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!

Just Like Berlin...

My first year of college, I was a young 18 and unsure if I wanted to continue in my projected career of theatre arts, or if I wanted to pursue psychology (a subject that fascinated me, though I never saw myself as a therapist) or if I was just clueless what I wanted to do. At the time, I was taking some theatre and psych courses as well as American Sign Language. During high school I had taken German but barely made it enough to learn it at a conversational level. The only things I was certain of at the time was that I was confused, preparing to leave for a semester in London (the city I'd wanted to visit the longest) and as in love with music as I ever was. Nothing else was certain at that point.

One morning, I was taking a bath before school and had the radio on. Now as a music lover, you may think, this wouldn't be an odd thing to read about me. But at the time, it was. Napster was a huge deal at the time and I had grown sick of the radio's corporate agenda and excessive talk and advertising. However, this particular morning, the mood struck me and I turned on KNRK. After a couple of songs, the DJ of the morning announced that later on in the day, they would be giving away a trip to Berlin to see The Cure. I remember thinking to myself how nice it must be to win prizes like that. And at times, I didn't think anyone ACTUALLY won them, they just claimed that people did to entice people. I had never met anyone who ever won a prize that big, usually people won tickets to a local show or a free CD or something. I thought of how much I'd love to see the Cure, but knew that the time they were planning to run this contest, I would be at school. I had an ASL test that day.

By the time I got to class, I had long forgotten about this prize that I was sure was to elude me. I took my test, and like I did so many times before, finished first. I was excused and headed outside to catch the long trimet bus ride home. As I was walking toward the usual bus stop on campus, I saw the bus was already there and even with my best sprint, I wasn't going to make it. I remembered another stop located at the exit, which was closer and started running toward it. At that moment, it started to pour BUCKETS of rain. I got to the corner and was waiting, shivering for the bus to slowly creep around the corner and pick me up. As I was waiting, a gold buick style car pulled up to exit. The window rolled down and a latina girl with curly brown locks leaned over her passenger seat and asked me if I wanted a ride. I had never seen this girl in my life (and would never see her again), but I HATED the bus so much and the rain was freezing. So, despite everything I had been taught my whole life, I accepted a ride from a total stranger.

However, nothing dramatic to report. She took me home, safe and sound and I thanked her several times for her generosity. I got inside, changed into warm clothes and headed to the living room to do my homework. And for some reason, I was compelled to tune into the radio again. I turned on KNRK at first, then switched to KUFO when a song I didn't like came on... Then KUFO hit commercials so I started to check the stations again. Landed back on KNRK and continued my homework. Then I heard it. The opening notes of "Just Like Heaven."

I thought to myself, "Hey. I'm home way earlier than usual, I wonder if this is when you're supposed to call in for that trip..." So, for the hell of it, I put down my homework and picked up the phone and started calling.

"Hello! You're caller number 4, try again!"
Dialed again.
"Hello! You're caller number 14, try again!"
Dialed again.
"Hello! You're caller number 24, try again!"

Now, you're supposed to be caller 94 to win. So, I'm thinking, if I can keep this pace up, I might have a shot! But after I was called 24, I kept getting the busy signal. But, I kept dialing and dialing and dialing. Until I remembered, I was waiting on a call from the Theatre department about tickets for a show that night. I realized that my relentless dialing would keep them from being able to get through to me. So, I told myself... Okay. One more time...

It rang.
and rang.
and rang.

At this point, I was pretty sure they had found their winner and this call would ring forever. Then... an answer.

"Hello, NRK!"
"Oh, did you get your winner?"
"Are you 18 or older?"
"Yea..."
"Do you have a valid passport?"
"Yea..."
"YOU JUST WON A TRIP TO SEE THE CURE IN BERLIN!!!!!!!"
"That's so not funny."
"IM NOT KIDDING!"
"Oh my God. Really??? I... I never win ANYTHING."
"WELL YOU WON THIS!!!! CAN I GET A WOOOOO?"
"Oh my God.... uh... WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!"

