A Whole Weekend of American Stamp

So, sometime in 2003, I was emailed by David from the aforementioned Rachel Stamp about a tour they had been approached about doing in the states. The lineup at the time included Pigface, Dope and a group called Tubring. After careful consideration, I told David that while I wanted them to jump on ANY tour that would get them here, I was unsure of how well Rachel Stamp would fit on this tour. I had seen Dope several times before and seen Pigface once and the crowds weren't the same kind of people that I would see at Rachel Stamp gig, so I wasn't sure how well it would work.

Later, he told me they had accepted the tour and while I still had my reservations about it, I was so happy to think that I would be seeing Rachel Stamp and David again. 3 years had already felt like an eternity, so it was due time.

When the dates for the United II Tour were first released, I was devastated. Portland wasn't anywhere on it. They were set to play the Pound in San Francisco then straight to Seattle the next night before heading out of the Pacific Northwest altogether. I immediately started to express my heartbreak all over the internet, when my friend Billy, who lived in Oakland told me that he would get me down to San Francisco for the Pound show so that I could see David at more than just the Seattle show that I was bound and determined to make it to. I was ecstatic, I trip to the Bay Area and another Stamp show to boot.

As the time drew near, the tour dates changed. Suddenly, now... San Francisco. Portland. Seattle. I called Billy to let him know in case he wanted to withdraw his offer and to my delight, he didn't. So now, THREE shows were in the plans for me. I couldn't wait. One whole weekend of Rachel Stamp, friends, roadtrips, great music.... Couldn't get any better.

So after a couple days hanging with friends in San Francisco and Oakland (still, another story for another time), the night of the show finally came. David texted and told me that they had arrived at the venue so Billy and I headed down. When we got there, there were still people lined up at the door and it didn't appear to be open. Suddenly, I could HEAR Rachel Stamp playing AS people were finally being let in. I was steaming mad as I stood at the back of the line unable to see the band I was actually there for because they waited so long to let the crowd in. When I finally got in, I ran and dodged the scattered crowd to get myself straight up to the front, where I was face to face with David and Rachel Stamp for the first time in three years. I don't remember how long it took David to notice I was there, but I do remember that my eyes welled up with tears at the sheer joy of the moment.

After the set, I hung out with David for a bit until I had to turn in for my early flight back to Portland.

At the Portland show, I got down to the Roseland nice and early and there were rumors abound of a wedding set to take place during the Pigface set and I was asked to go find some flowers. So I packed up some of the band and drove up to Fred Meyer where I picked up the flowers and David's favourite ice cream and took them back to the venue before the show began.

We returned for the show and I was enjoying Rachel Stamp when some douche started to heckle them. I was mortified. I had been telling them all these years how great Portland would be to play and here we were... nearly empty Roseland and a drunk douche heckling the band. But David rolled with the punches quite well and the rest of the set went on just fine. After their set, I took David and Will over to Everyday Music to poke around for some new tunes. David was on a mission to find a rare record by Jobriath and Will just poked around all over the store picking up things here and there. After Dope and Pigface were done, we all decided to roll down to Dante's for their Sinferno "Burlesque" Night. This was the first time I had been to Sinferno so at the time, my idea of what it was... well... it was entirely different from the reality of what Sinferno is. David and I had the idea that it would be a classic burlesque show, but as we sat down, there was a girl sitting naked in a kiddie pool pouring a gallon of milk over her head. We were perplexed as to how that could be considered burlesque. We stayed and watched a few of the firedancers before we decided to call it a night.

I left for Seattle in the late afternoon the next day and got there to the Fenix Underground in time to catch Rachel Stamp's soundcheck. Afterwards, I hung out on the bus while David put his makeup on and got to meet many of the Pigface members for that tour. One of them picked up a copy of the Mercury and started reading some of the funny ads in the Alternative Personals section. She stopped suddenly and started giggling... We all looked at her and she reads the ad that got her laughing... "Do you like to eat ass?" We all bust up laughing and then David pipes up "They can't print that!..... Can they???" and he gets up to look for himself and we continue to laugh at the ad being read to us.

After Rachel Stamp's set, we all joined a friend of Will's at a little diner near by for a meal. We came back in time for Pigface's set and enjoyed the rest of the show. Afterwards, we posed for photos and talked to various folks in the crowd. I had a lengthy conversation with Martin Atkins about the Pacific Northwest and tried to talk up En Esch but gave up after realizing that he intimidated the crap out of me. We all took some photos together (even En Esch literally popped his head into one)
before heading downstairs to play some pool and talk. I had some time to speak to Shaheena for really the first time ever. Got to tell her the story of how we all met and how I came to love Rachel Stamp and we talked about how great it would be if Rachel Stamp could tour the states more often for many reasons. Finally, bus call came and I said a bittersweet farewell to my friends and drove away into the night.

