For sale: Used shoes, great at concerts

My friend M and I went to the Alkaline Trio concert last night. Since I wasn't real familiar with the band (this concert was M's pick), I decided to forgo the stressful "smuggling of the camera" foray ("will they find it this time, will they find it this time, shit ... what if they find it???"), since this venue (the Roseland) does a pretty good job of searching both body and purses. And I didn't want to get blacklisted* over a band I didn't yet care about (errr, no offense, Alk! ;)).

So we get there early enough to get our choice of front row seats up in the balcony. The balcony is "U"-shaped and we like one edge which puts us near the front, really close to the stage (the stage situated across the top of the "U"). These seats also keep us from having to stand for hours packed in like sardines on the general admission floor below, which more often than not, also turns into a huge elbow throwing mosh pit (hello, NO thank you!!). So not only do we have a nice safe seat, but we also have a great view of the band AND of the craziness down below (highly entertaining to watch, don't think it isn't!).

The crowd at this point is very thin. The doors just opened and it's only a little after 6:30pm. So not many folks at all. But about 5 minutes after we sit down, two twenty something guys sit down in the seats immediately to my right (M is sitting to my left). Dudes, they stink to HIGH heaven of alcohol. AND while one guy leaves to go get them beers (sigh), the other one starts chatting us up.

And don't get me wrong, they are very nice guys. So it's not like they are obnoxious drunks or anything; they are being very polite. But they are talking to us .... continually. M and I keep making eye contact and snickering under our breaths as it is pretty funny as they just don't.shut.up! But since they seem relatively harmless, all is good. And the guy next to me (ummm, I'll call him "Chris") says that Alkaline Trio is one of his favorite bands so he is VERY excited to see them. And his buddy ("Corey") hasn't seen them before so he's jazzed too.

So anyway, the first opening band The Fashion takes the stage, so everyone stops chatting. Well, almost everyone. Because, though Chris and Corey stop talking to us, they continue to talk to each other the ENTIRE time The Fashion is on the stage. Weird. I mean, first, didn't y'all pay good money to come and listen to the bands?? And secondly, trying to talk at a concert while a band is playing is NOT an easy feat, let me tell you! You basically have to position your mouth against the other person's ear and yell directly into their ear canal. Even then, you only catch about 20% of what the other person is saying. And yet, Chris and Corey seemed to be unfazed by it at all. Kudos.

After The Fashion finish (they did a good job, btw, look for them to gain in popularity in the states soon), Chris and Corey make another alcohol run (beer and shots! - double sigh). They come back and chat a bit with us and also with new folks who just sat down behind us. They are Chatty Kathys, let me tell you!!! And at this point, the venue is starting to fill in nicely with all the latecomers.

And again, once the next opening band, American Steel, hits the stage, Chris and Corey get lost in very intense conversations between the two of them, throughout the band's entire performance. What the..??? I tried eavesdropping (what? ;)) to no avail. Darnit!!! Cuz it looked like a really interesting conversation!! :)

Okay, so finally the opening bands are done, and the stage is getting set for Alkaline Trio. It's probably about 9pm at this point. Chris has slowed down considerably (he's been pretty hyper) and is sitting with his chin leaning on his propped up hand, eyes closed. He mumbles something to Corey and Corey bolts out of his seat and heads downstairs. M and I are transfixed, wondering where Corey is going. Is he getting a barf bag? Some food to soak up the alcohol?? Medics?? A souvenir t-shirt?? What???

Anyway, while Corey is gone, Chris rouses himself enough to lean over to me (argh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and mumble something. You know "The Mumble" I'm talking about? The kind which indicates the mumbler is NOT feeling well and must mumble because they don't have the energy to actually speak normally? Yeah, THAT mumble. NOT a good sign. Especially as this points his mouth in MY direction, and I have a fear that more than words will be spewing out of it shortly. And it takes like FIVE times for him to be coherent and loud enough for me to decipher that he is asking if I would like the beer he has on the balcony railing in front of him, of which he has taken only a sip. I know, right ... I told you he seemed like a nice guy. But uh no .... I give him the head shake, and hope he doesn't register the alarm I'm certain is written all over my face as I know that his evening is NOT headed in a good direction and that I will probably end up being part of it due to my very close proximity. Buggers!

He nods back off. Whew.

