2005-01-15 - 4:24 a.m.

one more entry then I must sleep

And now.... some of the cool stuff.

Thursday. Planes. Dead tired. Drove two hours to hotel, intended to sleep until dinner time, slept until 10, went downstairs to casino, ate nasty snack bar food, played video poker and lost $20. Went back to room at 11, stayed up until 2, went to bed.

Friday. Yay, show day! I couldn't keep the same hotel room (they were all booked up) so I got up at 7, packed everything up and took it to the car at 8am, and went down to start the line for the general admission show at 9pm that night (yes, that equals 13 hours of waiting, your point?). Walked around the corner to the front doors of the venue, and found two friends waiting there already (they'd been there about 10 minutes; they're as crazy as I am). We became a line of 3. Thank goodness the venue was inside the casino so we could line up indoors and on carpet.

9am, my band's production manager came around the corner on his way to the buffet, saw us and cracked up laughing. He picked on us for a few minutes then went to eat. Saner than we are.

Later on, more people came, most of whom we knew personally. It's nice to have enough people there in line that a couple of people can leave the line to go to the restroom or go eat and there are enough people to hold the spots without pissing people off. Of course some people do leave for hours leaving one person to do all the waiting, but they're not in front of me, so none of my business. It's also nice that I could leave my clothes in the car that I wanted to wear to the show, and change about 4pm, and not have to wear them in line all day. Yes I know. Kinda weird.

During the morning, the crew came in one by one and I was so happy to see all my favorite folks again! With a two-month touring hiatus I was afraid we'd lose some crew. But they were all back.

4:30 pm, soundcheck! We were outside the closed front doors so we couldn't see, but we could hear. One song they rehearsed has a "call and answer" type section, and when they called, we answered, LOUD. The tour manager and the merchandise guy were out in the lobby with us when we did, and they cracked up. The great thing about the crew is that when they're laughing at our crazy antics, they're laughing because they get a kick out of us loving the band and the show so much. After all, it's their show too. We appreciate the work they do and they appreciate our fanaticism (the non-dangerous variety that creates their livelihoods). Just love love love everywhere. We found out later from the venue manager that the band could hear us clearly through the doors and were quite amused. We love to entertain our band.

8pm, doors opened. There's always a panic that people behind will run, push and shove, and you'll have waited all day for second row or worse. There's really nothing you can do about it when people are going to be that rude. Luckily it didn't happen this time, and most of us got exactly the spots we wanted. I certainly did. Happy me! Nothing better than hanging right on the edge of the stage!

9pm, BAND! SHOW! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. It had been WAY too long. World's Best Guitar Tech gave me a stage towel after the show. One of my friends caught three guitar picks. I didn't get any - just happened to be in exactly the wrong spot for it - but that's okay.

Good thing, I shared a room with my friend after the show, and I hadn't seen her in person in over a year. Bad thing, since I hadn't seen her in person for over a year, neither of us could shut up! So we talked until 3am, which would be fine except that I had to get up at 6 the next morning to get on the road - 9 hours to drive to the next show the next night in the next state! Thankfully not another general admission show!

Saturday. Long drive, luckily cloudy but dry weather. I had thought about making some of the drive during the night, but I get lost easier in the dark, so might as well wait until daylight. Got to my hotel, ran into the same friends who waited in line with me all day the day before in the hallway. Caught up on some stuff online (yay high speed internet connection!), got dressed for the show and went out. Got wicked lost trying to get to the highway to get to the venue (this is why I leave 2 hours early for the show). Finally found a place that looked safe enough to stop and ask directions. Got directions back to the highway, but while following the directions, before I found the highway I actually came up on the venue. Still not sure how I managed that. But I was there.

I had been to this place to see my band a couple years ago, so I walked around a bit outside and reminisced about that time. Okay, so I also used the time to make a note of where the tour bus was parked. Sue me.

Then I went inside. They had pictures posted on the wall of bands who had played there in the past, so I was perusing those. I found the picture of my band from 2003, and right above it was a photo of Vinnie Paul and Dimebag Darrell. That really caught me off guard and I found myself standing there, glad I could pretend to be looking at the pictures waaaaaaay up high on the wall while trying to let the tears drain back into my eyes instead of rolling down my face. That was strange. I rarely have tears associated with shows by my band. There was the one rare circumstance where again, I was caught off guard on an emotional evening by a song that triggered a much different response than usual, but that's a whole separate story. Anyway, this was odd, and I was hoping that I'd get control of myself back before someone I knew came up. Only because if I'd had to explain why I was crying, it would have started it up again full speed.

Finally got myself together, found the ladies' room and fixed my makeup. Then I stayed the heck away from that wall!

Great show. A bit annoying since they wouldn't let us stand up. The people around me weren't complaining, but turns out the venue doesn't like it when you stand up because you block the view of the waitresses trying to get people to buy more drinks. I stood up as much as I thought I could get away with without getting arrested. But - still a fantastic show, even though a lot of the fans, and the band members too, were frustrated by the sitting rule! Sometimes the band can set the security standards but sometimes the venue overrules!

Saturday. No wait, that was Saturday. Sunday. Up again, not so early this time since it's only a 2 hour drive to the next show. Run into other friends in the lobby who are going home after this show. Drive to next show in next state. Check into hotel, call friends (yet again different ones) who I'll be meeting up with at a bar to pick up tickets, eat and watch football.

Leave to go meet friends, miss the bar so decide to drive the couple of extra miles down the road to check out the venue. Take a couple pictures and go back and find the bar. Meet online friends, and their local friends. Entry to come later about one of those friends.

Go to show. This time I had 2nd row, next to two friends. Of course we attempted to upgrade ourselves, but security put everyone back who didn't have a front row ticket, even though we weren't standing in front of anyone who should have been in front of us. Oh well. That's how it goes and they were being very nice and fair about it. And my 2nd row seat was still not far from the stage, and far enough out on the side that there wasn't anyone in front of me. And we were not only allowed but encouraged to STAND UP! Hallelujah!

At the sides of the stage, on the floor in front of the stage, were about four speakers on each side. They were the same height as the stage (about four feet tall), and when there's a setup like that, a couple of the boys in my band are going to be standing right out there on top of them. They like to be as close to the audience as possible, toes hanging over the edge and all. These weren't 100% stable though, and one of the crew had put a piece of tape on each one and written "don't step here" on the tape. Two of the guys paid attention and didn't step out onto them, but the other two walked right out there. I didn't know if it was a case of not seeing the writing, or if it was just them thinking, "Don't step here? That can't mean me, I'll just be careful." Have to love my boys and their egos.

So toward the end of the show, the bass player steps out onto one of the speakers, and it rocks and he completely loses his balance and has nothing to grab onto. I was only a few steps away from the speaker and without even thinking, I was there, steadying his guitar with one hand and getting ready to brace his leg with the other if he fell forward any further. He finally got his balance back, then grinned down at me and said, "I almost fell!" Geez. He's nine years old and that was FUN. I didn't even think about it until after, but it's a good thing I had a very common-sense enabled security guy there in front of me. When he saw me suddenly rush at the stage and grab one of the band, he had the sense to figure out WHY, and turn around and help me, instead of just immediately reacting to push me away. I could have been in trouble there, but on the other hand, I'm not going to just let one of my band go SPLAT on the floor. Then when it was all taken care of, I popped right back to my place; security didn't even have to tell me to move back.

After that show all my friends were heading home - however, I had one more show to go and a few days to get there, and I had the luxury of some sightseeing time in between. With this trip, I covered two more new states - I've now been to 46 states!

Okay, that's way enough for this entry...

my mood -

the mood of the whole world wide bleepin' web -