Memory Lane Cont.

View from near the bar

All good things must come to an end, and the show did shortly after we moved forward in the crowd. As sad as it was to leave The House of Blues, we were all smiles and talking about how amazing the show was. Outside was pure chaos. Everyone was shoving each other out of the way to clear the walkway as soon as possible. Police officers were blocking off all other exits but one. We were losing track of each other. Gaby tried to break through the barricade the cops had set up. Her drunk ass. "Gaby!" I yelled to her, "I am not going to jail for you!" I turned around as soon as I yelled it to find Amanda. Not exactly sure what happened, but I remember some big girl shoving little Amanda out of the way and saying something along the lines of "That means move, bitch!" Now, she might be small, but Amanda's got a bite on her. As soon as it happened, Amanda turned and punched the girl in the back, yelling something back to her. Before the two looked like they were going to fight, the crowd of people kept pushing us along. We grabbed Gaby and made our way to the lower level of the walkway, thinking that would be it. Our moods were heightened once again. While the crowd of fans were taking their time going down the escalator, I thought it would be a good idea to try and run down the UP escalator. Yeah, not happening. I was a little tipsy, and that fucker was moving fast. Also because of my "ingenious" idea, I had to wait until someone would let me back in line. Finally, we made it back down to the streets of Houston. We weren't exactly sure where we were going, but we were following the crowd. Surely one of those people had the inside scoop of where we could see the band. Someone had mentioned that if we go wait by the tour buses, the band members usually sign autographs. I was down. So we made a b-line toward the tour buses. Gaby was on the phone with her boyfriend, so was Amanda, and I was following behind with a huge smirk on my face. The tour buses were in sight and so was a big group of screaming fans.

Of course at this moment you would expect something to go horribly wrong. Yep, you're right. It seemed like everything was in slow motion. Voices were low, people were moving slow, and so was I. "Hey...there's that bitch that punched me in line..."

Immediately, me and Amanda locked eyes. We turned to see the big girl coming straight for us with two of her friends following behind. Shit, I thought. Here it goes. Amanda, still holding her phone to her ear whipped around, and I followed her lead. I forget exactly what was said. Something along the lines of "You hit me first," and I'm pretty sure "fat bitch" was thrown in there somewhere. The big girl was gaining on Amanda, and I was worried for my friend. So what did I do? I yelled for Gaby of course. Now, you might think it's petty for me to call my other friend in for backup, but get this. The girl who was preparing for attack was a lot bigger than all three of us, especially Amanda. Gaby so happens to be a third degree black belt. I don't care if she's drunk as fuck. Gaby fighting drunk is like anyone else fighting sober. "Gaby!" I yelled, catching her attention immediately. Before the two of us turned to look at Amanda and the big girl, Amanda was being shoved into the wall of the building. Before Gaby could close in, Amanda landed one good hit in the girl's face before the girl backed away. It was an all out street fight now. A rumble, a brawl! I silently cheered in my head, then Gaby took control. One hit to Gaby, one hit and a high kick to the girl. I'm pretty sure that it was after that kick, her and her friends realized that we weren't ones to be messed with. And by we, I mean Gaby.

The big girl started backing away. "Oh, three against one?! That's real fair!" she yelled, and my aggressive side stepped up. "You started it, you stupid bitch!" or was it "you stupid, fat bitch?" I'm not exactly sure. All I knew is she threw something at me, and I panicked. "Ah! Attack of the...fliers? What is this, death by paper cut?" Really, who throws fliers during a fight? Her friends started grabbing her as the three of us closed in on her. They started backing away, and we started yelling after them. Now, I'm not typically one to make fun of someone's personal appearance like if someone is overweight, underweight, whatever. But...if you attack me or my friends, I lose all control. I go straight for the throat, verbally. I think I get that from my sister. Thanks to Gaby's karate skills, Amanda's good punch, and my mouth, the big girl retreated. We'd gathered up quite a crowd during the whole spectacle. I immediately looked to the tour buses. Hopefully we hadn't missed the band through all that. The short wait for the heros of the night began. We stood in line, basking in the ambiance of our victory. Soon enough the band's equipment was being brought out of The House of Blues. Security kept yelling that no one from the band would be coming out before 2 a.m., and it was only midnight. I didn't care. I was willing to wait all night. Now, once again, remember how I said we make friends with all the right people? Well it just so happens the manager of The House of Blues saw us waiting. He pulled Gaby aside and gave her a bit of very, very important information. His words? "Gerard Way has already been escorted to the tour bus in disguise. The best way of meeting the bands is to head across the street to The Dirt Bar. They have tables reserved there."

