Live music – kristilynk

A strange concert experience….

A friend of mine invited me to go with her to watch the mid 1980’s British Rock group, The Cult, play at the Celebrity Theater in Phoenix this past Thursday night. Normally, I would not go to a concert on a “school” night nor would I pay an outrageous amount of money to see The Cult play…BUT..I didn’t have to work on Friday AND my friend had a hook up so we were able to buy tickets for only ten dollars opposed to the sixty to eighty dollars a seat the venue was asking!

I picked Denise up at six and then went to her friend Bubba’s house, he was coming with us. I had never met Bubba before so introductions were done and before we left he wanted to show me The Scottsdale Beer Museum. Basically, it is a wall in his garage dedicated to beer ~ of all the beers, in all the world, Bubba’s favorite is Pabst Blue Ribbon ~ Yes, you read what I wrote ~ Pabst Blue Ribbon. He has a little shrine specifically for all things PBR. There is not much more I can write about the “beer museum” so if this type of thing interests you…you can read more here: http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/jackalope/2011/03/bradford_whickers_beer_can_and.php

Moving on, we piled into the Jetta and rolled on out. When we pulled into the parking lot of the Celebrity Theater..there were maybe ten cars?? Confused, we walked up to the box office to get our tickets and figure out what the deal was. Well, turns out we were like two hours early. What to do, what to do?

Bubba has a friend who works with The Papago Brewing Company in Scottsdale where there are beers o’ plenty and Bubba tells us the pizza is amazing.

We were greeted by this fella:

I took this picture off of their website: http://www.papagobrewing.com

We ordered a T-Rex pizza ~ Pepperoni, sausage, bacon, ham, red sauce, and mozzarella on super thin crust..DELISH! I was driving so I was not able to over indulge in the beer but I was able to buy a half pint of the Orange Blossom Ale and it was oh so good!

I don’t think I have been able to get a half pint anywhere? It’s the cutest little thing and it made my mouth happy!

We ate, drank and scootched back to the concert event.

We should have stayed at the brewery a little longer. I have no idea where the promoters found this group but the opening act was so boring! Isn’t the opening act to be a lively group – you know – to get the old people in the audience pumped up for the main event? I was and still am so confused as to why this trio was able to go on tour with The Cult? I will let you decide for yourself..here’s their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/WHITE-HILLS/90476409450

I actually could not sit in my seat for another song ~ Thoroughly confused we three went outside. Denise was just as confused as I was but Bubba?..He may have been the only one in the theater who actually liked them.. The bass was droning and never ending – repeating the same line over and over..blahhhh I’m becoming irritated right now just remembering so let’s move on. 🙂

The Cult was supposed to have started their set at nine-forty…supposed to have…they didn’t come out until ten-twenty. I have never seen The Cult live and I have been told by many “how great they are live”…I was not impressed. It was obvious something was not right.. the performance of the entire band lacked energy and you could feel bad vibes emulating from the stage. I made up this scenario in my head, which is probably not far from the truth:

I think..there were sound issues or equipment issues or maybe it was Ian Astbury wasn’t provided with the exact eyeliner color he requested. “I TOLD you I needed black ONYX..this is not Black ONYX…this is Black NOIR..I am NOT going on stage with this shit, you MORON!”

I don’t even remember what song they started with but after the fist song, Ian Astbury ripped up the set list from the stage floor, crumbled it up and threw it..yes..threw it at the sound guy. I bet the sound guy wrote the set list in blue ink and had to re-write it in black onyx.

Fervently, the sound guy did what he was told, jumped on stage to re-tape the new set list to the floor and in the process..he bumped into Ian Astbury ~ ..no doubt that was an embarrassing moment for the “rock star”.

I sat through the entire first half of the set fascinated with what was going on up there…it was the most bizarre scene I have ever witnessed on the stage of a professional, once accomplished, touring band.

Meanwhile, Denise and I had noticed Bubba has been gone quite a while. I asked, “Where is Bubba”? Denise replied, “He went to the bathroom but that was kind of a long time ago.”

Hmm, ok.

Bubba came back and after a few minutes says, “I found some seats that are closer..wanna go”? SURE! We followed and proceeded downstairs to the front row. 🙂 Yay for Bubba!

