If someone would help me find a free image hosting site, I'll share some of my pics.
The dreaded Line I got there about 515, and the doors were scheduled to open at 7. There was several people there considering we still had about an hour and a half's wait. The heat was horrible. We were leaning against the building, and it had a shade thing, but that doesnt do much good when the sun's going down. I thought I was going to get sunburned. There was a building a few blocks away that had the time and the temperature displayed. While in line, I watched the temp go from 95 to 105 then back to 95. I had to take off my necklace because it was burning me and my chapstick in my pocket melted. It was hard to lean against the wall, because it was hot as hell, too. I think there's a greyhound bus station a block or two away because 2 or 3 passed by the line. We all flipped them off...that was fun. I had prepared myself to be waiting until at least 730, but i got in about 715.
I got my camera in! how? i have no idea The 4 times I'd been to the sunshine theater before, they didnt pat the females down, because there were no female security guards. So I put my digital camera in my sock. However, while in line, I saw a female security guard walking around....shit. When I got further up in line, I heard "males to the right, females to the left". I saw them thoroughly patting down both sexes. SHIT. I decided to take my chances that she'd get lazy and not find it. I wasnt so lucky.
her: "whats that in your sock?"
me: "a camera" (i didnt lie cuz i knew she'd say what she did next:)
her: "let me see"
*i took it out*
her: "we dont allow cameras"
me: "can i put it in my car?"
her: "yeah"
*i left to go back to where i'd parked my car, then she came running after me*
her: "sorry, i lied. we allow disposables, you're fine"
me: "oh, ok" i was very confused because mine was *digital*...not disposable...but i didnt say anything..i just put it in my pocket before she could see it again and realize her mistake
her: i already patted you down...you can go in
*and i did*
So...yeah...I got a TON of kick ASS pictures...:-D Lets hear it for stupid security guards!! WOOOO!!!
People I met and re-met Once inside, there was this guy next to me who looked about my age, or younger. He asked me "wanna buy a ticket?" i just laughed and was like....no. him: "yeah, i guess its kinda late, huh?" we started talking and it turns out he's 22. Damn. He was only about 5'7 and really did look about 15 or 16. him: "yeah, i know i look 14" me: (trying to be nice) "no, you look more like 17 or 18" I also saw shauna winchester there...That kinda confused me cuz from what i knew of her at jefferson, she didnt seem like the kind of person that would be there. but...hey...whatever. i also saw kaye eldridge. i didnt say anything to her, though.
The nice techie By the time goldfinger was setting up, I had gotten SO thirsty (and so had the rest of the crowd)...so I asked a security guard if he could bring me some water... he said "no, we cant do that" umm...what? i know the bands have a practically unlimited supply of water bottles that they throw out into the crowd and onto the crowd...you cant spare just one??? but i didnt say anything....I decided to try again. I was at the very front, and some guy was setting up the cables for the mics less than a foot or two away from me. i asked him if he would. he said yes. :-) he went backstage and came back with about 4 bottles. he gave one to me, and the other 3 to random people in the crowd. So, HA! take that, mean security guard!!! :-P I downed about half the bottle in one gulp, and by then the people on both sides of me were begging me for some. i gave some to the people on my left, then some to the people on my right, took it back, then just put my arm behind me and gave it to whoever grabbed it.
Goldfinger's props I laughed when I saw it. Darrin's drum set was raised up on a little mini-stage and on it were 3 gnomes, 3 deer (one with a gnome's head) and on the sides 2 penguins. one penguin had a wig on and had written on it "go vegan OR DIE!" and the other penguin i couldnt really read, but i'm pretty sure it said " go metric OR DIE!" both amused me. I took a picture of it...I know ellie will appreciate the gnomes.
