All we wanna do is drink at the bar

[leighblack]

So, remember, almost two months ago when I took a road trip out to Detroit & Chicago? And promised that I'd post a big journal entry about it? And then never did? Yeaaaaaaah...Well, I wrote the whole entry a while ago. I was just lazy about scanning in the photos to go with it. And then I kinda forgot. But, *tah dah* today I have it for you! Of course, at this point, it's more like a trip down memory lane. =)


March 18, 2005
The weekend started out early on Friday morning, when I woke up to the sight of snow falling. We were supposed to have a snowstorm and I was a little wary about my drive, but it didn't look too bad. I packed up all my stuff and started out along my way to Detroit around 8:15 am.

After I passed through Hudson, the snow stopped, so I thought I was in the clear. Yeah, I was wrong about that. Because somewhere around Eau Claire, I drove straight into a white-out storm. It sucked. There's no other way to say it. I would have pulled off and waited it out. But, since I was driving east and the snow was moving east, I would have just driven into it again. So, I just kept going and it didn't turn out so well. I went under a bridge, hit a bad patch of snow and fishtailed. I spun around, missed a guardrail and hit a sign. It wasn't too bad, especially since I hadn't been going that fast. I knew I hadn't crunched up my car too bad, since I hit it right at the front end. I didn't really want to sit there, since there was a good chance someone else would do the same thing and I'd get hit, so I just started my car back up and drove off. I didn't even get out to look at it.

It lasted about two hours, but I finally out drove the snow. I stopped in Mauston to get gas and check out my poor car. I called my mom and sent this photo from my cell phone.



She was just happy that I was okay. The last thing I need is to get injured in another car accident. My bumper is cracked and the turn signal was gone, but the damage was pretty minimal. If I'd been another foot father back I'd have missed the sign, but then I probably would have ended up in the ditch, so the sign wasn't so bad.

My trip was fairly uneventful after that. I spent a lot of time reading my email on my phone (yes, while driving) and I made a couple phone posts. I had made a few mp3 CDs for my drive since my new CD player plays them. I was in the car for almost 9 hours before the first CD started repeating any songs. That's fabulous! *loves mp3 CDs* That CD was cleverly titled "Songs I Like to Sing in the Car," which helped keep me entertained on my 12 1/2 hours drive. I didn't really stop that much, and other than the customary bag of jerky I had with me, I didn't eat anything while I was driving. For some reason, I wasn't hungry at all and I didn't feel like making myself eat.

Let me say this about MI: it's ugly. I've been to quite a few cities there and I've only ever liked one, and that was St. Joseph. Everything else is dirty and gross. This trip didn't change my mind on any of that. And the roads are fucked up. I now understand how Julee & I got so lost going to Ann's house.

I finally arrived at terkey's place in Royal Oak, MI around 9:45pm, EST, and she & foxontherun where waiting for me. I'd never met Nicole before, but we've become friends through lj, so it was nice to finally see her and give her a big hug. Foxy too, of course. Nicole has a wonderful dinner waiting for me, but I still wasn't hungry and I didn't eat much. In fact, I kind of flopped on the floor and didn't do much since I was fairly exhausted from not getting much sleep the night before. I felt bad about that, since I knew they wanted to do something a little more exciting than sit around, but that's what we ended up doing. Nicole took Foxy home and I crashed out on the couch.

March 19, 2005
The next morning, Nicole & I went out to breakfast. I had an omlet with gyro meat in it. YUM!! We then headed out to the Great Lakes Crossing Mall since Nicole wanted to find some new boots. It was a very strange looking mall. We wandered into a couple stores filled with typical mall junk and I bought a throw pillow with the Wicked Witch of the West on it and a Homer Simpson "D'oh!" windchime. I had to be restrained from buying a $50 bag with the Wicked Witch on it. It was so pretty!!! I also got a fleece blanket & pillow with F*ck written all over them. Good stuff!

It was like I'd hit the jackpot when we went into Hot Topic. I bought a T-shirt that says "I'm With the Drummer." It's so perfect!! I can't wait for Faster to get their asses out on tour around here. The shirt needs a little somp'n, somp'n though, so I have a feeling I'll be doing a little surgery on it. I also got a shirt on clearance at Torrid. Poor Nicole didn't find anything!

