Tracheotomy, please.
My last 24 hours started as I slept fitfully during the night before last, and woke up at 8:30 unable to go back to sleep. I got to work around 10, and had to go to the venue for 1pm to be the runner/production assistant on a show at the Starlite, for this band called 30 Seconds To Mars. Haven't heard of them? I'm not surprised. Maybe this will jog your memory:
On the right...Jared Leto.
To say the least...this show was high fucking maitnence. Little things were made into big things...soundcheck took no less than 6.5 hours (no shit, it normally takes an hour at the most), and while the actual band was finally checking, none of the bartenders who needed to set up were "allowed to LOOK at the band".
fucking retarded.
so...3 quick stories. My 5 minutes with Jared Leto were brief - I drove him to the gym up the street, and we talked about music videos, and I recommended that he look up Pleix, a french video/art collective who made one of my favorite videos EVER, "Birds" by Vitalic...then I dropped him off, and that was our chat. He never looked me in the eye once, and gave me the limpest handshake ever when I tried to introduce myself. Lame.
story #2 I will leave to my lovely ladymate Leah, who came to visit me halfway through the night, and we went to Tim Horton's to get 'after-show food', which is what it sounds like - fresh food delivered to the band's bus for eating after the show...she tells it like it is... right here, in a little tale of woe called "11 sandwiches".
story #3 is a little...crazy. I felt a little crazy afterwards. I'm side stage, waiting for the band to hit the stage, and the guitar tech and I notice this drunk guy in front of the stage who is grabbing onto the mic stand, shaking it, making the (very expensive) wireless mic come loose, and all these people around him are yelling at him, and us, to get the fuck out. The tech agrees with them, and I grab a security guy to go in and grab him to kick him out of the show...I watch as this rookie kid goes in, and immediately is confronted with drunk guy's drunk girlfriend, which leads me to think that this kid needs help.
A quick caveat: I'm the opposite of a violent person. I don't get into fights, I actually avoid them like the fucking plague. I don't know what pushed me to go into the maw and get in this guys face, but I was pissed off and just wanted the show to start.
so...imagine this if you can..these two (drunk/guard) are coming towards me, with the guard on his right arm...I reach for his left bicep to pull him forward, and he reaches up and out of nowhere suddenly has a drumstick in his hand, which he thrusts at me, jabbing me in the windpipe with it. I choke, and can't breathe, and I'm suddenly filled with adrenaline, and I grab at the stick and try to twist it out of his hand, while stumbling backwards, people scrambling to get out of our way. I can feel myself start to trip over this plastic chain separating the monitor deck and the crowd, and as I fall I look up and this drunk is about to land his fist into my face...and suddenly, he's gone. I'm on the ground, and he is being carried out by the bar manager and a security guard, and by the time I'm back on my feet, he's up against a wall in the hallway behind the dressing room. I take a second to catch my breath, and I, in short, lose my fucking mind. Drumstick in hand, I storm towards the guy, screaming "WHO THE FFFUUUCCCKKKK do you think you ARE?!" I was so ready to hit this dude, but the girlfriend starts beaking off to me, saying, "LEAVE HIM ALONE! IT WAS ME WHO HIT THAT STUPID BITCH!"...this is news to me, that anyone got hit at all, so I point to her, and a guard, and say simply, "this chick, gone. now."...she gets dragged out, the guy gets dragged out, and I walk back into the venue to a round of cheers from the crowd who watched the whole thing go down. I felt like a wee bit of a hero...I even gave the drumstick in question to some girl who looked particularly impressed.
Anyways, the show went off how it should: loud, bright, screaming girls baring their breasts (I srsly fail to understand that) - Leto had this bizarre zombie/priest getup going, and his fake-goth band did their job as 'rockstars'.
My throat still kinda hurts. I'm tired. I'm whining.
I'm excited for Minus The Bear this weekend...I'm going to Calgary to work the show there too. I'm glad that my job is allowing me to travel, but it's getting a little tiring never being around on the weekend, including always missing my radio show.
On a somewhat unrelated note, I've been loving all the nice comments and visits from people on the ye olde blogtron7000. Keep 'em coming!
In exchange, a present for you, a track I just can't get enough of, "Never Be Alone", by Simian Mobile Disco (Justice rmx). Simply slammin'. Enjoy your weekend.
On the right...Jared Leto.
