voodoo Glow Skulls, as i never have been.

while we were at the merch tables between bands, i apparently stepped on some girls foot and didnt notice. what i got was a huge scene bitch yelling things like, "maybe youre mistaking me for someone who wont beat your ass." andy and i made fun of her in our own way (the way where she doesnt understand shes being made fun of) her and her drunk friend later made asses of themselves on the dance floor. it was fucking rediculous. yeah that was the only 5 minutes they were out there too, the rest of the time they just hit on the scene boys. i really hate people like that, dressed up all nice to see a concert. i cant dance because my sweat might ruin my makeup.

as gods to thrones, Streetlight Manifesto ascended to the stage. they played a long set of all their material, with improvisation and jam sessions, and even a medely. Tomas Kalnoky bitterly played some catch 22 songs and referred to them sarcastically as "covers". Streetlight is one of the most amazing bands ive seen live. period. they have true musical muscle and arent afraid to flex a little. i danced through the entire set. streetlight brought a ton of crow comraderie, and a ton of energey both from the crowd and onstage. i broke my glasses.

after the show, and subsequent encore, i picked up a hoodie and some stickers. i would have gotten more, but it was damn fucking expensive. alia locker her car inside a parking garage so we had to take her to her boys house. i had class the next day, so we tucked in after dennys.

alright, so i was super excited about this concert. Against Me! AND the Blood Brothers?

i drove to pick up alia. andy and danny are waiting at dannys. alia forgot her ticket last time, so i asked if she had it. and no, she didnt, so 20 minutes later, were in the same place with the ticket, with alia, and i get andy to go to my house and grab the digital camera.

we get to my house, jump in the andymobile, and jet. were driving. im thinking. i check my pockets. no ticket! andy says hell buy me one at the door, so we dont have to turn back. so we drive drive drive. alia has some wine, and theres soda and such.

we arrive in detroit. we pay a man 3 dollars and a gulp of captain morgans to park, and go to the entrance. its sold out.

FUCKING SOLD OUT.

so, we pow-wowed. danny suggested deja vu, someone suggested waiting at the bar, but then, i decided, ill take the keys and make the hour and a half round trip back to my house to get the tickets.

i get back in time for blood brothers, i totally miss against me. well, the blood brothers were amazing as usual. crowd was alright, except kids trying to hardcore dance, which, you cant do to the blood brothers so... they were retards. the pit queen was there, and some other concert regulars too.

i got a limted edition record version of electric children, andy and danny got the same BB shirt/jacket/thing, then they both wore it to dennys. i ran to the bank with alia, and in the darkness, ran into a pine tree branch that hit me in the face. which sucked. knocked my glasses right off. we dined, and then went home.

all in all, we made a good night out of a sucky accourance.

so we went to the show on matts birthday. so what, right?

we had tickets.
we saw people, we saw bands play.

notably everytime i die, and dillinger escape plan.

um good times.

andy thought his thumb was broken.

the end.

hi. my name is sam and tonight (three nights ago (backdated)) i went to a show. grabbed alia round 5 30, had to drive/buy cigs cause she lost her liscense proof of insurance and registration. the trip was generally dangerous uneventful, but wrap your mind around this for one fucking second. this sequence of events boggles my mind.

drive into parking lot.
pull around.
pay the parking man. (6$?)
pull over to the man whos pointing to a parking spot.
get out of car.
SECOND HOMELESS PARKING MAN DEMANDS THREE DOLLAR TIP. (3$)

alright. what i cant seem to understand is why the hell it would cost me almost ten fucking dollars to park in detroit. considering i ran the added risk of finding my car on blocks or stereoless, i think they might want to add some security for that hefty fee. you could argue that i didnt technically HAVE to pay the second man three dollars or even two, but how many crack addicts have you stood between their fix and them? not many id wager.

alright, whatever. that was a stupid rant anyhow eh? on to the show.

emanuel rocked fairly well. theyre green and it shows. energetic, but somewhat bland. alia and i stood near the back and chatted for the duration of the set.

the bled shredded the house with some metal edge, (no relation to the magizine) and there was a grand amount of rocking out during their set. i highly recommend seeing them when they come to TEXARKANA, TEXAS. just dont see them with senses fail. more on this story after the break. (i plan on picking up the bleds album(s).)

during silverstein a few interesting things happened. first. concert buddy and general compadre andrew gsperich showed his ugly mug after coming from work. second. jason, lead singer of the band Two Weeks Notice was spotted in the crowd. pulling him aside, we learned that kyle was also present. less rocking out during silverstien though.

then senses fail came on and they sucked but alia and every other girl at the show was in love with them and the end bye.