We left the Mall and Nicole took me past Exit 69, Big Beaver Rd, since it's about the most entertaining thing in MI. And that was the most touristy thing we did. I'm just not a touristy type person. Especially in Michigan. We stopped by an auto store on the way back home so I could replace the turn signal bulb that was broken. I was hoping that it would still work, since the wiring all looked fine. We got back in the car and continued back to Nicole's when her car started acting funny. She'd just gotten the car for free and it had been in the shop the day before to fix the gas lines. But they'd said the transmission was fine, which didn't seem to be the case as it died while we were at a light. Thankfully, we managed to get the car into a parking lot and then pushed it into a spot. And then we walked the mile and a half or so back to Nicole's in the freezing cold rain. Not exactly a pleasant way to end the afternoon, but it wasn't all that bad. At least we were that close. Walking farther would have been bad.

We crashed and warmed up for a little while, then needed to get ready for our evening. I had dug out my world-famous Jager Bitch shirt and brought it with me, so I wore that. We went to pick up Foxy and then drove out to "lovely" Mt. Clemens, where we were going to see Mike Tramp's White Lion & Enuff Z'Nuff at the Hayloft Liquor Stand. Really, I didn't care much about White Lion. I just wanted to see EZN and hang with my friends. It was kind of extreme to drive 12 hours for this, but that's the kind of girl I am.

The first person I saw when I walked in was my best friend Allison. (come! join me on the sarcasm slide!) That didn't bode well for the evening. But, I didn't want to make it a big deal, so I just walked past her to say hello to Suzie. Funny how I can walk into a dive bar in the Midwest and find someone I know. Foxy was talking to Allison, so I wandered over to the bar. OMG! They had Raspberry Vox!! I was suddenly a very happy person. My first drink was only $5, so it must have been happy hour at that point. I spied Monaco wandering through the crowd and tried to decide whether I wanted to stalk him through the bar. Instead, we decided to stake out a booth near the door so we could find Kim & Mike when they arrived. Plus, it was far away from Allison.

On the way through the other room, I spotted Monaco talking to some people and waited so I could say hello. He looked over and looked a little surpised, but gave me a big hug, as usual. He told me that they were playing another show afterwards, but had no idea where it was. I told him I'd really driven all the way out there to see them, so I'd love to find out where the show was so we could go. He went off to find Chip since he supposedly knew where the show was. The guys he'd been talking to said something about driving all the way from Flint. I just looked at them and said "I drove from Minneapolis. Through a snow storm." They decided that I won.

jawakimchee (Frog) & Mike finally came in and shenanigans began. For some unknown reason, the drink prices suddenly jumped through the roof, as it was $30 for a round of 2 drinks and 3 shots. WTF?? So, the drinking slowed down a little bit. There was still plenty of alcohol consumed as I had three Rasp Vox & Crans and a Jager Bomb. People kept wandering over to our booth, as they were from Sludge or just random other people. I was a little worried by how many people there were that I had met in other cities. I guess I get around a little too much. Mike went off with Allison because she wanted to point out Rojas, or something like that. He didn't realize who she was until we told him and then he wanted to know why'd we let him go off with her. He said she'd touched him on the arm and now he felt dirty. Many other entertaining things happened, but I really don't remember what they were. It's kind of a blur.


Frog & I, looking a little woozy


Frog, FOJ & Foxy


Nicole & I


Foxy, Me & Nicole

Three bands were on before EZN. The first band was okay. Until they played The Darkness. After that, I tuned them out. One of the Sludge dude's (yellowfin) band was next, Overloaded. They were okay. Not great, not terrible. I've seen a lot of horrible opening bands, so it wasn't like it was awful or anything. Next was a band from NY, Slunt. Oh dear Lord, were they bad! It was two chicks and two guys and I *think* they were trying to do a Betty Blowtorch-type thing. The difference being that Betty Blowtorch was actually good. All of their songs were about sex and it just got really old. Plus, the chick singer pretty much screamed for the entire set. Then their last song had lines like "Piggies in the blanket," "Daddy's bringing home the bacon" and "You're making my squeal." Well, a farm animal motif is always a good idea for a song. Or not. Needless to say, we were very happy when they got off the stage.

