2 posts tagged “house of blues”
She Wants Revenge, 11/21/06 (House of Blues - San Diego) 
Opening bands were Monster (didn't hear them) and Pretty Girls Make Graves (thought Pants Party would like them). I HATE that their lighting caused their photo to come out better than anything I took of SWR.
SWR was great - they always are. Short set again - just over an hour (that includes the encore). But they only have 1 album (13 songs) and 2 promo tracks, so they still ended up performing the majority of their music.
I was annoyed with the girls behind me during Adam's instrumental piece, "Disconnected" because the music is really touching (to me, the song sounds like remembering a great love from the past) but the girls spent the duration of this beautiful song screaming, "TAKE IT OFF!!" Soooo not the right moment.
LOVED when the band sang their 2 promo tracks, "Black Liner Run" and "Spend the Night", which are only available on the "These Things" EP. Because nearly no one has that EP, 99% of the audience stood around, not sure what they were hearing. Kim and I (and a handful of others) rocked out and got to play, "We're bigger fans that you are!! (neener-neener-nee-ner!!)"
I got a kick out of seeing that during "I Don't Want To Fall In Love", at the counting part, Justin finger-counts (1, 2, 3... 4-5-6-7!) in sign language... because I finger count in sign too.
Kim and I were only 4 people from the stage, and 4 people from center, for the entire show. Unfortunately, there was a super tall guy in front of us - and the band spent the vast majority of the show in the center, or left of us.
A nice bonus event for me: I happened to witness the exact moment Kim went from being obsessed with Justin, the lead singer, to noticing Adam, the keyboardest - and becoming completely obsessed with him instead She's apparently a sucker for dimples... and Adam surely has that base covered. The change of obsessions worked out well as I had promised Kim she'd get a sweaty hug from Justin... but he never came out after the show. Adam, on the other hand, signed autographs... which is what I'm holding in my photo (signed ticket)... and posed for pictures... which is Kim's photo.
I only recorded a couple minutes of video footage (still have to edit it & save in a playable format) because the security guard (a bastard!) wouldn't let me record. I'm semi-debating about seeing them, again, in Anaheim tonight (Wed). It's MUCH closer to my home/work (San Diego was an 85 mile drive - we made it in 1 hr), but it's also a bigger venue and snottier crowd (that's where I saw DEVO). I'll most likely skip it because it would be hard to top tonight.
Here are the rest of the best of the pics (the rest are in my photo gallery - in case you're interested):
Los Angeles / Hollywood Zombie Walk 2006
I admit it; I am disturbed by how easily I transformed into a Zombie! Why didn't anyone tell me this is just about the easiest Halloween costume ever? Looking good = effort. Looking bad = eeeaaaaasy!!
I tried to post my photos to flickr but, realizing the photos could be compressed by re-saving, I took them back down. But good ol flickr, it read the 2-way traffic and, despite having posted NO photos, now says that I'm at my limit for the month. I hate retard software. I get get paid to hate retard software and I'm good at it.
That said: My (very crappy) photos of the LA Zombie Walk can be viewed at my Yahoo!Photos location.
The walk was a semi-surreal experience. When I arrived at the parking lot closest to the meet location (Hollywood & Vine), it turned out the "Scream Awards" were going on across the street... a source of confusion for many. I was the 6th person to arrive. Not knowing what to expect, I was simply happy there were other people there (not that I would have really cared had I been the only freak on the corner - as I knew not many people would take notice).
By the time we started our westbound journey, our group was probably up to about 50 people - some fresh from movie shoots. By the time we headed south, and rounded Hollywood High School, we were roughly 150 to 200 zombies strong. The sun had set by then and it was LOTS of fun to randomly terrorize businesses and bystanders. Traffic was now stopping to stare and trying to figure out what was going on. Unfortunately, the majority of the group seem to be fitness-freak Zombies... more about the dress up than the whole effect... and power-walked the entire path, quickly leaving about 30 of us more "dedicated" zombies who were dragging our feet, literally, behind. No matter, we had a great time - swarming cars, performing "interpretive" zombie dances to the musicians in front of the Hollywood/Highland (Kodak Theater) complex, and freaking out tourists (Q: Why are latinas so much more inclined to act terrified?!? I'm not knocking it - it made things fun for us - I'm just wondering).
I'm already looking forward to next year's walk!
Kingdom Party (Gay Days at Disneyland)
While getting my zombie photo taken by the FGN (Fabulous Gay Neighbors), I learned that it was also the Official-Unofficial Gay Days at Disneyland and the main afterparty, Kingdom, was scheduled at the Anaheim House of Blues for that night.