To say the least...this show was high fucking maitnence. Little things were made into big things...soundcheck took no less than 6.5 hours (no shit, it normally takes an hour at the most), and while the actual band was finally checking, none of the bartenders who needed to set up were "allowed to LOOK at the band".
fucking retarded.
so...3 quick stories. My 5 minutes with Jared Leto were brief - I drove him to the gym up the street, and we talked about music videos, and I recommended that he look up Pleix, a french video/art collective who made one of my favorite videos EVER, "Birds" by Vitalic...then I dropped him off, and that was our chat. He never looked me in the eye once, and gave me the limpest handshake ever when I tried to introduce myself. Lame.
story #2 I will leave to my lovely ladymate Leah, who came to visit me halfway through the night, and we went to Tim Horton's to get 'after-show food', which is what it sounds like - fresh food delivered to the band's bus for eating after the show...she tells it like it is... right here, in a little tale of woe called "11 sandwiches".
story #3 is a little...crazy. I felt a little crazy afterwards. I'm side stage, waiting for the band to hit the stage, and the guitar tech and I notice this drunk guy in front of the stage who is grabbing onto the mic stand, shaking it, making the (very expensive) wireless mic come loose, and all these people around him are yelling at him, and us, to get the fuck out. The tech agrees with them, and I grab a security guy to go in and grab him to kick him out of the show...I watch as this rookie kid goes in, and immediately is confronted with drunk guy's drunk girlfriend, which leads me to think that this kid needs help.
A quick caveat: I'm the opposite of a violent person. I don't get into fights, I actually avoid them like the fucking plague. I don't know what pushed me to go into the maw and get in this guys face, but I was pissed off and just wanted the show to start.
so...imagine this if you can..these two (drunk/guard) are coming towards me, with the guard on his right arm...I reach for his left bicep to pull him forward, and he reaches up and out of nowhere suddenly has a drumstick in his hand, which he thrusts at me, jabbing me in the windpipe with it. I choke, and can't breathe, and I'm suddenly filled with adrenaline, and I grab at the stick and try to twist it out of his hand, while stumbling backwards, people scrambling to get out of our way. I can feel myself start to trip over this plastic chain separating the monitor deck and the crowd, and as I fall I look up and this drunk is about to land his fist into my face...and suddenly, he's gone. I'm on the ground, and he is being carried out by the bar manager and a security guard, and by the time I'm back on my feet, he's up against a wall in the hallway behind the dressing room. I take a second to catch my breath, and I, in short, lose my fucking mind. Drumstick in hand, I storm towards the guy, screaming "WHO THE FFFUUUCCCKKKK do you think you ARE?!" I was so ready to hit this dude, but the girlfriend starts beaking off to me, saying, "LEAVE HIM ALONE! IT WAS ME WHO HIT THAT STUPID BITCH!"...this is news to me, that anyone got hit at all, so I point to her, and a guard, and say simply, "this chick, gone. now."...she gets dragged out, the guy gets dragged out, and I walk back into the venue to a round of cheers from the crowd who watched the whole thing go down. I felt like a wee bit of a hero...I even gave the drumstick in question to some girl who looked particularly impressed.
Anyways, the show went off how it should: loud, bright, screaming girls baring their breasts (I srsly fail to understand that) - Leto had this bizarre zombie/priest getup going, and his fake-goth band did their job as 'rockstars'.
My throat still kinda hurts. I'm tired. I'm whining.
I'm excited for Minus The Bear this weekend...I'm going to Calgary to work the show there too. I'm glad that my job is allowing me to travel, but it's getting a little tiring never being around on the weekend, including always missing my radio show.
On a somewhat unrelated note, I've been loving all the nice comments and visits from people on the ye olde blogtron7000. Keep 'em coming!
In exchange, a present for you, a track I just can't get enough of, "Never Be Alone", by Simian Mobile Disco (Justice rmx). Simply slammin'. Enjoy your weekend.
posted by Eli at 1:19 AM
3 Comments:
hey eli,
is it creepy that i actully read your blog sometimes? maybe not.. i guess that's why you write them.
i enjoyed your jared leto commentary. see i have been "in love" with the man since he's dreamy blue eyes appeared on My So Called Life way back when I was in grade 8. Somehow the facination has stayed with me. So when he came here and played Red's a few years ago--I like a screaming teenager, went and got his autograph and made myself believe their music isn't all that bad (sometimes, I'm still able to justify it). Anyway--you were right, he doesn't exactly give off the friendly vibes. I do have my picture with him, and as much as I would like to pretend this isn't true, that my husband would be happy to stand besides me, he looks like he wishes he was anywhere else! Oh well... I missed their show this week though because I have a killer cold .. and I knew that if I met him again that I would probably have 2 let downs..and I'm still kind of trying to erase the first one! Sad. I do wish i could have seen you and your superhero moves though!
too f'ing funny. What would you have done if you'd hit him? huh paci-fist? Notice the last four letters of pacifist are "punch-in-the-fill-in-the-blank"???
weird.
lovek
ok, so i was reading about them the other day and i was like, WTF, jordan catalono is in some ridiculously pretentious-seeming band!!
this story is priceless.
sorry to hear about that drunk dude though. yikes.
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