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annathepiperSo my brother's band came into town yesterday to play for a promotional gig sponsored by the local radio station KISW. I'd known that Outspoken was coming, and that they were going to be playing at the EMP, but for assorted reasons I'd forgotten about it until earlier this week when it occurred to me, "Well gosh, I'd better look this up." And Donnie called me up as well to remind me that they were coming, so I thought I'd better try to rustle up some tickets.
It turned out that the gig in question was specifically for the "Rock Girl Gala" that KISW was holding. This meant that the tickets were available only through the station... and that I had a bitch of a time this past Saturday afternoon trying to figure out exactly how I could get into the show, because I couldn't dig up an appropriate number to call, and the piece of email I sent to the DJ who was theoretically on shift at the time went unanswered. I was pretty much resigned to NOT going, until Donnie called me up again after the band had gotten into town.
I told him I couldn't get tickets. So he promised to get me and![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
solarbird in--two thumbs up on that. We were to be on Outspoken's GUEST LIST! And he even promised us backstage stickers. Way cool.
So Dar and I headed downtown by bus yesterday evening, after getting some pho, and hoped that maybe if we showed up early we could have some time to bop around the EMP a bit and actually check the place out before it was time for the band to play.
On the way in we started getting a taste of the kind of crowd that would be in there, though. Some young witty individual called out something derogatory about my shorts. And although I didn't catch it myself, Dar says that somebody called "bitch" after her when she blew off his attempt to hit on her.
We found the entrance Donnie told us to take, though. And figured out fast that the security was pretty damned lame, as the first person we cornered looked pretty confused about this whole notion of being on a guest list for Outspoken. He tried to get a couple other security people. THEY told us to sit tight. And it turned out, talking to them, that the table at which they were apparently handing out the backstage stickers and passes and stuff was CLOSED. Sigh. I'd asked Donnie if there was any particular time we were supposed to show up, but he hadn't specified one. The main part of the museum was also closed, so no luck in trying to find something to do to kill time while we waited.
Finally a fourth security drone showed up and she was amiable enough, but I noticed that all Dar and I had to do was say that we were on the guest list for Outspoken and she let us right in, pretty much. Didn't even ask for our names. Not very thorough security, I must say! I mean, I can't complain too much, we did after all GET IN, but I'm just curious now as to how many others might have snuck into the show just by showing up and saying, "Hi, we're with the BAND!"
Once we got inside, it got really obvious really fast that Dar and I were NOT the type to fit into this crowd. Just about all of the males in the crowd were gathered over by the stage where the KISW people were in the middle of showing off the "Rock Girl" candidates, while all their dates were over in the bar getting tanked. The activity on the stage was mindboggling stupid; I suppose that if you're a young, healthy, hormonal male there might be some appeal in watching a bunch of skinny young things cavort about in bikinis and high-heeled slippers, but the sorts of questions that the two guys in tuxes were asking them were "DRIVE A SPIKE THROUGH MY HEAD NOW PLEASE" annoying.
Things like, "What part of a woman's body do you find most sexy?" (I turned to Dar and piped, "'All of them! I'm queer!'")
And, "What are your three biggest ambitions in life?" I swear to gods one of them actually tittered, more or less (I forget her exact phrasing, but let's face it, it wasn't exactly eloquent discourse), "Well, they'd involve beer, cars, and, um, tee hee!'
At that point, Dar asked if we could go to the bar. Anything, we figured, had to be better than that. So over to the bar we went, in search of something to drink. Dar tried to pop into the ladies' room first--or at least, the "family" restroom which was the closest restroom in sight. A couple of drunk people kept looking really confused when a lady armed with a mop kept trying to go in there and actually CLEAN, and one guy looked seriously confused when he was told the restroom was actually occupied. Dar came out and told me after that every inch of floor and wall was tiled therein, and that was pretty much necessary since the state of the room was pretty much such that it would all have to be disinfected with bleach. Charming.
I joked weakly about hoping that if I whistled the opening bars of "Donkey Riding", I could pretend I was at a Great Big Sea show.
Once we got over into the bar that was marginally more interesting, since they had a little open mike thing going on and anybody could just come up and futz around with the guitar and amp they had set up. But the intelligence level of the local primates wasn't much higher. I think somebody tried to hit lamely on either me or Dar by trying to say "Hey, I was first--just kidding!" when the bartender took our order. Sigh.