The energy on the stage was a little better this second half ~ not much better ~ but they were starting to get into the groove a little. I know it didnt have anything to do with the eyeliner fiasco because Ian was still wearing his sunglasses. 🙂

Oh, so yes, we were in the front row – just behind the sound guy – I felt so bad for this man! Through this second half of the set, it was the guitar player who started in on berating him. What made the situation all the more sad was..even through getting a set list thrown at him, being screamed at by Ian and then continued yelling from the guitar player..this poor sound guy was singing along to the songs of The Cult. Broke my heart for a minute.

I had a great time with my friends and the event was..fascinating.. but I am pretty sure I will not go see The Cult live again.

I Normally Don’t……

Post two days in a row. I felt it was necessary, in this case, because my Friday was so eventful! Not to mention..I have THE worst memory on the planet. If I were to wait another few days, It is very likely, I would completely forget the weekend.
 Where did I leave off? Oh! yes..I left you at my pillow at three in the morning.
Three in the morning. I wish I could tell you I slept soundly until noon. That was not how the story starts, oh no, I woke up at nine a.m. Some would say (my husband in particular) “Six hours of sleep is plenty”!
No..no it is NOT. Not for this girl. I need at least seven hours, eight would even be better but that never seems to happen. I guess I can sleep when I’m dead, right?
So, yea, nine a.m and it was time to start the typical weekend morning rituals. Coffee (a duh!) and jump online to check emails and of course Facebook while I wait for coffee. 🙂
Oh, I’m rambling? Yes, because you see…I’ve already forgotten what my morning consisted of. I do remember I had to take Kiah to work – I think that was around…ah whatever. Apparently my day was extremely unnoteworthy.
Jason and I left for Tucson around four in the afternoon. Traffic was terrible, the drive from home to Tucson is not a fun one – most of the way down is only two lanes and we have inconsiderate truck drivers on the road who feel they can drive in the fast lanes. Some states have laws for truck drivers, they are only allowed in the right lanes and no passing. I strongly feel we should adopt that law. I-10 from Phoenix to Tucson and vice versa is notorious for its high number of deadly accidents involving semi trucks and four wheelers. This post is not about the law or inconsiderate drivers so no – I won’t be doing any research to give you statistics. I’m just sayin’ 🙂
When we got into the Tucson, we stopped off at our friend Don’s house and visited for a bit then went to the screamer of the bands (Kyds vs Columbus) house. Him and his wife live, work and go to graduate school in Tucson. I had met the wife the week prior but did not have a chance to talk with her. I don’t hit it off with many people very often so I was happy there was little to no effort in our conversation. We talked about the school systems and writing and had a glass of wine. Too bad she had to finish a paper (or something school related..she is a graduate student and teaches fifth grade English..if my memory serves me correctly).  
By the time I let her be to finish her work, the guitar player and his girlfriend arrived and we all talked and listened to records for a little longer.
Our next stop was a BBQ.
J and I were not feeling very social so we told the guys, ” We’re going on a walk about..see you at the venue in about an hour”. It was dark and the heat from the day had finally gone so it was a nice walk. We found a dingy Mexican restaurant along the way, stopped in to eat and enjoy some quiet. HA, not really..the club across the street was JUMPIN’ – dubstep music so loud I am pretty sure I felt our table jiggle. It wasn’t terrible, it was actually kind of amusing. The waiter was the most gracious waiter I think I had ever made contact with, maybe it was because the music across the street was interfering with his business or maybe it was because with all of the MAJOR construction going on in the neighborhood the are elated to have ANY patrons? I think it’s the latter.
Regardless, it was a nice dinner (well, I had breakfast but you get what I mean)…even nicer? Spending time talking, enjoying food and a nice walk with my Jason.
The rest of the night would be madness. 🙂
It was around nine-thirty when we got to the “venue”, I had warned the guys earlier, “This place is SMALL”. I had pulled up the venues website before we left for Tucson, just to check it out, and the website had a picture of the “space” — it was as big (rather..as small) as my living room at home. No stage, no drum riser and highly pitted concrete..similar to asphalt. There were stairs leading to a loft where they were selling thrift store clothing and shoes and….beer. mmkay?
We (the band and girlfriends/wives and friend friends) hung outside for three hours talking and waiting for the guys to go on. When midnight-fifteen came along they loaded up and I went in to catch a spot on the stairs. In between bands the majority of the people inside go outside to get air and/or smoke so I knew it would be prime time to get a good spot.
Same scenario..lighting was HORRIBLE..these are the best I could get:

Keep reading..it gets better!