Corey shows back up and he has a bottle of water for his friend. Awwww. Isn't that sweet?! Unfortunately, instead of appreciating the fact that Chris seems to be comfortably sleeping this off, Corey thinks that giving his friend head noogies in an attempt to wake him will help the situation! (seriously, WTF???). Chris regains consciousness and grasps the water bottle that Corey shoves into his hands.

Two minutes later, Corey realizes that Chris has not had any of the water so opens the bottle and starts pouring some into Chris's mouth (oh, yeah ... this doesn't bode well!). I turn to M and give her the "oh shit" look. I turn back to find that Chris is leaning forward resting and Corey is looking at me over his back. I ask "so do you think he's going to get sick??" at which point Corey says "don't worry, I'm driving!". Ummm ..... okay, this isn't good. So while I'm looking at Corey in utter disbelief as he may not be three sheets to the wind, but he is certainly 2 1/2 sheets to the wind himself and definitely should not be driving, I feel M stand quickly to my left. I look up at her and see her staring in horror at Chris. I look over and realize he is vomiting onto the balcony railing right next to me. ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

So I'm up! And M and I do a quick shuffle to our left to exit the row and put some distance between us and The Smell. But not before I glance down over the balcony and see folks below also looking up in horror as some of the vomit makes it way down to the floor below (shudder!). Yeah, not good.

We find seats two rows back (which puts us in the back row as there are only three rows on each side) and quickly claim those. Corey gets Chris up and tries to guide him to the walkway behind us. I'm thinking he's going to take him home, but no ... he was just moving him away from The Vomit as well and sits him in other empty seats in our row, about 5 seats down from us.

Hmmm.

I figure I am now out of vomit range, but don't think they should still be here. Apparently the venue didn't either, as about 5 minutes later, security shows up and escorts them downstairs. Woot.

Everyone in this section is greatly amused (and kinda grossed out). As new people show up, there are stories and questions about "where were you during The Great Vomit Of '08?" flying around everywhere! And I swear there are also people snapping pictures of the vomit, which is easily visible on the wide cement balcony railing, with their Blackberries and then emailing the pics to their friends. (sigh, this is where I wish I had my camera with me. Wouldn't a pic of been a nice addition to this post??! (what? really? you think not??? Ah, come on!! :)))

About ten minutes later, Corey comes back upstairs. Everyone in the section waits with bated breath to see what he is doing back. He goes down to The Vomit, leans over, and reaches into it (ack) and pulls out ..... Chris's digital camera! Everyone "ewwwwwwwwwwwws" in disgust and Corey says, "yeah, am I a good friend or what?!" and we all break out in applause! Cuz really, that IS a good friend! What a hoot.

Anyway, the rest of the concert we spent watching folks stepping into those seats, amazed at their luck at finding such primo seats so late in the game! Yeah, until either The Smell hits them, or courteous folks nearby point out The Vomit puddle, in which case you see the confusion, the comprehension, the horror, the mad dash out of the area, quickly followed by intense scrutinizing of their shoes for any residual vomit. Hee hee ... so entertaining! (I know, I'm easily amused!)

Speaking of shoes though, I'm pretty sure I'll be burning mine. I swear my right shoe and sock felt wet with vomit during the rest of the concert even though I looked and didn't see any, and really don't think they got hit (it must have been close though). Still .... I'm no longer loving them, so we'll have to see. I'll throw them through the wash first and see if the love comes back. If not ..... shoe shopping!!!!! (I know, I know ... twist my arm, will ya?! :))

At any rate, I THINK Alkaline Trio put on a really good show, but really, my attention was elsewhere, so I can't do a proper review. I DO know though that they will always be known to me now as The Band Who Played At The Vomit Show!

* Fine! They probably don't "blacklist" you, but I would have had to walk the camera back to the car or given up camera batteries or something!

I Heart Matt Nathanson!

So I've gone to a few concerts lately so I thought I'd finally get off my butt and get you some pics!

First off in this post was the Lifehouse concert. Now, I'll get to the actual Lifehouse portion of this talk in a minute. But first I have to mention the opening band. I'd never seen him, or heard of him before, but am now madly in love with .... Matt Nathanson!!

Look how cute he is! (and yes, that might be my blonde hair in the bottom left corner which means I was back to stalking The Pretties ... but what of it!? :))

Oh so cute!