Anyway, Dar wanted a strawberry daiquiri, but they didn't have any blenders. So we both wound up getting Long Island iced teas. But they sucked, unfortunately. Too damned much rum, and poorly mixed anyway.
Drinks in hand, we started making our way back through the crowd, trying to get to a decent place from which we might possibly catch Donnie's eye when the band came on stage. As we did, one of the Rock Girls announced that one of her ambitions was to be a rock star. Dar snorted and said to me, "'So why aren't you home, practicing your sweep arpeggios?!'"
Another of the chicks announced that her ambitions were to be "Master of the Universe", "Master of your penis", and "Master of the vagina." And oh, the witty repartee of the MC's reply: "I guess we'll just have to call you God!" Sigh.
One of the girls must have had friends in the audience, or else there were some queer chicks there. Because a few girls behind us started yelling quite loudly when Stephanie was on stage.
Finally, though, we did actually spot Donnie, and we yelled over and waved and got his attention, so he knew we were there. So that was good.
Right about then though I started feeling crampy--and figured out it must have been the sucky drink, of which I'd drunk only about a third. That wasn't so good, so I tossed the rest. Finally, the agony of the Rock Girls segment ended and Outspoken came onto the stage.
Not really my style of music, I must admit, and I also had a hard time actually keeping up with where one song ended and the next began, since the band didn't really have any distinguishable breaks between the songs. They just kept playing, non-stop, except for one break in the middle where the lead singer talked about the radio station and KISW playing the single "Farther" for them. Most of the music registered to me as "loud", which tends to make one song hard to stand out for me from another. But I did recognize "Farther" when I heard it, as well as bits of "Bitter Shovel".
I couldn't make out much of what was being sung, and wasn't really sure whether that was a function of the style of music or the crappy sound system. (Dar said later, on the way out, "both".) Mostly what I got was "loud", with occasional bits of the lead guitarist and very little else besides Donnie's drums.
That said, Donnie's a good drummer. Kept an interesting, pounding beat going. And I hadn't ever really seen him play live before, so that bit was all cool. Nor had I ever really realized how much of a physical workout a rock drummer goes through while he plays. I saw Donnie using pretty much all of his limbs back there.
The set was only 30 minutes, not even enough time for the band to do all the songs on their album. But it was enough time for me to notice another way that Dar and I didn't fit in at all with the crowd; we were dancing a bit, getting into the music, but with the exception of a couple guys up front who were getting into it, mostly everybody was standing around looking glassy-eyed.
Another way in which I'd wished I was in a Great Big Sea show. Great Big Sea crowds are LOTS more fun.
After the band's set was done, Donnie came out to say hi--and we saw that he'd been through a workout indeed playing, since he was pretty much soaked with sweat. We chatted for a bit, and he told us about how bits and pieces of the drumkit he'd been using (which wasn't his; the KISW people provided most of the gear they were using, the band wasn't even given time to get together and bring their own instruments) kept falling off. He kept trying to get his tour manager's attention to come and deal with it, since he was busy PLAYING.
Donnie also told us about how they'd had their recent tour plans rather screwed at the last minute, since the tour they'd been trying to arrange turned out to be way more expensive than originally anticipated, and the label claimed they couldn't justify that level of expense this early in the year and before album sales had really taken off. He was pleased though that I'd been talking about his album online. ;) And that I'd even gotten somebody in Scotland to buy one! And he gave me a few stickers. Heh.
Donnie had to run off for a bit and change clothes, and find out what their producer was up to and what the rest of their plans for the night were. He had a bit of a time finding us when he returned since the security droids started trying to herd people out... but once we touched bases again he told us that they were going to go hang out in one of the lounges that said producer owned. Due to the hour and Dar and I needing to take the bus home, as well as Dar and smoky environments not getting along, we opted out of accompanying him... so we exchanged hugs and Dar and I scrammed.
The monorail was closed. We JUST missed the last one, which was vexing. So we walked all the way back to where we had to catch the bus... which was mildly fun since we started singing as we went. Bits of "Donkey Riding" and "General Taylor". I'm sure we made people look at us funny as we passed, but well hey. ;) We also determined it's a bit hard to sing when you're walking!
All in all... not a bad evening. Even if the crowd and most of the show was deeply deeply stupid, I DID get to see my brother. I hope next time Outspoken plays locally, it's at a REAL show.