I was in total shock, I didn't think it was possible. I was in total shock... At that moment, my mother came home from work and as I was trying to talk to the radio station, I was trying to my mum what was going on. My mum eventually had to take the phone and explain that my passport was in the mail and that I would already be in London during the time of the show so they didn't have to fly me from Portland, they could fly me and my friend from London instead. (Which I have no doubt delighted the record company, who were footing the bill for all this)

While preparing for my trip to London (and now Berlin) I was trying to figure out who was going to go with me. I didn't know a single person in the group that was going to the London study and the record company was insistent that whoever joined me for the show had to be flown out from the same place as me, so I couldn't have one of my Portland friends flown out from PDX and meet them in Germany. I had no idea what I was going to do. Then, my close friend from High School, Mary and I were talking. And she suggested... What if she came up with the money to get to London... Would I take her? Um. DUH! I was THRILLED at the idea of having my friend join me in this adventure. I checked with my host family if Mary could stay with me for a week or so and they were fine with it... And I don't even know how she did it, but she came up with the money and it was set. Mary and I were going to see the Cure in Berlin together after she joined me in London.

Fast forward to the weekend of. I took a train out to Gatwick and picked up Mary at the airport. When I found her, she immediately informed me that shortly after I was returning from London, Nine Inch Nails and Perfect Circle were playing the Rose Garden and that she had gone ahead and picked up the tickets anticipating that I would want to go. I nearly broke down, after so many years of being a HUGE NIN fan, I was finally going to see them. The same year that this amazing trip was happening. I couldn't be more excited.

The morning we were to take off for Germany, we overslept some and hustled to get ready and get to Heathrow as quickly as we could. When we got to the airport, the check in for our flight had already closed and we were devastated. But we were told we could come back that evening and standby for a later flight. We agreed and headed back to the house, cursing our stupidity. Later that night, we returned to Heathrow, sat down in the terminal and waited. The very first flight had openings and we boarded the little one hour flight to Germany.

I don't remember much from the flight except that they served a greek salad and at the time, I detested everything on my plate and was grumpy that I was hungry and didn't have a thing substantial to eat. But all those feelings went away when we began our decent and I started to see the lights of Berlin in the night sky. I started to think of those German classes I took and how Mrs. Pope and I started to have conflicts and she pulled that awful cliche crap of "You'll never get to Germany and even if you did, you'll never be able to get around!" Yet there I was... descending right into beautiful Berlin. A tear or two quietly streamed down my face as we landed.

We then got a taxi to the Hotel, where we had a nice late check in. We started investigating the room immediately, watched some German Baywatch, had some laughs and passed out. The next day, we walked around, had lunch at the Hard Rock, and shopped. We found a liquor store close by and picked up some real German jager and a couple other things while we were there. Turned out it was a smart idea, as that night was a very amazing lightning and thunderstorm that kept us holed up in our hotel room, watching MORE German TV and drinking the strongest Jager I have ever had. (It was at this time that I discovered a little band called H.I.M., but that's another story for another time)

The next day, it was BLAZING hot, as if the night before had never happened. So, Mary and I hit the town again, this time eating at Planet Hollywood and hitting some CD stores so I could find some H.I.M. cds. That night, we took a cab to the address we were given for the venue, which was known only as "The Arena."

When we got there, we had to ask a couple locals to point us in the right direction because the Arena was essentially nothing more than a giant empty warehouse. We stood in line for a couple of hours, talked to a few locals and finally started filing into the venue. We were only 3-5 people back from the front row railing, so we were very pleased. We had brought in the poster of Robert Smith that I had gotten from Tower Records before I left for the trip. Prior to the concert, we had used highlighter pens to write on the back of it that we had come from the US to see the show and that we loved the Cure. We had intended to hold it up during the show, not realizing that in a dark ass room, highlighter writing was for sure, no matter how big the block letters were. While we waited for the show to start, we had gotten wind of the fact that there would be no opening band, just two solid hours of the Cure. We were so excited, no insufferable opener... just the band we were there to see.

When the lights came up and the band came out, the screams were deafening. And I don't know if it was the venue's lack of air circulation, the health of the audience, or just the presence of Robert Smith, but after only a few songs into the set, I started to notice people were dropping like flies in the front rows... Which moved Mary and I up to the front very quickly. I don't think we were ever totally up against the railing but we were damn close. So for what it's worth, I thank all those sweet little goth girls who were passing out with roses in their hands and being carted off by the security.