We barged our way through the crowd and ended up near the front of the stage. That place was pretty packed! I don't suppose that there's much else going on there, even on a Saturday night. I'm sure I *squeed* like a good little fan girl when EZN came out. They've changed up their setlist some, so I actually heard some different songs. They had some equipment problems though (the drum mic was dead) and the show came to a stop as they tried to fix it. Other than that, they sounded really great! I just love seeing them live!! Their new/replacement drummer, Erik, does a really good job. He always looks like he's having a lot of fun.


Johnny Monaco


Chip Z'Nuff


Erik Donner

Near the end of the show, it became obvious that White Lion wanted EZN to cut their set short because they had stopped for the equipment problems. Someone came out and told Erik that they could only do 2 more songs, when they had three left to do. Johnny looked at Chip, they both kind of shrugged, and continued on with the set as planned. By the time they kicked into "New Thing," all of the roadies and the "other" White Lion guys were all lined up on the side of the stage with their arms folded and shaking their heads. It was entertaining to watch the hissy fit. Like it was EZN's fault the equipment was busted up! Because of all this, we decided that we didn't really care to stay & watch White Lion. Errrr, Mike Tramp's White Lion. Whatever.

Monaco had told us the name of the place they played at after the Hayloft, but no one really knew where it was and we didn't want to drive around lost. Plus, Nicole wasn't really having a great time and I didn't want to make her go to another loud bar. Instead, we decided to search out some food and another drink or two. After driving around like maniacs, we settled on a little place just a block away from the Hayloft. I would have been okay with BW-3, but Frog was attracted by the neon "Great Food!" sign, so that's where we went. Too bad it was the wrong choice. Our waitress was obviously new and the service was slow and horrible. Oh well.

After finally getting the check, we all said goodbye and parted ways. Nicole crashed out in my back seat while Foxy & I talked hair bands in the front. We drove through THE thickest fog I have ever seen. I was glad we weren't on the freeway, because that would have sucked. Instead, we were on a mostly deserted MI highway. We got back without incident, dropped Foxy off and then Nicole crashed hard at home. Because of the time difference and being pumped from going out, I was wide awake, so I played on her computer for a while.

March 20, 2005
wonderfungus greeted me with an early morning phone call. Well, 9am. But it was way too early out where he is. I'm sure I didn't sound very coherent and didn't stay on the phone very long. I gradually worked my way to wakefulness and eventually packed all my stuff up and said goodbye to Nicole.

My drive on Sunday was SO much better than Friday's. It was beautiful out! I had the windows down and the music cranked the whole way to Chicago. I got to Julee's around 3pm, like I had planned. We sat around and caught up on things for a while. I hadn't seen her since September! Our plan had originally been to see her Egostatic boys instead of EZN. But it turned out that they were playing a really early all-ages show, so we decided to do both. We got ready, said goodbye to John & headed out.

When we got to the Logan Square Auditorium, it became obvious that Egostatic was playing in a place that was on the third floor. And that meant dreaded stairs! Ugh! We did well though, because it was still early in the evening. We walked into the place and it had a very high school dance kind of feel. I kept waiting for the Principal to come and yell at us or something. Happily, the place had a bar, so we started drinking as we watched the band. There were lots of very young kiddies all around us, and it made us feel old. Egostatic was really good! I liked them a lot. Their drummer busted the bass drum, but kept right on playing. Julee knew a lot of the people there, so we talked to some folks when Egostatic was done. We stayed for a bit of the next band, then started on our voyage to the 'burbs.

Instead of going out to the corn, like we usually do, we headed to the industrial park. It was a nice change of pace. Our map gave us really horrible directions though, and we ended up taking some really screwy way to get there. Lexi & her friend were meeting us there, so we had to keep calling them to make sure they could find it. Eventually, we got out to the Chicago City Limits and discovered the show was $20. Twenty freaking dollars?!? Since we had driven all the way out there, we stayed, but it didn't make us happy. Julee & I went up to the bar, and I soon saw daughterofglam walk in with Chip. I went over and gave her a big hug. She seemed surprised to see us, since we had said we wouldn't be there. Not too much later we found Lexi and Age, and we were set.