It turned out that the gig in question was specifically for the "Rock Girl Gala" that KISW was holding. This meant that the tickets were available only through the station... and that I had a bitch of a time this past Saturday afternoon trying to figure out exactly how I could get into the show, because I couldn't dig up an appropriate number to call, and the piece of email I sent to the DJ who was theoretically on shift at the time went unanswered. I was pretty much resigned to NOT going, until Donnie called me up again after the band had gotten into town.
I told him I couldn't get tickets. So he promised to get me and
solarbird in--two thumbs up on that. We were to be on Outspoken's GUEST LIST! And he even promised us backstage stickers. Way cool.So Dar and I headed downtown by bus yesterday evening, after getting some pho, and hoped that maybe if we showed up early we could have some time to bop around the EMP a bit and actually check the place out before it was time for the band to play.
On the way in we started getting a taste of the kind of crowd that would be in there, though. Some young witty individual called out something derogatory about my shorts. And although I didn't catch it myself, Dar says that somebody called "bitch" after her when she blew off his attempt to hit on her.
We found the entrance Donnie told us to take, though. And figured out fast that the security was pretty damned lame, as the first person we cornered looked pretty confused about this whole notion of being on a guest list for Outspoken. He tried to get a couple other security people. THEY told us to sit tight. And it turned out, talking to them, that the table at which they were apparently handing out the backstage stickers and passes and stuff was CLOSED. Sigh. I'd asked Donnie if there was any particular time we were supposed to show up, but he hadn't specified one. The main part of the museum was also closed, so no luck in trying to find something to do to kill time while we waited.
Finally a fourth security drone showed up and she was amiable enough, but I noticed that all Dar and I had to do was say that we were on the guest list for Outspoken and she let us right in, pretty much. Didn't even ask for our names. Not very thorough security, I must say! I mean, I can't complain too much, we did after all GET IN, but I'm just curious now as to how many others might have snuck into the show just by showing up and saying, "Hi, we're with the BAND!"
Once we got inside, it got really obvious really fast that Dar and I were NOT the type to fit into this crowd. Just about all of the males in the crowd were gathered over by the stage where the KISW people were in the middle of showing off the "Rock Girl" candidates, while all their dates were over in the bar getting tanked. The activity on the stage was mindboggling stupid; I suppose that if you're a young, healthy, hormonal male there might be some appeal in watching a bunch of skinny young things cavort about in bikinis and high-heeled slippers, but the sorts of questions that the two guys in tuxes were asking them were "DRIVE A SPIKE THROUGH MY HEAD NOW PLEASE" annoying.
Things like, "What part of a woman's body do you find most sexy?" (I turned to Dar and piped, "'All of them! I'm queer!'")
And, "What are your three biggest ambitions in life?" I swear to gods one of them actually tittered, more or less (I forget her exact phrasing, but let's face it, it wasn't exactly eloquent discourse), "Well, they'd involve beer, cars, and, um, tee hee!'
At that point, Dar asked if we could go to the bar. Anything, we figured, had to be better than that. So over to the bar we went, in search of something to drink. Dar tried to pop into the ladies' room first--or at least, the "family" restroom which was the closest restroom in sight. A couple of drunk people kept looking really confused when a lady armed with a mop kept trying to go in there and actually CLEAN, and one guy looked seriously confused when he was told the restroom was actually occupied. Dar came out and told me after that every inch of floor and wall was tiled therein, and that was pretty much necessary since the state of the room was pretty much such that it would all have to be disinfected with bleach. Charming.
I joked weakly about hoping that if I whistled the opening bars of "Donkey Riding", I could pretend I was at a Great Big Sea show.
Once we got over into the bar that was marginally more interesting, since they had a little open mike thing going on and anybody could just come up and futz around with the guitar and amp they had set up. But the intelligence level of the local primates wasn't much higher. I think somebody tried to hit lamely on either me or Dar by trying to say "Hey, I was first--just kidding!" when the bartender took our order. Sigh.
Anyway, Dar wanted a strawberry daiquiri, but they didn't have any blenders. So we both wound up getting Long Island iced teas. But they sucked, unfortunately. Too damned much rum, and poorly mixed anyway.