Mary started to encourage me to hold up the sign. When I opened it, we realized you couldn't read the writing for shit. So, Mary and one of the guys near us started telling me to roll it up tight and throw it onto the stage, along with all the other gifts being thrown at the stage for the band. I decided, nothing to lose... So, I wound it up tight as i could and chucked it like a spear toward the stage. It immediately unraveled. And my memory of what happened next is always in totally slow motion...

It started to drift back and forth slowly toward the floor where the security stood... When suddenly, a totally random, unexpected gust of air flipped the poster and pushed it right toward the stage... We watched in complete disbelief as it started to drift back and forth... down, down, down... landing, writing side up, in front of Robert Smith's microphone. Perfectly. We looked at each other when it landed like... how did that even just happen?

We looked back and saw Robert coming back to the microphone after playing on the sidestage with his gutar... He walked up... and we saw him cock his head to the side, squint his eyes some to read it, and smiled. We screamed and jumped up and down, along with our friendly stranger. We couldn't believe it. It wasn't really acknowledged in any way other than that, but that was enough for us.

During their intermission, the friend of the stranger grabbed our arms and pointed toward the dark side of the stage shouting "LOOK LOOK, THEYRE ALL READING YOUR SIGN!!" I couldn't see a thing but I could see in his eyes that he was confident in what he witnessed.

Another hour of amazing music passed by and we ate up every second of it. After it was over, we spent copious amounts of money on merchandise and went back to the hotel.

Today, Mary and I are no longer friends, which makes me sad. To share something as incredible as an international trip and be split up by petty boy troubles and untrue rumours is a tragic thing. But I still remember the trip fondly and remember that time of our friendship fondly and wish that we could find a way to resolve the dumb crap that drove us apart all those years ago. But if she ever read this, I hope she knows that whenever I hear "Just Like Heaven" I think of our time at that show and how happy and young we were.

Two Night Filter with a Chevelle

This particular story isn't just solely about what happened to me. There are a couple moments that were me specific, but it was more the experience itself that I wanted to share this time.

Back in 2000, it was announced that Filter would be coming to town. I was thrilled, I loved Filter, had a HUGE crush on Brian Liesegang, and they had JUST released 'Take a Picture' if memory serves. Not enough time for the song to go crazy mainstream, but enough time to know how much I liked that song. My friend Mary and I were all over this in a heartbeat. We got our tickets and immediately started sharing the news with other friends. We were met with some pretty disappointing reviews.

More than a few of my friends saw Filter when they had come to Portland for the first album's tour. They said that Richard Patrick, the singer, sounded terrible and that the show was ruined for it. So, now Mary and I, while still planning on going without fail, were somewhat apprehensive that we had just bought tickets to a crappy show.

So, the night of the Filter concert came. We were front row for most of the show as usual. I was waving my ollllllllllllllllllllllllllld school Nine Inch Nails shirt around (I has a photo of just Vrenna, Reznor and Patrick on it. OLD school.) Singing along and having a grand ol' time. What were these people talking about??? Richard sounds fantastic! The band is playing great, though severely lacking Brian Liesegang, much to my disappointment. I had to leave the front row when I was kicked HARD in the jaw by a crowd surfer in giant steel toed boots. (I am still missing a small piece of bone in my jaw.) When I was off to the side, they were getting ready to play 'Take a Picture.' I am glad at this point that I was off to the side, primarily because I could actually HEAR what Richard was saying. Richard starts off by saying Thank you to the audience. He continues, "Last time we were here, I was really sick and my voice was shot. But despite that, this show sold out in TEN. MINUTES. We are just so grateful for what great fans we have here that we are going to play ANOTHER show for you guys tomorrow! Just head to the back to grab your ticket!!"
I was elated! I ran to the back to secure my ticket and tried to get one for Mary, but they made it very clear, it was one per person and she would have to come get it herself. So, I waited til the show was over so Mary could get out of the front row and get her ticket. Unfortunately, by the time Mary got out (and the show was over) the tickets were long gone. We were pretty upset and disappointed to say the least. So, we headed out back, like we usually did, to try to meet the guys in Filter (or their opener, this little unknown band called Chevelle)

Chevelle came out first, we got to meet the sweet and funny Loeffler brothers. Years later, they would reach a greater success, but at this time, they were pretty well unknown. We hung out with them for a while before Geno Lenardo and Richard Patrick came out. I got my photo taken with Geno, but sadly not Richard. With Richard, I had him sign my shirt, to which he responded "Ohhh, that was YOU holding that thing up." He gave me a bit of a hard time but signed it without hesitation. I then informed him that Mary didn't get a ticket, but that there were girls in the restroom before we came outside bragging that they had gotten several to sell off.