The crowd was a little scary. There was some guy carrying around a snake. I guess that's a good way to pick up chicks. We worked our way to the front and staked out spots. A crowd of 30-something chicks who were trying to pretend that they were 16 ended up next to us. They were THE most annoying people, and for the entire show. I think we all wanted to smack them with large, heavy objects.

EZN came on and did a lovely job, as always. No equipment problems, but they didn't play "One Step Closer" for some reason. I must have been looking at the setlist with a puzzled look, because Erik started laughing at me. He also was singing to me during the show. *fangirl sigh* Monaco kept looking at the annoying girls like he couldn't figure out why they were there. And Chip was just Chip.


Monaco


Chip


Erik

We retreated to the very back of the bar after EZN so we could sit & talk. I kept an eye out so I could continue my stalking of Johnny Monaco, and did everntually see him. I got my customary hug and talked to him for a little while. I bought his CD, which I'm now addicted to. It's SO good!! I went back to sit with the girls and we all gossiped for a while. I wanted to say hello to Erik, but he was hanging out with people and would not stop talking. (There's more than one reason why he reminds me of Chad) Lexx & Age tried to get his attention for a while, but finally gave up. I got up and went over to him and he finally stopped so we could talk. He was quite a sweetie!


Me & Erik

I ended up talking to Monaco some more, and finally worked up asking for a photo with him.


Me & Monaco - we're so adorable!

We're so adorable!

Mike Tramp's White Lion was onstage for most of this mingling, but we weren't really paying attention to them. Mike Tramp scared me, as he was wearing a black & white striped vest with no shirt. He was also doing many cliche stage things, like waving his hands in the air and fist pumping. If only there could have been synchronized headbanging! =\ They were on for about 45 mins before they played a song I recognized. I wasn't sad about missing them when we decided to leave.

Glammie had disappeared and we wanted to say goodbye, so we tried looking for her. It was kind of like playing "Where's Carly?" =) Lexx saw Chip walk in and sit at the bar, so she marched up to him and asked where Katie was. I think he was a little surprised by that! She was out on the bus, so we went out and managed to get her attention. We had a photo session, followed by a goodbye hug session.


Me & Julee


Julee, Lexx, Glammie & I

Julee & I went back to the city and she wanted to get another drink, so went to Exit. They have a Metal night on Sundays, but it seemed to all be death metal. No hair bands. =( That last drink, coupled with the fact that I hadn't eaten much all weekend, did me in and I was suddenly quite drunk. We went back to Julee's and I crashed on her couch.

I managed to drag myself up and out by 8am, and drove back home. Again, it was a beautiful day and I quite enjoyed my drive. I got home in time to say hello to my mom and watch the episode of Crossing Jordan that I had missed before going into work.

All in all, a very successful weekend! Well, except for that car accident thing, of course.

Enuff Z'Nuff Photos

Comments

[foxontherun.livejournal.com]

Piggies in a blanket, that's what happened!! *helping you with the "blur" part of the evening* :)

[leighblack.livejournal.com]

That part I actually remember! =)

[foxontherun.livejournal.com]

Ok, just making sure. Did you at least forget about Slunt? >:)

[foxontherun.livejournal.com]

Spoke too soon. Given that you mentioned them and all. Too bad we didn't have one of those gadgets from "Men In Black"...

[leighblack.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, I think they're burned into my brain.

[jawakimchee.livejournal.com]

YAYAYAYAY! Thankyou very much!

[leighblack.livejournal.com]

You are very, very welcome.

[sammipunk.livejournal.com]

Ahhh...I'm sad I missed all that. My great grandmother being ill and all. She turned 85 today!

In defense of my state - there *are* pretty parts. They're just nowhere near Detroit. The good stuff is waaaaaaaaay up north. Mackinac Island, Sleeping Bear Dunes, Tequamenon Falls, Traverse City. Those kind of places. Other than that all we have is a few good rock bars. And some cool people....right?......RIGHT?

[leighblack.livejournal.com]

I'm sure there are plenty of pretty parts of MI. I've just missed most of them in my travels. And yes, some of the people are cool.

Just not the psychos.

[vampirecarly.livejournal.com]

Ha ha ha...It's been so long I'd forgotten about "Where's Carly?"

Good times!

[leighblack.livejournal.com]

A round of "Where's Carly?" is always a crowd pleaser.