It is REALLY FUCKING FAR from San Francisco to Utah. I mean, I realized it would be a long drive, but I guess I didn't prepare myself enough. I think the fact that Kel and I went 100 miles out of our way (due to bad directions) didn't help either. Actually, I didn't mind the drive that much, at least until the very end. I got to see some pretty cool scenery, and I even did a good deed for the day by working to improve the vocabulary of some hicks in Nevada. Well, not exactly. You see, Kel and I stopped at Subway, and when I ordered my sandwich, I asked for no condiments. A simple request, no? The lady got this confused look on her face and said, "Condiments? What's that?" I was sort of stunned by this question, and in the time before I answered her, the other lady working there said, "I think she means no vegetables." At this point I told her that I meant I didn't want mayonnaise or mustard. She was like, "oh, why didn't you just say that?" Argh! They then had a long conversation about my good vocabulary (hahaha), and the one lady said (in a really proud voice), "When I get home I'm going to tell my husband that I learned a new word today! Condiments!" What has the world come to?Many hours and many stops later, Kel and I arrived at the club. We were way late, and we were both really worried that we had missed all or part of MTX's set. Luckily, the first band, the Ataris, were still playing. We ran inside (after returning our prohibited possessions to the car, you know, dangerous items like my pen and Kel's camera) and found everyone to say hello. It turned out that we were just in time, because MTX were just getting ready to go set up. Once the Ataris finished, they took forever to get off the stage. The stupid drummer decided that he just HAD to break down his drums on stage, rather than off to the side like any normal person would. I don't know the Ataris or anything, but they stole MTX's beer and stuff, which is just SO lame, so from what I know, I'm not very fond of them. To add to the frustration, the security wouldn't let Jym on stage! Geez! Security can be so stupid!
Kel and I decided to get spots on the side of the stage, because the place was packed and we could tell by the looks of the crowd that there was going to be a lot of pushing, shoving, crowd surfing, etc. Boy were we ever right. While MTX were still setting up, this girl asked me, "What are you doing?" "Um..what am I doing?" "What are you doing on stage?" "Um..I'm going to watch the band" She seemed rather disappointed with my response. I think she expected that Kel and I were going to be MTX's back up dancers or something. Haha. So then as soon as MTX started playing, the girl jumped on stage to take up the duty of back up dancer, since it was obvious that I wasn't going to. For the whole first song she danced on stage, which gave other people the idea that it was alright to jump up on stage. VERY annoying. I mean, I stand off to the side and don't make a fool of myself and don't get in the way. When other people get on stage, they tend to want to make the biggest fool of themselves possible, and of course get in everyone's way.
And then the crowd surfing started. Yuck! I hate that SO much. The only good thing about it was that it led to my two favorite moments of the night. First was when this guy got on stage, ran in front of Frank, and was about to yell something into Frank's mic. Before he got a chance to say anything, Frank pushed him and he fell back into the crowd! Go Frank! Then later this guy was about to fall over Joel's monitor, and Joel kicked him! It was awesome. Not that I normally would promote violence or anything, but these kids deserved it.
I forget exactly what song it happened during, but quite early on, Jym cut his finger. They stopped playing shortly, and he put a Band-Aid on it. Unfortunately, he didn’t have anything to clean it with or anything, so it just ended up falling off. Then during the next break Jym yelled to me to ask for a Band-Aid. They started the next song, and I ran off stage in search of one. I found a security guard, who took me to this other section of the club where I got Jym a wet towel and a Band-Aid. I ran back upstairs, but I had already missed another of the great stupid crowd moments. Apparently, one of the stupid crowd surfer guys ran up and mooned the audience. Punk rock. He was promptly kicked out.
The set went really well, although all the stupid kids in the crowd were pretty distracting. Later on, one kid jumped up on the stage and yelled "Oi!" into Frank's mic. Frank said, "Wow, wasn't that intelligent?" I guess that's the sort of people you'd expect at a Vandals show though. Jym's finger was still hurting him, so during "Ba Ba Ba Ba Ba" I ran downstairs to get him some ice. All in all it was a really fun show. On the one hand the crowd drove me crazy, but on the other hand, they were really entertaining. I was kind of irritated though, all night I planned on grabbing Frank's set list, because Jym bled all over his, but then some kid took it. So I got Jym's bloody set list. Does that make it more valuable?
After they finished, I went and reopened the merch table. (No one came with MTX to sell, and I wasn't about to be stuck there during MTX's set!) A ton of kids came and bought stuff, which was great. Later, when the table wasn't so busy, the strangest thing happened. This guy came up to Kel and I and was like, "Hey, what're you doing after the show?" I said, "Um..nothing" and then he started asking us all these questions, responding to every answer with "right on." (I thought we were in Utah, not southern CA) Then the weird part happened. He said, "Can I give you a kiss?" Rather stunned, I responded, "Um..no." He said, "Just a kiss on the cheek? Please?" "Uh..no." "You sure?" "Very sure." I mean, what the hell?!
The Vandals played, and I found them quite unenjoyable. I did feel sort of bad though, because they seemed like nice guys and all, I said something not very nice (I don't even remember what) to Kel about them, and the Ataris and the Vandals' merch guy heard. They said something to us about it (I couldn't understand what), and they called us, "the Mr. T chicks." Hmm.
The show was over way early, but Kel and I didn't stay too long afterwards because it was really fucking cold, and since we hadn't slept the night before (we drove all night), we were both really tired. Before we left though, some really entertaining stuff happened. I actually heard Frank use the term "Hoochi Mama" (I have no clue how to spell that)! It was hilarious. There was a dance beat playing in the background, so Jym and Robert were showing off their dance moves. Jym was sitting down at this point, and someone (I think it was Robert) told him that if he showed up at a club in a wheelchair and did that, the girls would be all over him. Then Frank started talking about how he always wanted a wheelchair. After all, it would be a really comfortable chair, and you could have someone push you around. Plus if someone was picking on you, you'd have the ultimate trump card, just magically stand up! After that, Frank was imitating an aerobics instructor to the dance beat, "And 1, and 2, and lift, and lift, come on girls!" It was so funny.
MTX decided to go downstairs to wait for the hoochi mama action (the club had a dance night after the show), and at this point Kel and I decided to go. The next morning, Kel dropped me off at the airport. I flew home, and she went off to Idaho for the next show.