He spoke quietly so no one else could hear. Not like it would have mattered. You have to be twenty-one to get into that bar, and sadly enough, most MCR's demographic is teenagers. Awesome, we thought. This is perfect. We can chill inside a nice, cool bar, order drinks, and wait for the bands. It sounded like a bullet proof plan. So off to The Dirt Bar we went.

MCR's gear

Gaby and the manager of The House Of Blues

Amanda and the manager

The Dirt Bar is this badass little hole in the wall bar located right across the street from The House Of Blues. It's like partying in a miniature warehouse. We immediately saw two tables that had reserved signs on them. Right next to those tables were three barstools calling out to the three of us. We ran for them before anyone could steal them away. Any moment, a band member would be walking through the door. We knew it. We started drinking some more, and slowly The Dirt Bar started filling up with more and more people. People we'd made friends with during the concert kept coming up to us, telling us that MCR and The Architects would be making their way to the bar soon. We were so excited. I was so excited I started feeling sick. So I started drinking more. Gaby got her drunk back pretty quick. I was slowly working my way to mine. I didn't want to be shit-faced the first time I met MCR. We all kind of started doing our own thing. Amanda stayed at the bar and talked to a bunch of different people. Gaby stayed in the smoking room and talked to a bunch of people, and I went back and forth. After about an hour, I started getting discouraged. I'd heard from one of Mikey Way's (bassist for MCR) guitar techs that they were leaving for Dallas that night. My mood dropped. I walked back inside to greet Amanda and tell her the news. Before I could say anything, Amanda tells me that the guy she'd been talking to was the guitarist for The Architects. I was pretty excited. The band was awesome. I talked to him for a bit. He was cool. I bought him and myself a shot. We got to talking. I realized while talking to him that even though not meeting MCR was a disappointment, I was meeting a member of a badass band anyway. On top of that, the bar was filled with guitar techs and sound people for My Chemical Romance. I'd decided to turn this situation around. Instead of reserving my t-shirt for MCR autographs, I started asking the band members of The Architects for their autographs. The lead singer was first, followed by the guitarist, the bassist, and then the drummer. They were all really cool, and we took pictures with all of them. I started getting excited. 

In the midst of my high, I started conversing with Frank Iero's (rhythm guitarist for MCR) guitar tech. I started asking him about Frank Iero's side project, Leathermouth, who I'm a huge fan of. I saw them live in Orlando in 2008, and I've loved them ever since. They hadn't released a new album in a while though. Upon inquiring about Leathermouth to the guitar tech, I was given the most exciting news of the night. The guitar tech who'd bought me a beer and who had given me MCR's setlist and Mikey Way's guitar pick was also the LEAD GUITARIST OF LEATHERMOUTH!!!! I almost died. I started gushing. I started screaming. He signed my t-shirt for me. Afterward, I noticed his hat was the same one I owned by this company Frank Iero started called Skeleton Crew. It was a record label, clothing line, and publishing house. I pointed to his hat and said, "Hey, I have that same hat. Along with tons of other Skeleton Crew stuff." He replied with..."You know Skeleton Crew?" Of course I did. I loved it. He seemed stunned. Well soon after it was my turn. "I own Skeleton Crew now," he said so cavalier. I started gushing once more. Screw not getting to meet MCR, I had just meet the lead guitarist of Leathermouth and the owner of Skeleton Crew. Yeah, my mood was definitely much, much better.

The rest of the night played out with us hanging out with the Architects at The Dirt Bar and chit chatting with the music techs for MCR. Despite the fact that MCR never showed, I had the time of my life. We also had the honor of meeting the tour manager, but he left before I could get his autograph. Two a.m. rolled around, and the bar started closing. We said goodbye to our new friends. They had to get back to their tour buses and make their way to Dallas, and we had a long day of driving ahead of us. The trip to Houston was one of the best times of my life and definitely the best trip to take as a going away trip. The next weekend my apartment was packed up, and I made the torturous 15 hour drive to Columbia, Missouri. Even though nothing really exciting has happened since that trip, I'm still grinning about it. I'm hoping that my next MCR concert will lead to actually meeting the band. If not, oh well. It'll be hard to top Houston.