Not only was the music great, but the guy is freakin' hee-lar-i-ous!!! What a hoot. Here's a bit of him performing Rick Springfield's "Jessie's Girl" (which had T2 in 7th heaven, don't think it didn't, as she loveslovesloves her Rick)



Now doesn't he look like a fun time??

If you haven't heard his music before, go to his website and start listening. He's going to be a huge hit. Even though I swear he kinda reminds me of that actor on the tv show Psych. ;)

So then Lifehouse performed! Wonderful as always!

Let me give an "mmm mmm mmm" for T1 who loves herself her Jason!

Here's a little Lifehouse for you!



And I love this clip of their song "Broken".



And THEN ... the same week I head out to the same venue to see Dropkick Murphys. Check out the difference in the crowds! You just saw Lifehouse and the lack of security in front of the stage! Now check out DKM!



CRAZY, right??!! Makes it hard to watch the band as the crowd is just so freakin' entertaining!! I can't believe those security guys ... they had to be on watch the entire show, continuously physically yanking people out of the pit!!!

Not for me ... uh uh .... I'll stay safely ensconced up in the balconies for Crazy Crowd Shows! That's for sure!

Here's a better one of DKM performing my favorite of their songs ... "The Gauntlet".



After that show, I was shocked I was able to convince the same friends to attend another Crazy Crowd Show coming up in a few months! This one is probably going to be even a bit more wild so .... wish me balcony seats!!! :)

And last but certainly NOT least on this concert post, was the recent Bruce Springsteen concert here in Portland. You know I loves me my Bruce. And on my Bucket List I have listed front row at a Springsteen concert. Yeah, well ... it didn't happen AGAIN! ARGH!

First let me send out a HUGE thank you to T2 for suffering through the standing and waiting outside in the sleet (literally!) for hours to get in (general admission sucks!). AGAIN! T2, thank you, thank you, thank you! I know you and your pregnant self did that all for me and I SOOOOOOO appreciate it! You ROCK!*

But as in Los Angeles, we had about a fifty-fifty shot of our wristband number getting us into The Pit (the floor area closest to the stage). And AGAIN, we didn't make it! CRAZY! What's a girl got to do, Bruce?!! GAH! At this point I'm thinking my quest for the night in the Lincoln Bedroom and the flight in a Blue Angels jet are going to be easier than this Bruce front row one! Good lordy!

But anyway, even though we didn't have the pit, we still were pretty close. (relatively speaking, of course, as we were in a huge arena! Not so close had it been a small club! Just sayin' is all! ;)). Here's a couple of pics:

And here's a little blurb of him singing "Badlands". Man how I love how he'll just have the house lights on and you can look around and see everyone standing on their feet rocking out (uhh, not in this video, but ya know ... when there! ;)). Just doesn't get any better than that!



Still love you Bruce, even though I may never get to see you up close and personal! You know, like I did Matt Nathanson!!!

Woot!

Okay, so I think that's it on the latest concerts! Hope you enjoyed!

*also thank you for the use of some of these images!

This is "My Hometown"

I know, I know ... it's been awhile since my last post. Life has been crazy (and that hasn't been all bad! ;)). Work has been crazy too which has really sapped my blogging time. But here, finally, are some pictures from the LA trip!

First stop .... Citiwalk! T2 and I headed there for some late night grub after our arrival into LAX.

The next morning we headed out to the House Of Blues on the Sunset Strip to catch the Gospel Brunch with a few girlfriends of mine.

There was some good eats there but this gospel band in particular won't be one of my favorites.

Next off, I drag T2 off to Mann's (Grumman's) Chinese Theater to show her the ultimate in touristy!

There we found many, many foot prints. Such as:

Mr Tom Hanks:

Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward:

Roy Rogers and Trigger!

Shirley Temple:

Sly Stallone:

And last but certainly not least, the nicely big-footed (ahem) ... Johnny Depp!

Speaking of Johnny Depp, check out this actor available for picture taking right outside the theater. He wasn't bad. The Orlando character not so much .... but Capt Jack ... pretty good (though apparently not in this picture ... I know not why!).

We also saw the Kodak Theater ... home of the Oscars.

The Roosevelt Hotel:

And the Walk of Fame:

T2 also bought a map to the stars home (hehe ... that cracks me up) and so we became bonafide stalkers.

Bruce Springsteen's mailbox (the house appeared to be undergoing renovations):

This SAID it was George Clooney's place but we didn't agree (it just didn't feel right!). The view coming down from that place was pretty dang spectacular though...