When I used to go to Disneyland Gay Days, it was an organized, private party thing - we paid an inflated admission (part of it going to charity) for private afterhours admission to the park (something like 8pm to 1am) during the holidays. It was freakin' cold but Disneyland is beeeeauuuuteeeful at the holidays!! There's no better way to attend Disneyland than a private afterhours party - with gay men!! Roughly 20,000 people instead of the usual 60k to 120k, so you can easily get on as many rides in those 5 hours as in an average 15-hr day in summer. Plus everyone was in a GREAT mood. One of my fav memories is of standing in line for Bear Mountain and hearing members of the gay men's chorus, far enough ahead to be unseen, singing Disney tunes. And men trying on princess hats and all the various evil-witch head-dresses... hysterical! And watching Main Street turn into one giant cruise-a-thon, as the party closed, was priceless!
But that was the good ol' days. Now, people go on their own, during the day & with the general public - but wear red shirts to ID that they're part of the unofficial event. I missed the event at the park but zoomed home from the Zombie Walk, taking off as much makeup as I could while I drove (sometimes traffic jams have benefits), and playing phone tag with the FGNs in an effort to get a ticket to the party.
I showered, shampooed, false eyelashed, and finally got to Downtown Disney (the food/bar "mall" between Disneyland and California Adventures [fyi, CA Adv. SUCKS. Save your money!]) around 11:15, totally annoyed that valet parking had already been closed. But I found a great parking space, had no prob getting a ticket to the party (except the cover had risen from $30 to $40) and got in while Jennifer Hudson (?? from American Idol; about to appear in Dreamgirls) was performing her set. I hung out on the upper patio, enjoying the drag-queen versions of Cruela Deville, the Queen of Hearts, Ursula, and the Evil Queen from Snow White.
I chatted up anyone who passed and once Jennifer's singing ended, quickly found my FGNs - happy to start my first night out with them at a real club event. We had a couple drinks, I played dollar-in-the-bra-backbend-with-the-gogo-boy again, I met - and totally loved - the FGN's friend (Scott), and then we all danced for the rest of the night - with me working us to "prime" spot in the center/front area of the dance floor - where I was surprised/amused to run into one of the straight female regulars from Miss Kitty's Parlour in LA. I don't think she's a faghag so it was kind of odd to cross paths at such diverse locations (I believe she said she knew the party's coordinator).
The temperature in the club quickly turned to roasting (HOB Anaheim is roughly 2' x 2') and men began to peel of their shirts. Yummy for me!! I snapped a quick cell-pic as two very hot men next to me started making out. In fact, I think nearly every man near me was making out with someone. Since I was in the center of it all, and pretty much the only person not kissing & groping a hot guy (I hate when that happens!!), I choose to believe I was the grand impetus for it all, fulfilling my destiny as the Goddess of Hedonism and Desire!
As I took a break at the bar, a total stranger insisted on buying my drinks for me - never introduced himself or anything... just insisted that I let him pay and then walked away (I LOVE gay men!!). And another, oddly placed, concert performance began. In the middle of the DJ's great mixing, two guys came out and started singing. It took awhile to realize they were live, not lip syncing (I'm still not 100% on that) and it was funny to be in a slightly elevated position and able to watch pretty much the entire dance floor stop, stare, and visually express, "Who in the hell is that??" After their last song, I heard the singers call themselves "Jason & DiMarco". I know I've heard the names before but have no idea why... and they weren't good enough to bother to look up.
The party closed down around 1:30, much to the relief of my very sore feet (xx miles walking like a zombie followed by 2+ hrs dancing in 5" stilettos = OUCH!!). I hauled myself outside to sit down & peel off my shoes while the "sidewalk sale" (gay cruising at closing) wound down. I got a laugh out of catching the Disney Police (who are so NOT the friendliest people on earth) tailing us for awhile - apparently thinking we were drunk... no doubt because we were covered with sweat, I had kicked off my shoes, and I was still hobbling awkwardly as my toes re-learned how to bend. As we waited for one of the FGNs to figure out how to get his car keys from the long-closed valet (note to self: Knock on the closed windows - there are still people inside), a guy I had seen inside the club - James (per his "It's my Birthday" Disneyland badge) - stopped to tell me he thought I was a totally hot dancer and had been disappointed after working his way thru the dance floor to dance with me - only to find that I had moved away. Again, I LOVE gay men! A staight man never would have bought my drinks, nor given me such a nice compliment, without expecting it to lead to something... or at least expecting me to expect it. It's wonderful to be able to know a compliment is compliment, and a nice gesture is a nice gesture, and neither has any "hidden meaning" beyond friendliness and good manners.
Home at 3am, I crashed & burned and spent the rest of the weekend... literally ALL of Sunday... in bed. Not the most productive use of time but it sure felt good. I wasn't (and still am not) in the mood for interacting with people and it was nice to be able to avoid the outside world, and my responsibilities, for 24 hrs.
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