I had to leave Ian's house at 8:30 in the morning and decided to go straight to Toledo without stopping in at home (an hour or so out of the way). I'm not too sure that I made the right choice. I got to the club about five hours before MTX. (I'm rather compulsive about being early for things, so you may notice me getting to the shows hours early to be a recurring theme). It wasn't too bad though, I just walked around for a while, and even managed to catch up on a little sleep.MTX arrived at around 7:30 and I helped them load in. After they sound checked, MTX, Jason, and I went to dinner down the street. We managed to catch Seinfeld, so that was pretty cool. When we got back to the club Paige was working on this puzzle ball thing. It was a ball that came apart into six pieces and you had to get it back together. It was pretty tricky to figure out how to hold it just right and fit the pieces in without it falling apart. I guess it's kind of hard to explain. Anyway, I got it together and then had to show everyone else. It took Joel a while and he kept getting frustrated, but he finally got the hang of it.
Since I was preoccupied, I didn't really pay much attention to the opening bands. MTX went on, and things were really insane. It was a small bar show, so the stage was only about 6 inches above the ground. I was in the very front row in front of Frank, and his moniter was on the floor next to me. While MTX played, a lot of the crowd started moshing. One guy even crowd surfed. Now, as obnoxious as moshing at an MTX show is, it's one of those things that I've nearly learned to put up with. However, this show got way worse. There were a few big guys that decided to mosh while holding full beers. This resulted in me getting beer spilled all over me. Yuck! One guy even blew beer foam in my face on purpose.
As the set went on the moshers got more and more violent. I got knocked down a bunch of times. I didn't get angry through all that, but then something happend that was just too much. I got knocked completely over, but managed to guide my fall so that I feel on the moniter rather than into Frank's mic. Before I had the chance to get up, this guy jumped over me, knocked over Frank's mic, and pushed Frank!!! All seemingly very intentional. Frank regained his balance and pushed the guy in return. The guy then started yelling at Frank to relax and told him he shouldn't start shit. What?!?! I was so mad. The guy was standing next to me and it took every ounce of restraint I had not to hit him. (And I'm not usually a violent person).
After all that, I was really afraid that MTX were going to walk off. Frank made an announcement that they can't play if people keep knocking down the equipment. My heart was totally racing. Luckily, they didnt walk off. Joel had everyone in the crowd take a deep breath. They started playing again and I got into it even more than usual. I guess I turned all my anger energy into excited energy.
They finished the set and the kids were asking for an encore. Several people were yelling to Frank, "Play Hitler!" Frank said alirght, walked to the front of the stage, made a sweeping motion across the crowd with his arms and said, "You're all exterminated." I don't think many people got it, but I thought it was insanely funny.
After that, he did play Even Hitler Had a Girlfriend and they did a couple others. Once they were done, I was standing by Frank and a few of the mosher guys came to apologize to him. He said, "That's alright, I was just worried about my friend here (indicating me) getting hurt," which I thought was extremely nice.
Some people from Thrasher magazine were backstage and took some pretty cool pictures of MTX. One of the Thrasher guys was drunk, and kept trying to convince Frank that the other one has a thing for 17 year old girls. It was strange. After a few minutes of it Frank just said, "Ah well, y'know, who doesn't."
I stuck around for a while longer after the show until the left to go back to their hotel. I gave this girl who had interviewed them a ride home, and then headed back to Michigan.