And then in honor of my friend A who is Tom Hanks first cousin ... we stalked Tom Hanks (sorry Tom!).

The street was beautiful and normal ... the house hidden by gates ... but we believed this to be Tom's place when we spotted a security guard parked in a truck watching the house from two houses down. Of course, he spotted us as well and apparently two pictures was the limit because he pulled out and so we skedaddled (hello, 1-800-IMA-WUSS!!) :)

While trolling the Beverly Hills neighborhoods....

... we ran across an open house! So, we went in! HEH! Man, that real estate agent gave us the Stink Eye! But who cares, we got to tour a 6.5 million dollar home! Whoo hooo! Here's some pics. Oh, and for the record, those closets, yeah, his and hers. At first we just thought there was the one off the master and were oohing and aahing over that ... but no, his and her bathrooms and closets! Where do I sign up for THAT??

The master bedroom with veranda (LOVED me that veranda):

"His" closet and bathroom!

"Her" closet and bathroom!

And finally, the backyard!

We also hit Rodeo Drive! That's where we met our shoes. Sigh.

Here's Versace .......and also some chick with her horse/dog just out for a day of shopping!

And LOOK! We recognized this hotel at Rodeo Drive and Wilshire Blvd as the one used in the movie Pretty Woman!

We also tracked down the much acclaimed cupcake store called Sprinkles! Apparently we weren't the only ones looking for it! Check out this line! (OF COURSE we waited in the line .... hello, CUPCAKES!)

But the cupcakes were indeed yummy and I had to take a picture of the "Shot of Frosting" listing on the menu. Can you say "diabetic coma"!!!!

So after a day of hanging out in the nicest of areas, we're driving back to my mom's place in the rental car when suddenly I notice an engine light on and the car acting very sluggish. I look at where we are on the freeway and just inwardly scream "NOOOOOOOOOOO". Yeah, not a good area ... and we've got to exit the freeway.

T2, ever on the ball, takes note of the nearest gas station as we exit the elevated freeway and we limp over to it ... car doors locked! We let the car cool a bit and then MacGyver (errr, T2) pops the hood and puts more water in. I notice that it is just leaking right on out and so she futzes around a bit and sees that a hose has lost its connection. She puts it back on but we add more water and know it isn't going to hold because it is still leaking.

So we call Enterprise and complain that their brand new 2008 Ford Focus (with a whopping 397 miles total on it!!!!) is shot! They say they are sending help so we hunker down in the car and try to be invisible! Good thing I remembered that we had CUPCAKES! And before we could even polish off one each .... our rescuers arrived! They took a look at the hose situation and discovered that Ford had used a plastic band to connect the hose. You know, plastic ... the thing that expands and breaks easily when heated ... which is had. SHEEESH! Lame! Anyway, so they whipped out some handy-dandy zip ties to better complete the connection and we were off!!! As our tip to them, they are now Sprinkle cupcake eaters as well!! :)

The next day we headed out to the LA Sports Arena to stand in line for Bruce!!!!! Only to find out that numbered wristbands will be handed out between 2 and 5pm and so we had some time to tour around a bit more. T2 found a place called "South Park" nearby so we headed over there for some picture taking. Here's the park .... and a nicely graffitied tree! (yeah, doors locked in this area too!)

We then did a little shopping on the streets of downtown Los Angeles then met my friend L for some lunch at one of the restaurants outside her office building.

Then back to Bruce!! T2 did NOT know what she was in for with regard to Bruce-mania man. There was almost a thousand people there just with wristbands waiting to see which number would be called so we knew which lucky 500 people got to be in "the pit" (right in front of the stage). Apparently we used up all our luck not getting killed the night before when our car broke down so we weren't two of those 500 unfortunately! But we did well anyway and packed ourselves in probably three rows behind the pit folks. Here's a couple pics!



And true to form, my video taking while rocking out like a maniac doesn't make for the best video! But it's a crackup anyway. Here's a very short clip of Bruce performing "Born To Run". (warning: you may want to take Dramamine before watching this!!)



That's it! All in all a fabulous trip! Thanks to T2 for your mad MacGyver skills during the breakdown, for the general fun, and, most importantly, for your new concert purse with hidden compartment so we were able to sneak your camera into Bruce!!!!!!!!!! :)