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today the glitterbomber is... |
2002-07-27 so, last night was the moby show. by all accounts (okay, just mine and amy b�s), it was a very interesting night. i�ll start when i left my house. it�s always an fascinating drive to amy�s place. even though it�s only ten minutes, i always see some colorful characters on my way. (it helps that i have to drive through the ghetto) character number one pulled up next to my car at a red light. i happened to glance over and saw him staring at me. i quickly looked away, and out of the corner of my eye, i could see him start to bob his head to his (rap) music, still looking at me. i bit my lip to keep from laughing, and tried to will the light to turn green. character number two was a very scruffy looking man who looked like he could play a homeless person in a movie (he was that stereotypical). he was riding a pink and purple girls� bike. i arrived at amy�s laughing. first order of the night was to get some dinner. we decided on a sushi place near the amphitheater. we headed down there, and as usual, i took the wrong bridge. you�d think after living most of my life in this city, i would know what bridge goes where. but i am obviously an idiot. (in my defense, we do have quite a few bridges) we got on the right track easily, though, and then our attempt at parking began. we were led easily by fluorescent green signs that proclaimed "moby show parking." practically every five feet, we were stopped by the kiddies working the parking lot asking us if we were there to see moby and if we were going to stay the entire show because the cars were going to be "church-stacked" in the lot. we soon discovered what church stacking is. they were having us park our cars so close together it was almost impossible to open the doors. but we were finally there, and we set off for a sushi quest. perhaps i should say a word about the amphitheater. it�s not so much an amphitheater as it is a huge tent in between two parking lots. it�s right on the river (conveniently next to well-used train tracks) and is located across from downtown and below one of the inclines. so it�s a cool location to see a show. it�s also next to a small shopping-restaurant-bar-club-hotel sort of complex. that�s where we sought food. we trekked across the parking lot and narrowly avoided a private tent party of some sort. once inside, we also narrowly avoided being dragged in to see "tony and tina�s wedding." an elvis-looking guy wearing bi-color wing tips and a pink jacket was trying to corral people into the room. we escaped and made it safe and sound to the sushi restaurant. we were seated next to an entertaining gay couple. the tables at the restaurant are so close together that it�s sometimes difficult not to feel a part of someone else�s table. so we chatted about one of my tattoos and speculated about the sukiyaki at the table behind us. we discovered that they were also going to the moby show. consequently, we kept seeing them the whole night. our waitress at the restaurant was very bizarre. she was american, but she appeared to be trying to speak with a bit of some sort of an asian accent. it wasn�t working. she ended up talking so slow and so soft that amy b couldn�t even hear her, and i was almost laughing every time she came over. "would you. care. for some. dessert. this evening?" she asked us. "have a. nice. weekend," she said. "was she still talking?" amy asked me. bellies full, we headed back over to the amphitheater. we made perfect timing in order to miss the opening acts, bands we hadn�t heard of and didn�t care about too much anyway. we had enough time for amy to buy an overpriced bottle of water and bum a cigarette off of one of our new friends from the restaurant (who we�d run into). then moby came on stage. this was the second time i�d seen him, and i think he puts on a good show. they last two hours, and he has so much energy, this little bald guy running and bouncing around. he also plays a lot of older songs, which i also like, since his older stuff is my favorite. (i liked him way before play. what a surprise!) he�s also hilariously funny. so i enjoyed his performance very much, as i expected. it�s a wonderful feeling to be surrounded and filled with music you love and to just let your body move with it. okay, enough about moby�s performance. let�s discuss all the weirdos amy and i encountered during it. first, there was the kid in the fuzzy hat who we immediately dubbed "jamiroquai." jamiroquai was also wearing a t-shirt that proclaimed him to be a "sugar daddy." he also appeared to have lost his friends (maybe they ditched him). we kept seeing him trying to insinuate himself with different groups. maybe it worked; at the end of the show, we spotted him with a group of blonde girls. next, there was the middle-aged bald guy with the silk shirt unbuttoned to his belly button. also, we saw quite a few drunk teenagers, one in the process of puking all over himself. then there was the ten year old breakdancer. hmmm�who else? oh yeah�glow stick boy. g.s. boy was incessantly spinning glow sticks. he looked like the type who practiced it in his bedroom. his friend was pot smoker boy, who only seemed concerned about getting caught after the bowl was kicked. there was also the usual assortment of cool kids. another faction was the ones who felt the need to stand directly in front of us, even though there was plenty of space elsewhere. and by directly in front of, i mean geometrically perfect. we spent entirely too much time moving around so we could see. (amy b, am i forgetting anyone else?) after the show ended, we hung around for a bit, waiting for the crowd to disperse. a big goal of the evening was to meet moby. (it�s not really a difficult goal, since he always comes out after shows. i�ve gotten his autograph before.) after one of the yellow-shirted security guys kicked us out, we joined a small group of people by the back gate. more yellow shirts harassed us there. one of them would stick his head out of the gate and practically whisper instructions, while the rest of the crew would loudly complain about what idiots we were because we weren�t heeding said instructions. after standing around for a bit, we were all herded across the street so a truck full of equipment could pull out. so we all balanced on top of a small grassy knoll that separated the road from the actual highway. we ended up waiting about an hour. at one point, the bassist, greta, came out. she was friendly and chatted with people. i got her autograph for marcin. one good thing about waiting so long on the grassy knoll was that the crowd thinned out somewhat. we ended up with about 10 or 15 people by the time moby came out. the poor boy seemed very tired. he probably doesn�t feel like coming out to meet people after shows, but he always does it. he didn�t chat much with people, just pretty much signed autographs and posed for pictures. still, two of our missions were accomplished. we got an autograph for marcin, and i got a picture of me and moby. after we got back to the car, we decided that we were hungry again (what a surprise), so we stopped to eat, gorged ourselves on breakfast food, and were frightened by our lurker of a waitress. then i dropped amy off at home, got myself home, and collapsed into bed. by all accounts it was a very interesting night. *** quotes of the day: oh, it�s a pair of panties with a note...it says, 'these are vegan panties if you want to eat them later.'" �moby "i kissed the lead singer of crazytown." �annoying teenage girl waiting to meet moby "i partied with coal chamber." �same annoying girl *** np: saint etienne "cool kids of death (underworld mix)" |