Amanda getting her shirt signed by the lead singer of The Architects

Me and the lead singer of The Architects

Me and the bassist of The Architects

Me and the guitarist of Leathermouth/owner of Skeleton Crew

Me and the drummer of The Architects

Gaby, drunk as fuck at The Dirt Bar

Gaby getting her shirt signed by the lead singer of The Architects

MCR's setlist given to me by Mikey Way's guitar tech

Mikey Way's guitar pick

Memory Lane

Listening to: Scarecrow by My Chemical Romance

Taking a trip down memory lane here and sharing one of my favorite memories ever. This only happened three weeks ago, but it is definitely one for the books. Also, I'm kind if in a creative frenzy, and the idea of writing as many stories as possible sounds absolutely amazing. Especially since my insomnia is really a killer today. 20 May 2011, me, my friend Gaby, and my friend Amanda made the long nine hour trip to Houston, Texas to see my favorite band, My Chemical Romance in concert. This was the weekend before I moved to the middle of nowhere Missouri. We left Florida entirely too late in the day. At around eight p.m., I think. We decided to stop off in Biloxi Mississippi where Gaby's friend was going to let us crash for the night. Biloxi was three hours from Fort Walton Beach, where I used to live in Florida. We'd decided that once we got to Biloxi, we were going to hit up the Beau Rivage Casino. Earlier this year, I'd taught Gaby how to play craps at Harrah's in New Orleans. She became addicted just like I had. By the time the three of us made it to Biloxi, we were exhausted. Still, we were set on the idea of winning thousands of dollars on the craps table to pay for our trip to Houston. Within an hour of arriving at Gaby's friend's house, we were back out the door and headed downtown to the casino. While walking through the lobby, I couldn't stop looking around. This casino wasn't nearly as nice as the ones I'd spent time in in Vegas for Christmas. Still, I was excited to drink for free and win some money. We withdrew $40 each from the ATM and began the long night. Immediately, we found a craps table with a ten dollar buy in. My tactics for playing craps is bet small, win small. But win a lot. Now, it's not hard to find a spot at a craps table...especially if you're a twenty-two year old woman with two other hot twenty-two year old women by your side. Almost as soon as we started playing, the chips started rolling in. Gaby was lady luck this night. I swear, every time she rolled it was a seven or eleven. Needless to say, we walked away with a couple hundred in our pockets. It was a successful night, and for Amanda, she was content with walking away. Gaby and I have played craps before though, and everyone who has played craps knows it's nearly impossible to leave the casino when you've been winning constantly. I don't know exactly how we convinced Amanda to stay, but after a few beers and a few vegas bombs, we were back on the craps table. Now, my friend Amanda has a gift. It's called the gift of manipulation. Particularly in the opposite sex. All I know is the three of us were close to cashing out, and then out of nowhere this old man Amanda had been chatting up threw a $100 BILL on the craps table. He gave the three of us all his chips to continue playing. So we did. We had a separate pile of chips we were going to keep and a pile to gamble with. Whenever the gambling pile would get low, the man would throw another hundred on the table for us to gamble with.

Shocking, right? I'm not making this shit up. I don't know what the man's intentions were. Surely he knew that none of us would sleep with him. Still, the hundreds kept coming, Gaby kept rolling sevens and elevens, and Amanda kept batting her eyes for more money. Me? Well, I just made moves and drank. By the time we decided to cash out, we'd made $1,000 between the three of us. Our trip had been won in one night. Epic, I know.

The next day we left Biloxi at around eleven in the morning. The rest of the trip to Houston was pretty hellacious. We'd stayed up till six in the morning gambling, and Gaby and myself had gotten pretty wasted. Not smart to get wasted the day before a long road trip. The good news is I knew I would be seeing my favorite band the very next day at The House Of Blues in Houston. Nothing could bring my mood down. We arrived in Houston later that evening and stayed the night at Gaby's sister's house. The next day was concert day. We left Gaby's sister's at around two p.m. and made it to our hotel in downtown Houston at around three. We do it big, by the way. Me and Gaby have very...expensive taste. I'm pretty sure we stayed at the Hilton, or maybe it was the Marriott. Whichever one, we had a skyline view of Houston overlooking the House of Blues and the tour buses for the bands. My excitement was undeniable. While Amanda started getting ready for the show, Gaby and I decided to go up to the top floor patio to smoke and admire the tour buses from afar. While doing so, a security guard came outside to bullshit with us. I don't know what it is about the three of us, but we have a tendency to make all the right friends. Maybe we're just friendly. The security guard had divulged some life-altering information. That My Chemical Romance was staying in the same hotel as us...excited yet? I was. Picture your favorite band, no...not band...musician, artist, biggest idol in the world, love of your life was staying in the same hotel as you. For the rest of the time getting ready in the hotel room, we couldn't contain our excitement.

