Sadieandleo

August 19th, 2008

My partner in crime, Ricky, and I went to the show of shows on Tuesday night here in Tucson, at The Rock. Getting to the show was like a comedy of errors, absolutely the best kind of preface to a most amazing evening. Nothing that runs smoothly has a very exciting conclusion, this being the pinnacle example of that. We both had to be up pretty early that day, it being the day we were supposed to get our new register system installed at the Eagle. Nothing goes without a hitch there either and to both of our dismay the new registers didn’t happen, so the day was long and dragged because it was just another day at work with nothing to distract us and take up the time before we went to the show we were looking forward to for so long.

Finally!– we are off, I agreed to drive because Ricky’s usually the chafferer for everyone else/I never get to drive with Mike, I like driving, I feel cool, that’s really the only reason. I go to pick him up at his house, and let’s just say he literally lives in the desert almost up a mountain. Seriously. Now, historically there are three things I do very badly: math, gymnastics, and reading and understanding directions and maps. I mean there are probably a ton of crap I do badly, but those are the top three. And I don’t mean like pummel horse or balance beam gymnastics, I just mean I’m not actively dexterous or flexible. Where the hell am I going with this… my point exactly! It should take 15 minutes from my house to Ricky’s house but since I got lost twice, er, three times, it took almost triple the time (but I think I only admitted getting lost twice, and only now am spilling my beans, oh well…) I finally get Ricky and we’re off! Hooray!

Driving, tra la la… OMG I FORGOT THE TICKETS!!! In a panic, I mean panic!– I u-turned like nobody’s business and had to backtrack to my house to get them. Tucson isn’t very big but no matter where you need to get to it’ll take an exuberant and almost unnecessary amount of time to get there. But not the trek home and back, I must have been on the wings of concert angels because I think round trip for the retrieval took about ten minutes when it should really have taken about a half an hour. So that was the start of our adventure…

We get to the place, and with a little help from his GPS phone thingy we get almost lost in a little web of turn here for your destination, no here, no now go left, go right, go straight up a camel’s ass… GPS is hilarious when it can’t pinpoint your location exactly, it just knows that you are there but it wants to get you right on top of the place. We park, I scratch my hubcap, don’t care and we get out. We’re walking up to the place and we run into AE Jon who is playing the show with his band Tonight We Have Rhythm, he’s nervous, smoking and shaking, understandable, playing in your town with two very amazing bands. We get in line and it is just an array of bubble gum, eye liner, long and big hair, stripes and neons, girl jeans on boys, and fun fun fun. Surprisingly I wasn’t the oldest person there and also of note, there were normal looking kids there too. I don’t know why that surprised me because we were normal looking so why wouldn’t there be other “normal” looking people.

We get inside and it is crazy small, for those of you who grew up clubbing around Manchester it was like The Web only without that wacky seating arrangement, so it was just stage and floor. It was going to be sardine city. Oh, and it is about 100 degrees outside and that made it about Burning Hell degrees inside. But I loved the place, it was seedy and dirty and awesome, exactly how it should be. Now we wait. Ricky met up with a ton of people he was really good friends with in high school, good, now we have our own crowd. You could tell this crowd was young and rough and ready to bring the pain. No seats, only sweaty bodies all clamoring to get as close to the stage as possible.

The first band comes on, the front man is obnoxious and obviously coked up and if he wasn’t, well then he needs some serious attention. They were crappy but some people dug it so who am I to judge really. Their set was way too long though and then we had to wait again. My friend’s band came on and they did their thing and they were awesome! It’s a really cool thing to see someone you know, someone who you see in everyday situations totally rock out on stage and really be able to show what they love to do. It was great, and their sound is right up my alley, so I know there are good things to come from this band. Keep a look out!

Mayday Parade are next and they were super great! At this point the crowd is going crazy.  Slamming up into me and everyone else.  And you know there was that girl and that guy.  Those people who have total disregard for anyone else and just completely bust out and not care if you get a fist in the face or an arm to the gut; as if that can be called dancing.  I think it was at that point that Ricky and I decided that if you can’t beat ‘em (and we did literally beat those two) then you might as well join ‘em.  So we did, we danced, we sweat and we slammed back!  It was hilarious and awesome and such a rush.  I’ve always wanted to do that and not care how much it would hurt or how I would look, and I’m so glad I did.  That set was great but we were really there for the next band.

Forever The Sickest Kids were incredible!  I was so taken at how comfortable and happy they were to be on stage.  I’ve never seen a band like this play, they were all ecstatic to be there and really belted out everything they had.  That’s a show.  They were animated and energetic and that is what moved the crowd, or at least that is what moved me.  I had to go to those energy reserves that I didn’t even know I had to keep up, but you know what I did.  A year ago I never would have been able to do that, so it was such a personal triumph for me.  I was totally taken away and forgot who I was, where I was and what was going on in my life and just left it out there the way the music did.  It rocked.  That’s what it did.

It was one of those nights, the best kind.  Ricky and I left the place and our bodies were all wiggly and tired.  We couldn’t hear until late the next day, and I think I haven’t yet caught up on my sleep from that night.  That’s the rock and roll lifestyle I guess (I am so hardcore… not really.)

Okay, here’s the ultimate biggie of the night!!!  Ricky caught a drum stick from FTSK and he gave it to me!!!  How wicked awesome is that!