Drinks in hand, we started making our way back through the crowd, trying to get to a decent place from which we might possibly catch Donnie's eye when the band came on stage. As we did, one of the Rock Girls announced that one of her ambitions was to be a rock star. Dar snorted and said to me, "'So why aren't you home, practicing your sweep arpeggios?!'"
Another of the chicks announced that her ambitions were to be "Master of the Universe", "Master of your penis", and "Master of the vagina." And oh, the witty repartee of the MC's reply: "I guess we'll just have to call you God!" Sigh.
One of the girls must have had friends in the audience, or else there were some queer chicks there. Because a few girls behind us started yelling quite loudly when Stephanie was on stage.
Finally, though, we did actually spot Donnie, and we yelled over and waved and got his attention, so he knew we were there. So that was good.
Right about then though I started feeling crampy--and figured out it must have been the sucky drink, of which I'd drunk only about a third. That wasn't so good, so I tossed the rest. Finally, the agony of the Rock Girls segment ended and Outspoken came onto the stage.
Not really my style of music, I must admit, and I also had a hard time actually keeping up with where one song ended and the next began, since the band didn't really have any distinguishable breaks between the songs. They just kept playing, non-stop, except for one break in the middle where the lead singer talked about the radio station and KISW playing the single "Farther" for them. Most of the music registered to me as "loud", which tends to make one song hard to stand out for me from another. But I did recognize "Farther" when I heard it, as well as bits of "Bitter Shovel".
I couldn't make out much of what was being sung, and wasn't really sure whether that was a function of the style of music or the crappy sound system. (Dar said later, on the way out, "both".) Mostly what I got was "loud", with occasional bits of the lead guitarist and very little else besides Donnie's drums.
That said, Donnie's a good drummer. Kept an interesting, pounding beat going. And I hadn't ever really seen him play live before, so that bit was all cool. Nor had I ever really realized how much of a physical workout a rock drummer goes through while he plays. I saw Donnie using pretty much all of his limbs back there.
The set was only 30 minutes, not even enough time for the band to do all the songs on their album. But it was enough time for me to notice another way that Dar and I didn't fit in at all with the crowd; we were dancing a bit, getting into the music, but with the exception of a couple guys up front who were getting into it, mostly everybody was standing around looking glassy-eyed.
Another way in which I'd wished I was in a Great Big Sea show. Great Big Sea crowds are LOTS more fun.
After the band's set was done, Donnie came out to say hi--and we saw that he'd been through a workout indeed playing, since he was pretty much soaked with sweat. We chatted for a bit, and he told us about how bits and pieces of the drumkit he'd been using (which wasn't his; the KISW people provided most of the gear they were using, the band wasn't even given time to get together and bring their own instruments) kept falling off. He kept trying to get his tour manager's attention to come and deal with it, since he was busy PLAYING.
Donnie also told us about how they'd had their recent tour plans rather screwed at the last minute, since the tour they'd been trying to arrange turned out to be way more expensive than originally anticipated, and the label claimed they couldn't justify that level of expense this early in the year and before album sales had really taken off. He was pleased though that I'd been talking about his album online. ;) And that I'd even gotten somebody in Scotland to buy one! And he gave me a few stickers. Heh.
Donnie had to run off for a bit and change clothes, and find out what their producer was up to and what the rest of their plans for the night were. He had a bit of a time finding us when he returned since the security droids started trying to herd people out... but once we touched bases again he told us that they were going to go hang out in one of the lounges that said producer owned. Due to the hour and Dar and I needing to take the bus home, as well as Dar and smoky environments not getting along, we opted out of accompanying him... so we exchanged hugs and Dar and I scrammed.
The monorail was closed. We JUST missed the last one, which was vexing. So we walked all the way back to where we had to catch the bus... which was mildly fun since we started singing as we went. Bits of "Donkey Riding" and "General Taylor". I'm sure we made people look at us funny as we passed, but well hey. ;) We also determined it's a bit hard to sing when you're walking!
All in all... not a bad evening. Even if the crowd and most of the show was deeply deeply stupid, I DID get to see my brother. I hope next time Outspoken plays locally, it's at a REAL show.
no subject
Date: 2003-04-07 02:32 pm (UTC)Of course, he might also just have been drunk.
I'd forgotten about Master of Your Penis woman. My brain hurts again now.
no subject
Date: 2003-04-07 02:33 pm (UTC)