Me and Amanda

 Me and Gaby

The time to leave the hotel and head to The House of Blues was approaching. We were putting the finishing touches on our outfits. We'd made our own shirts, had our own rocker styles. We classified it this way...Amanda was punk, I was grunge, and Gaby was...well Gaby was Gaby. While walking to the elevator, we were snapping pics, taking videos on the walk to the House of Blues. It was scorching outside, and it seemed that from every direction some new MCR fan was emerging from the corners and streets of Houston. We didn't care. We were too excited, and we'd recently found out that there was going to be a bar serving alcohol. That's enough to get...me and Gaby excited at least. Now, if you've ever been to a really big show like MCR, then you already know you have to be there a few hours before the show starts. Yeah, we did that, and we were still pretty far down the line. It didn't matter. For some reason we were all in the best mood ever. It's weird for me. I usually get really stressed in situations like these, but...nothing could ruin my mood. When we found our place in line, the best thing that could have happened at that moment happened. We'd been standing by the corner of the hall. The security didn't want anyone standing beyond the corner. So the three of us took it upon ourselves to direct the rest of the fans to the back of the line. From what I hear it went pretty far back. At least we were under an overhang and not being crowded by a bunch of fucking teenagers. It seemed every time we told another set of fans to keep moving down the line though, they got mad at us. Oh well, you're not supposed to stand behind the three of us. The security guards loved us for doing their job so well. "End of the line!" we'd yell to everyone who walked up behind us. I guess we captured the attention of The House Of Blues manager because he came up and conversed with us for a bit. Remember how I said we're really good at making friends with all the right people? Keep on remembering that.

Me directing traffic in line

Me and Gaby with our game faces on

Gaby, Amanda, and me waiting in line

Me and Amanda

So after waiting in line for two and a half hours, the line finally started moving. I was so relieved because at that point I felt like I was going to pass out. For some reason on that trip, my food hadn't been sitting well in my stomach. To top it off we were parched and burning up in the Texas summer heat. I remember my first thought after walking through the threshold of The House of Blues. Thank God it's air conditioned in here! Immediately, we headed for the bar. Amanda needed a redbull, Gaby needed a vodka redbull, and I needed a beer. While leaning on the bar waiting for my drink, I took a peek around. It was a pretty awesome venue. Not too big. I also noticed that from the bar you could see the stage awesomely. Yep, I'd found my post. I remembered doing the same thing at The Used concert a year before, and I'd gotten wasted. While more fans piled in, Gaby, Amanda, and I talked and bullshitted with the bartenders. We asked them if they got to meet the bands that performed, if they enjoyed their jobs...lots of stuff, really. 

We sparked the interest of one bartender in particular. Before we knew it, he was giving us cups of olives to eat. That turned into giving Amanda free redbulls, giving Gaby free redbull vodkas, and me free beer! Again, I'm not making this up. Before the opening bands even started, Gaby was drunk, Amanda was wired, and I was burping like crazy. I was happy to know that even when the opening band started playing the venue wasn't too packed. I could still see the stage perfectly. The first band was this band called The Architects. I immediately fell in love with them. It's always fun when the opening bands are bands worth listening to. The next band to come up was Circa Survive. Eh, not so great. Perfect time to go smoke a few cigarettes. Throughout their entire set, Gaby, Amanda, and I were making some pretty cool but...strange...friends. I've always wondered if my group of friends are the only normal ones at concerts. Oh, and apparently you're not supposed to wear the band t-shirt of the band you're going to see in concert. Make sense to anyone? Not me. Fuck it. I'll wear what I want. By the end of Circa Survive, I was dying. My anticipation was killing me. I didn't want another beer for fear I'd get too drunk to remember the show. Apparently Gaby didn't care. She was already drunk as fuck. Perfectly fine with me. She's fun as hell when she's drunk. Suddenly, the lights went dim. The crowd started screaming. I was too excited to make noise, but when the beginning to Na Na Na came on, I went crazy.

You must remember, MCR is my ultimate favorite band and they have been for a really long time. I love all FOUR of their albums, especially the new one that they were on tour for. As excited as I was, I was still able to maintain my situational awareness. It was quite amazing how packed the venue got right when MCR started performing. I remember the show like it was yesterday. I was the only one out of the three of us who never left her spot. Amanda would go to the bathroom, Gaby would go smoke, and I would stand right exactly where I was, singing...no, not singing. I was screaming every song that they performed. I was jumping up and down, surrounded by a sea of screaming, adolescent MCR fans. I remember Gaby yelling in my ear "I'm sweating like a whore in church," and she was right. We all were. I didn't care. I was having too much fun. The band played for about two and half hours before disappearing off stage. Soon after, the crowd started to clear the venue. The three of us knew better. We took that opportunity to move forward in the crowd. Just as we'd suspected, MCR came out for an encore, and our spots were incredible. Thanks all you crazy fans who thought the show was over!