PS - eternal sunshine on the spotless mind is coming to deeveedee soon. get it if you have any taste in flicks.

today, after gatherin my compadres and heading south to ann arbor, Andy, Josh, Matt, and myself entered the Blind Pig. the Blind Pig is a bar in ann arbor, where at some degree of frequency, bands play at. we arrived fashionably late, seeing the last half of the performance of The Ninjas. they were alright indeed.

up next was I Voted for Kodos, another ska outfit, with a talkative lead singer/trombonist and a refereetee clad bassist. halfwy through their set Andy and myself joined in and danced the skank, the dance most oppropriatly associated with ska. Matt joined us a few songs later.

there was a long break before Mustard Plug took the stage with musical gusto and a competent horn section. Matt, Andy and i rushed the pit, skanked like there was no tommorow and took no prisoners. my complaint is that there were people in the ska pit not skanking and instead pushing people. they were fuckers, and most of them were taller than i am.

Mustard Plug rocked valiantly into the night, but we chose to leave early becuase of a sever case of skank pain. dennys was hit up, then we all returned to our seperate houses for sleeping. except me, because im writing this right now.

later.

afternote: at this time, Josh was recovering from ravens second brutal attack on his heart and soul. its sad to see someone in this state. the outward appearance of joy only slightly covers what the observant can see. you can smile and never dance. this is the major problem with the human race. its not hate. its the plastic emptiness that is heartbreak.

afternote too: everybody send their love to josh.

so me and andy decided to go see dillinger. we were about two hours late and had only 75 cents left after tickets, and i was running on 5 hours of sleep. we got there as planes mistaken for stars was playing. we kinda stayed near the back for that one, and crawled up to midcrowd during during intermission. the bronx then proceeded to take the stage. approx halfway through their set andy goes and joins the pit, while i hang back. being a los angeles based band, their enigmatic singer had much to say about the basketball championships. they were pretty intense, and the guy did have stage prescence, so id say they palyed an impressive set. we moved forwards after their set. while we were waiting, i commented on this DUDES headband. i said it was pretty cool. he then replied ...

"whatever"

now. i was not going to let that slide so i say something to this dude along the lines of, you dont just whatever a complete stranger who takes time out of his time to tell you he enjoys your fashion choices. somewhere in here, he decided im being smart with him or some other such shit. so hes all "lets take it outside" now i didnt want to take it outside, i had no intention of being a dumbass and fight in the streets of detroit when i was already out passed my probationary curfew and didnt need the trouble of a fight anyhow, notwithstanging the fact that i would miss the only band i really came to see.

this guy basically dissapears, cause nobody would join his cause, i didnt see him for the rest of the night.

so dillinger comes on. andy makes the comment that the singer (who is insanely muscular) was the one who got the least excersize on stage, yet dwarfed even the mightyiest of guitarists. not in height, but in sheer mass. so dillenger starts in on their brutal set. the pit forms behind me, and andy does his pitmonkey thing, while i, at the front edge of the pit, twist shout, and dance my chubbly little ass off. depsite not knowing any of the songs, my spidersense like musical reflex ability let me guess the breakdowns to a fairly accurate degree, no matter how recklessly dillinger fucked with tempo. at the mid-end of dillengers set, a bouncer comes and stands basically in the middle of our side of the pit, doing what he can to prevent stagedives and other such crowd fun. i was off in my little spazcore world, trying to do some of my more complex manuevers, such as the air grasp the the dip, but i was prevented by limeted knowhow of the songs paired with the close proximity of the crowd, but brotherhood abounded.

after the show goodness, a exsausted andy and i, paid off some local bums with quarters, went to my car, duct taped it together a little, and chilled to mike doughty on our way to dennys. then, after nightly snack mode (french toast), we came back to brighton.

thus ended a good two hour late, almsot too broke to go to show. it was a good time and im glad i went.

nothing... i have nothing to write here.