What a weekend! If you remember, from my last post, I took a “vacation” day this Friday to take care of some “personal business” (still yet to be disclosed). It was so nice not to have to drive to the office and sit in a cubby hole all the live long day. I did wake up at the normal time (six a.m), got dressed and headed straight to the grocery store..I was out of coffee and needed it something fierce! I grabbed a box of hair dye as well (shhh! don’t tell my hair dresser! He will freak out) I couldn’t help it though..these crazy gray hairs just seem to pop up over night..SO..I needed to cover them up ASAP!

Coffee, hair dye and a trip to the nail salon..that was my Friday morning. The coffee did its job, the at home hair dye job did wonders but the nail salon trip? Sadly, didn’t work out as well. I am not happy with the nails but they served their purpose for the afternoon. You see, I have been a nail biter since I was an itty bitty Kristi. I quit biting a few years ago and have been doing SOOO good until my best friends puppy got Parvo. While setting up a donation site for the family to pay for the extraordinary costs of saving this puppies life..the good new is puppy Brody girl had an amazing Vet and her life was saved; the bad news is, in the process, I bit off all of my nails to the nub and have not been able to stop since. Bad habits are so hard to drop! Ugh! Because I had some “personal business” to take care of, I felt, I needed to be presentable and not show up to a meeting with potato farmer hands, I put the crappy nails on.

After the “personal business” was attended to, I drove home, showered and got ready for the night out. Jason had a reunion show with a band he played with about ten years ago called the Kyds Vs Columbus at the Yucca Tap room in Tempe, AZ.

Jason stuffed his entire drum kit into the trunk and back seat of my car around eight-thirty and we drove on out.
The place was packed and LOUD! Five bands were on the bill and the Kyds were on last..it was going to be a long night. I was glad for Jason when all three of his bandmates from his current band arrived, that meant a lot to him. I think we got there around nine thirty and the drinking commenced, well with him and his friends ( I was the driver so no drinky poos for me that night). I am pretty sure every band member was carrying a pretty good buzz by the time they hit the stage at twelve-thirty (but we would have never known, they didn’t miss a beat)

Or maybe they did, I don’t think any of us would have known. I am not a fan of hardcore style but I am a huge fan of excellent musicians and these guys are awesome to listen to and watch live. The “singer” (screamer might be the better title or maybe front man would be an even better, more professional description) is so animated and wiley during the performance. Swinging the microphone around like a mad man, I was waiting, on edge, for him to swat Jason upside the head with that thing (luckily that did not happen). He climbs on the bass drum like a monkey, swings off rafters on the ceiling and throws himself on the floor, its great fun to see.

Even after over twenty years of watching Jason play the drums, I still am in awe every time. I promise, I am not just being biased because I am his wife, he is truly a phenomenal drummer. He plays with such passion and internal rhythm it is hard not to stare with a dropped jaw. Both of the guitar players are just as passionate as Jason and the front man – they all lose themselves in the groove. My one complaint..the bass player. he hides? Ninety percent of the time, he plays with his back to the crowd and covers Jason. It looks like he is playing only…for Jason.

The crowd was insane – watching them is almost as entertaining as watching the guys play. The music is hard and fast and the people in the crowd were throwing themselves at each other just as fast and hard as the guys were playing. No fighting at all – it was all in good fun. For me a little scary none the less, I do not want to hit the floor and I do not want someone slamming into me..I do not like pain.

I tried not to move from the spot I staked claim to but I really wanted to try to get some cool pictures so I had to move from here to there. This task proved to be difficult and I had a a few road blocks. One, the place was packed. I had my size and gender on my side to make it a little bit easier to pass through.. it’s more easy for a small woman to move in and out of crowd. Two, I wanted to avoid getting pushed and slammed into the crazy crowd people and three, I am not a tall girl at all. Being short in a crowd full of tall people sure does not make being a photographer easy.

I went to the back of the room to the sound booth and asked the girl working the board if I could stand there and take a few shots. She was nice enough to help me out and I was able to stand on a stool in the sound booth and take a few good crowd/band shots. Mind you, the lighting in this place is terrible, these are not my best but they are, sadly, the best of the night.

They ended the set, left the crowd wanting more, packed up and we were on the road to home by two-fifteen. I was sober and I don’t even remember going to bed..as soon as I put my head on the pillow, I was OUT.

I had full intentions on writing about my entire weekend on this one post but I am going to be like the Kyds Vs Columbus and leave you wanting more! 🙂