The BITCH next to me For goldfinger's set, they put these two...amp cases kinda. they were there to protect them from anyone who wanted to step on them. they even had grip tape on the top for that purpose. anyway, they were about 2 feet high, and the stage was already about 3 feet high...that means any short person in the front who got stuck behind one of the amp-cases things was screwed. But, I got really lucky and got THE perfect spot right between them. :-D All of a sudden the whole right side of the crowd pushed and I was behind the corner of one of the ampcases. Not only that, but everyone to the left of me was even more squished than we were before. A minute or so later, a girl was getting pulled out of the crowd by a security guard, so this girl to the left of me said to everyone in the front row: "okay, when she gets out, everyone push back!" and this BITCH to the right of me said "no, i actually like my spot right here." because she'd gotten the perfect spot between the two ampcases. i couldnt believe it. i mean, sure, i did want my spot back, but we were also getting the hell squeezed out of us from all sides and we all wanted some relief. Then, later, this same girl (who i'd so generously given water to earlier) had her elbow digging into my hip. I put up with it for quite a while, but then i finally (politely) asked "could you move your elbow? its digging into me" her:" no, its too crowded, i cant move" which would've been a perfectly fine and acceptable answer had we been a row or two back, because it really was that crowded. HOWEVER....we were at the front...we were leaning against the stage. there were no barricades!!! :-D me: "you can stretch your arm out onto the stage" which was what i was doing. her: "no", a dirty look, and thats it. just a plain no. no for no reason. no just because she wanted to piss me off. i yelled "you BITCH!" to her face but i dont know if she heard or understood me because it was pretty loud. hehe...that was the first time i'd called someone a bitch to their face and meant it in a mean way...I now have a bruise there, too.
Getting out of the crowd About halfway through gf's set, i decided to leave and see if I could find mest in the merch area. the crowd was so tight, though, that i couldnt even turn around, let alone turn around and make my way through. So, since I was already at the stage, I just got on the stage and left that way. The security guards were used to that, though, because thats how the crowdsurfers were getting down.
I lost... a ton of stuff. I'd bought 2 mest shirts (one for my friend who couldnt go) and a sticker pack. I lost the sticker pack, but managed to keep track of the mest shirts. I thought, "well, no problem, i'll just buy more stickers. i brought plenty of money"....but it was gone. i lost about $50 in the crowd. Whether someone took it out of my pockets or it just fell out, I'm still not sure, but neither would surprise me. Well shit. What was I going to get autographs on? I still had my wallet in my back pocket and rummaged through it. I had a little business-card sized calendar that I could spare. I decided to use that.
Meeting the bands Last time i saw mest, with UL, there was almost no one in the merch area. 3/4 of mest kinda wandered through without being hounded. this time, however, there were a ton of people there. matt had a huge crowd around him and so did tony. i didnt see jere or nick. so i got in (kind of) line and got autographs and pics. I got all 4 mest guys' autographs on the calendar-card. Then I saw this little table on the side of the room that had a little tv on it and it was playing the animal-cruelty tape over and over. I'm not sure if it was the same one as GF has on their cd, but i dont think so. There were pamphlets about veganism and a stack of cds that had the video on it. I grabbed one of both and decided the back of that would be a better autograph-getter. Nick wrote: "i'm evil, I eat meat!" on it, and matt drew a pic of a pig saying "eat me!" he's a pretty good artist...I eventually got everyone from both bands sig on it except for kelly...i couldnt find him.
funny stuff... When matt was signing autographs for people, tony casually walked by and nonchalantly pulled matts pants down. it was so funny....matt pretended not to notice for a while.
brian and jere did whaa...? After the show, I was just hanging around outside, and brian, gf's guitarist, was talking to some girl. there were two other girls talking to each other, but no one else was really around. then jere came over and started talking to brian. i wasnt really paying attention to them, i was looking around, watching traffic, etc...But then I looked over just in time to see jere lean over, both of them puckered up, and they kissed. it was just a peck, but it was definitely there. i tried to listen to their conversation afterwards to figure out if it was a dare or something, but i couldnt really hear.
My friend asked nick if they were coming back in the fall and he said "september, november, yeah, i guess thats fall", so YAY!!! Their 3-month thing stands!! :-D