The whole weekend came and went in a blur of happiness and laughter and 7 years later, I still wish I could replay that weekend over and over again.

Brooklyn Doll

I don't remember exactly how I got into the Toilet Boys. But they were real rock n' roll, raw and primal, as it should be. I do remember that just before I started working at Music Millennium, I had gone into the store trying to special order the Toilet Boys' CD's and at least found a 7" split LP of them and the Donnas.

I used to have a website on Geocities (one of many that I had really) where I would email the musicians that I liked and interview them. It was actually a pretty cool site, I had everyone from Donna D'Errico to the members of Pretty Boy Floyd. I had somehow come across the email addresses of all the members of the Toilet Boys (maybe from their website?) and sent them all an interview, which they all responded.

So, when I found out they were actually gonna play Portland, I was thrilled. Except that it was at the Satyricon. Which was a 21+ only venue. And I was 20. It hardly seemed fair, I was so close. But, I went down to the venue that night anyway. The band was loading in and I asked Sean if I could help. This was the one and only time in my recollection that I was allowed to help. And in helping, the staff at Satyricon assumed I was with the band, and in I was. No questions asked. (This was NOT the only time I was in the Satyricon underage either...)

One of the opening bands was a local group called Freakshow Rodeo, whom I ended up working with for a while after this gig.

The show was amazing, this was a year before the fire in Rhode Island at the Great White show, so pyro was still part of the show. It was amazing show, I sang along every song, which the amazing, lovely and sexy (at the same time) Miss Guy seemed to notice. Toward the end of their set, Miss Guy started thanking people, specific people, and my name came up. I nearly missed it... I heard Michelle, but I thought surely he meant someone else. But he didn't. I was beaming, I had never had a shoutout before.

After the gig was over we all hung out for a bit and eventually ended up at another fan's house for an after party. I remember talking to their merch guy cos he had on a Genitorturers shirt and reminded me of Racci, their old drummer. At the end of the night, I ended up giving Sean and I think either Eddie and/or Rocket a ride back to their hotel, where I got my one and only photo, with Sean. The photo was taken at like... 4am or something, we were all tired and I hated how I looked in the photo for so long, but over time, I've grown not to mind it so much. It was a wonderful night that I wish I could relive one more time.

Never EVER a dull moment.

I spent so many years working at recordstores. Sometimes people wondered why I bothered doing such simple work for low pay. But it was really all the perks that made it worthwhile. One of those perks was getting to go to shows for free. Sometimes I'd even work a booth for the store and sell merch at events, which was fine, as long as I was there.

One of the events that our store regularly worked was Rockfest. Rockfest was the yearly summer concert event put on by the local rock radio station. This particular year, they actually put on TWO Rockfests. So this one was called Rockfest 7.5 or something like that. At this time, I actually not only was a clerk at the recordstore but I also basically WAS the art department. So my boss had asked me to make some nice signs for Rockfest for each of the artists playing so when they came over to do signings at our booth, we could have nice clear signs of who was up at any given time. I was given a list of artists and I got to work.

Most of the bands, I didn't know or didn't care much for. But I still put in a great deal of work on each sign. When I got to the Tommy Lee sign... I wasn't quite sure what to do. His album artwork didn't have much in the way of imagery. I mean, it was red and the cover was his face in a bunch of square pieces. Not really something I could recreate. However, the cd it self... It was designed to LOOK as if it was scratched to hell on the top of the disc. So I thought, what if I made a red scratched looking sign, with his name boldly printed on it? So that's what I did.

When Rockfest arrived, I was excited. I was set to essentially work a half day if I recall. That way I could enjoy the show, but still work the event for the store. The bands were all really actually receptive about the signs I made, particularly Papa Roach who took a photo with me and the sign I made. I wish I had gotten a copy, but I digress.

Now, as all of you should well know... I am a total nut for the Crue. Always have been. So meeting Tommy Lee, as you might imagine, had me totally spinning. Had no idea what to say, wasn't sure what I should bring to have him sign (would he get offended signing Crue stuff when he's obviously trying to do his own thing?), would I even be able to speak?

