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that's going to be hard to do, because I'm pretty tired, but I'll try
It was a sold out show.
the opening bands were strangely different, 'Street Dogs' a typical hardcore band from Boston, Mass, and "Backyard Babies" from Stockholm Sweden. They looked like a mix between Guns n Roses, Metallica and Twiggy Ramirez from Marilyn Manson. They sounded like Poison (I actually sang the lyrics to "Talk Dirty to Me" along with one of their songs), but only if they used crack as much as they used hairspray. Not bad, though. I thought I was going to get my ass kicked because I was shaking my butt so much. I felt safe to do so because I had nine other friends with me, who could kick some ass, but I probably would have felt safer if I were by myself, because that would mean that my ass-shaking could possibly cause problems for them. Anyway, I was glad when Mike Ness showed up with the main attraction.
They opened with Mommy's Little Monster. I was standing right in the middle of the floor about five heads back, and the crush started almost right away. I was stuck behind the biker guy who was going to kick my ass during the Backyard Babies, kind of up against his back, until I started to smell him, and I started to dry heave, live I have been doing whenever I encounter bad smells, so I backed off to where I thought was an open space, but it in fact was "the pit", something I was afraid of. But, I finally started jumping in there pushing guys (and a few girls) around, knowing that if anybody fell down, a dozen hands would be there to pick them up. It was a great experience, something I never even enjoyed when I was in high school, because I weighed so much less then, I guess. Or maybe, I was still a kid or something.
Anyway, Mike Ness was his usual awesome self. The legend I had heard of, and listened to all these years. He's a real Godfather kind of figure, IMO.
Before '99 to Life', he said "now, don't you go home and kill your girl with your knife just because you heard this song tonight. I like your girl."
At another point, introducing a song about a loser with a heart of gold, think it was (I forget the title), he said, "If you don't have close friends, or family, or (something else I forgot), you don't got nothing, homeboy."
Since it was an all ages show, he called up the "youngest kid in the room" and two 12 year old boys came up, one bodysurfing from the back of the room. He said that when he was 12, he was still playing with GI Joe dolls. Burning them with his lighter, but still playing with them. It ended up with a public service message about how we need to raise our children and our little brothers and sisters right, or they'll end up in a penitentiary.
Later on, he started to say something about New Jersey, and where I was standing I raised my fist to him in a salute, he looked at me and finished his sentence and said something about how it's a "gangster state", or something. I threw up my hands, and made a pretty funny face intended to communicate something like "I don't know about that", and he laughed a bit. He then went on to say something about how he would like to be the "king of Trenton", on a good street corner with hos and stuff. Then a quick, "not in this lifetime." I don't even think he really felt good about it in his heart. Maybe my throwing my hands up made him realize that. I'd like to think so. Anyways, I don't want some California fucking guy coming to my state and pimping prostitutes on any street corner, even in his fantasy. That's what I think.
But, the songs were great. "Sick Boy" was great. When they played "Under My Thumb", all I could think of was that's the song that was playing when Meredith Hunter was stabbed to death at Altamont in 1970. It was a great song, though. There were a bunch of songs I didn't recognize. But I remember, "Don't Take Me for Granted" and "Nickels and Dimes" were highlights.
They played three songs in their encore, the last two of which were "Ring of Fire" and "Story of My Life". During Ring of Fire, I finally got hit so that it left a mark. I thought it was pretty cool that it was my buddy Tony's elbow that did it.
Well, that's all I can think of to write just now. I'm sure I'll think of other things tomorrow.
Good night, DU.
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