Richard looks at me and says... "are you serious!?" in a very disappointed tone. Mary confirms indeed, she got the shaft for a ticket. Richard turns around, looks at a woman standing a few feet behind him, doesn't say a word... But she sees his face, throws up her hands and goes "Alright, Alright!" and walks onto the bus. She returns minutes later with a
notepad in her hand and starts asking who didn't get a ticket and taking down their names for the guestlist. She asked my name, but I told her, "No, I have a ticket." She smiled, thanked me, and moved to the next guy.

We spent a little more time afterward hanging out with Chevelle. I don't entirely remember why we decided this, but somehow I had talked the singer of Chevelle into writing my name across his chest for the next night's gig. It was all in fun, but I really don't recall how we came to this idea.

The next night rolls around and Mary and I get in without any problem and head straight for the front row again. This night isn't as crowded as the night before, as Korn was performing at another venue that same night. But this was okay by us, as there wasn't nearly the amount of giant sweaty men getting pushed up on us this time. So Chevelle come out and I notice that the singer has a shirt on. Well, so much for my name scrawled across his chest. I am only a little disappointed, as I was pretty sure he had just forgotten anyway. But then, the girl next to me points out his arm... down his arm written in sharpie, plain as day... "MICHELLE." I throw my head back and crack up laughing, he actually remembered!!! Mary and I laughed together and we continued to rock out to the show.

Then Filter came out! Richard was wearing a hoodie and broke out into the first song like an awesomely crazy frontman. As the show continued, he spotted a small child in the front row. He asked how old the kid was, I wanna say the kid was about 8 years old. Richard took the hoodie off his own back and gave it to the kid, it was a really cool moment. I bet that boy still remembers that moment like it was yesterday. Then, when Filter kicked into their hit, Jurassitol, I was elated. That was and still is my all time favourite Filter song (and video). Richard was looking out at the audience while singing and finally caught my eye as I was singing right along. Much to my surprise and delight, he kept singing with/to me for a good chunk of the song. It was totally awesome and made my night.

After the show, sadly I didn't see anymore Filter guys come out from backstage but Chevelle did. Pete and I had a laugh about the whole my-name-on-his-arm thing. Turns out he HAD forgotten until right before they went onstage. He saw me in the crowd, remembered our deal, asked someone for a sharpie and quickly wrote it down his arm. We had one last hearty laugh over this before Mary and I said our goodbyes and went home happy.

To this day, I still have fond memories over what a great TWO nights I had seeing Filter and Chevelle and how many memories I had from two short nights.

Penis Girl!

So back in about 2004, on the Metal Sludge board, some of the men were using pictures of naked women in their userpics or banners. Which had some of the women kinda pissed off. So, although I wasn't bothered by it particularly... I figured, I would get a little revenge. Because there's always a little bit of a double standard. So I found a photo of a really hot porn star named Kurt Lockwood. Standing. Naked. Holding his erect cock. And put it as my userpic and started posting all over the Metal Sludge board, where these guys were posting.

Now of course, the men immediately were freaked out and started asking me to take it down, to which I retorted about the naked women on THEIR userpics/banners and that if they get those, I get mine. It became a really funny thing and we all had a good laugh.

Later in the week, I was over at the VAST board. And I decided to make a couple casual posts as I hadn't been there in some time.

What I had forgotten... was that both Metal Sludge and VAST used ezboards for their message board server. So, whatever your userpic was for one board, it would carry over to the other... Needless to say, the responses to my posts weren't about what I said, but a bunch of "WTF?!" about my userpic. So, again, there were laughs as I explained what the picture was about and promptly changed it back to something more appropriate. I figured that would be the end of it.

But no.

Later I saw VAST in concert and met up with the band after the show to have them sign some stuff. When I mentioned my name was RikkiSixx, the drummer Jerry looks up and me, points, lights up and goes "PENIS GIRL!" To which I had to explain the story YET AGAIN, while my face was beet red as could be.


This was also the night I met my future roommate Kyle, who for several months after this night, had my phone number in her cell phone listed under... you guessed it. "Penis Girl."