So Tommy Lee steps up to the table to sign autographs. I was to wait for the end of his line and jump in there for a photo. So while he was signing, I watched him interact with people. He was dating Mayte Garcia at the time, and I took a couple minutes to speak to her and took a photo of her and her little dog. The whole time I observed him, I was amazed at how accommodating he was to his fans. After at LEAST an hour of signing autographs, eventually someone from the store had to make an end of the line, which unfortunately cut off some disappointed folks. One person, ran around to the other side of the line and crowd. He shouted "Tommy! Tommy! They cut off the line right in front of me, man. Can you just sign this shirt???" Tommy, still signing for other people, yelled back "Yea man!" and put his hand up in the air. The fan threw the shirt over the line of people, Tommy caught it without barely looking at it, still signing autographs with his other hand. Signed the shirt, threw it back to the fan and kept signing for the folks in line the whole time. It was really sweet and fun to watch. Then I hopped into the end of the line as discretely as possible as to not upset anyone who didn't know what was going on.

When I got up to Tommy, my hand was SHAKING. I have usually been able to keep my cool around the musicians I've met, but this one... I couldn't help it. I placed his solo record before him and started to gush about what a fan I was. Tommy signed the cd, looked up and beamed at me. I asked for a photo, which he said "Of course!"

So I plopped down next to him on our little signing stage and took a photo with him, shaking and happy as could be. Now, I'm not sure exactly how he found out it was me that did the sign, but he mentioned that later in the day, he wanted a photo with me and the sign. I figured he was just being nice but said, "Yea, Ok." Then as he hopped down, Tommy was confronted by a child. Now, let me back up for a moment and explain this. The radio station hosting the event had a contest earlier that week. The winner of the contest was set to play a game of foos ball with Tommy Lee. Someone won and the game was to go down backstage at Rockfest. So, up walks this kid. No more than 12, if I had to guess. And he literally starts shit talking Tommy and saying that he could whoop Tommy's ass in foosball. The kid's friend starts going on about how Tommy wouldn't stand a chance. Tommy is grinning from ear to ear, looks at his handlers and says "Are you hearing this??? I'm being challenged!!" For half a second, I wondered if he was smiling cos he was really laughing at the thought of a child stepping to him. But then Tommy looked back at his handlers again and said "Get these kids a pass, I got a game to play!"

These kids... Their eyes lit up and got SO big. They couldn't believe their challenge was REALLY just accepted by Tommy Lee. It was such a cool thing to watch. Later, I was backstage (which, in a field... where the venue is... backstage is just more field on the other side of a fence...) taking photos with Static-X when Tommy came by and saw me. Reminded me about the photo with the sign and so I ran and grabbed it real fast and we took our other photo together. All in all, I was truly amazed at Tommy's humility and love for his fans. I've seen less popular, less successful musicians act like they are the cock of the walk, and Tommy, while he has more right to behave that way, DOESN'T. He's awesome and it just furthered my feelings about why I'm a Cruehead.

Adventures at the Bow Part I

So of the many visits I have made to the famous Rainbow Bar and Grill on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood, this was one of the ones that stands out.

I had chatted a little with Mia Tyler over Myspace for some time. I really respect and adore her spirit, beauty and overall attitude. I related to her in a few ways and really enjoyed the few short conversations or quips we had about music and life. I had just finished seeing Brand New Sin at the Whiskey A Go Go with my friend and amazing photographer Robert John. I had taken some photos as well and was showing Robert what shots I actually managed to get with my less than professional camera. I excused myself at one point to use the restroom and headed up the stairs.

As I stepped out of my stall and headed to the sink to wash my hands, I saw another woman standing at the mirror next to me. I glanced over and to my surprise, it was a very familiar face. I wasn't sure if I was going to make a fool of myself by saying this, but I went ahead and said...

"Excuse me, are you Mia Tyler?"

She looks at me and says "Yea"

I say "Oh hey, I'm Michelle. Or Rikki Sixx on Myspace"

"Oh!" she says, her face lighting up with recognition "Hi!!!!"

To the best of my memory, I think I proceeded to tell her how nice it was to meet her and a few other small talk things before I said, "My friend is downstairs with my camera, would you mind stopping by our table and taking a photo with me?"

She obliged and Robert took this photo of Mia and me right there at the Rainbow. I think we spoke a little longer before she left to rejoin her friends. But it was a very sweet and awesome moment, and wasn't even the last.

I continued to keep in touch with Mia over the internet, and the next year when I returned to LA, she was hosting a really cool curvy girls empowerment event called the Love Your Body day. My friend Leah and I were very excited to go to this event, we had a wonderful day speaking with plus size models and everyday plus size girls who are PROUD to be who they are. We were inspired by their stories and entertained with a really cool fashion show. Afterwards, we managed to catch up with Mia and snag another photo for our memories.

To this day, I still try to keep in touch with Mia. Whether it was our Farkle competitions, our love of Jason Segel, or just random status updates or tweets, she is still a really beautiful, funny, amazing and inspirational person and I'm proud to have met her. Muah Mia!