1997

Deftones 11/6/97

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This was the second of the two shows I went to see in Seattle. I had first heard Deftones on The Crow: City of Angels Soundtrack. Based on that song, “Teething,” I bought Adrenaline and was a full on fan by the time Marvin showed up at my house with Around the Fur about two months before the album was released! (His college roommate worked at the Central Washington State University radio station) So…when Deftones rolled into Seattle about a week and a half after the album was officially released we already knew all the songs. I remember being pretty drunk at this show because Roscoe and I were drinking out in the car prior to the show, which was nothing unusual for us. The RKCNDY is now defunct but back in the day it was a really small place to see a show and when a band like Deftones comes through there with only two albums worth of material to choose from you better bet your ass it was rockin’. Deftones have since matured into something otherworldly but back then they were at their heaviest.

Shortly after this is when my world really did get rocked. The day I left for Seattle I gave Jack my half of the rent because it was due that day. I didn’t think twice about it but then about two weeks later we were getting our apartment sprayed for bugs. They had left an instruction sheet with us on how to prepare the apartment but we had lost it. I went to the rental office to get another and the manager asked me which apartment I lived in. After I told her she said, “Oh, you’re the guys who haven’t paid the rent yet.” My jaw hit the floor. “No. You must be mistaken.” No mistake. I stormed back to my place and woke Jack by throwing his door open. I think I said something along the lines of “What the FUCK is going on?” He then explained to me that he had been fired and didn’t want to tell me because he knew I would give him shit. Jack was the kind of smooth guy that could get hired anywhere but then would get fired because he did not want to wake up after a hard night of partying, knowing he could just go get another job. This particular morning got a little sweeter when I demanded my half of the rent back. He informed me that part of the money was used to keep our electricity on, since he had not been paying his half of that either. Things just spiraled from there. I quit my job (the only job I have ever quit) because I needed to go straighten things out with the property management and my boss was being a dick. When I told the other supervisor I quit, he quit too. It was a very empowering feeling but then reality set in. I had no incoming money and a debt to settle. I had to worry about two full months rent because our lease was not up until December and I didn’t have any confidence that Jack was going to be contributing. He had already fucked up his credit by then but mine was perfect. The night I quit I went to a party to take my mind off everything and some girl ended up kissing me. When I told Rose (who had moved back by then) what happened, we broke up. Then my Veiled Chameleon that I had just gotten months prior was on his deathbed. Then my 1981 Pontiac Firebird got stolen and I had no insurance! I had put it up for sale thinking I could pay off the lease, get a cheaper car, kick Jack out, and get the money out of him later. I had also just signed up for Community College but now had no way to get there. This all topped off by the fact that it was a pretty cold winter. At that moment I decided that I would never go back to that situation again and I never have. I knew things could only get better from there and my new mantra was “it could always be worse.”

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311 11/5/97

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Less than two months later and my whole world was about to be rocked. Roscoe and I decided to make a trip to Seattle to see two consecutive nights worth of concerts. The first of these concerts was this 311 concert. I believe we stayed with my friend T-Bone. The first opening band was a then little known band called Incubus. They were touring for their second full length album S.C.I.E.N.C.E. Brandon Boyd had long dreadlocks and beat the hell out of a hand drum on “New Skin.” I remember thinking they were pretty good but then forgot about them until after Make Yourself came out. Next up was Sugar Ray. They were enjoying the success of the song “Fly” from the album Floored. I thought they were alright but the singer, Mark McGrath, was pretty funny because he was so sarcastic. Then came 311. They just flat out rocked. They were on tour for Transistor but I had got into them via Rose right after the self-titled album came out. Some short random girl asked me to put her on my shoulders, which was cool because she was cute, but that got old fast.

Rage Against the Machine 9/12/97

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Two great concerts within a month at the Gorge? Yep. Rage Against the Machine in their heyday a little more than a year after Evil Empire was released. I had heard Rage Against the Machine once again through Claude. His sister turned him onto them right about the time “Freedom” was getting airplay. By now we were used to the Gorge pretty well only this time as we approached the parking lot we passed about 10 huge news crew trucks to the side of the road. The reason why is because the sheriff of Grant County thought there were going to be riots and a general trashing of the place. We had both cars parked side by side and one person stood on the bottom door sill to watch for cops while the rest of us were drinking beer. There was a greater police force roaming the aisles of the parking lot than ever before. At one point a huge military plane also flew over us, which to this day was also the only time I’ve seen any plane while at the Gorge. I remember going crazy at the front of the stage when Rage opened with “Fuck Tha Police.” The most memorable thing about this show is that the whole floor seemed to turn into a big pogo stick for pretty much the entire show. The show went on without any issue but somehow I lost the ticket stub to this concert, which is why the ticket looks photocopied from a friend (it is).

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1433585/19970915/rage_against_the_machine.jhtml

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Lollapalooza 8/12/97

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This summer was pretty uneventful with the exception of taking full advantage of our party place. There was a plentiful source of alcohol, marijuana, and girls. I didn’t take advantage of the female part because for some stupid reason I was convinced to try to do the long distance thing with Rose. This show was definitely one of the highest points of not only the summer but also my life. At the time of this writing it is my #1 favorite concert of all time and I don’t expect that to ever be surpassed. This was to be our third Lollapalooza in a row and another chance to visit the beautiful Gorge Amphitheater. It also ended up being the last Lollapalooza until 2003. The reasons we wanted to go were simple: Korn and Tool. I was lucky enough to find out about Korn right after their first album came out and we played the shit out of that album. I remember Korn played really small venues in Seattle for about $10 to support both their self-titled album and Life Is Peachy but nobody was yet old enough to drive. The curse of Korn concerts carried on as they were not at this Lollapalooza show due to a case of meningitis in Munky. My friends and I pretty much just took it easy all day on the lawn in anticipation of Tool. By a random stroke of fate we ran into Brian, a guy we had known by association of a few other people we knew. He asked us if we wanted some acid and without hesitation said “hell yes.” Normally I cannot be around anyone else that is not on acid with me so this was to be quite the experiment but I couldn’t think of any more perfect circumstances to drop. Concerts are a place where anything goes and you are in like-minded company. Snoop Dogg performed right before Tool came on and I took the acid when he first came out. The acid came on quickly and before Snoop left the stage I was laughing my ass off. He was one funny guy that night and I don’t think my acid ingestion was the only reason. Immediately after Snoop left the stage my friends and I ventured down to the floor section to stake out a spot for Tool. The acid was kicking in hard now and it was difficult to act normal in the crowd with nobody on stage to divert their attention. After what seemed like an eternity Tool finally made it to the stage and launched into “Hooker With A Penis.” Maynard came out in a woman’s wig, bra, and had his face painted white. Tool came on when it was still light outside and brought us completely into the darkness. It was a very clear night and the stars were beautiful out there in Central Washington. At one point in the show Maynard said, “Is anyone out there trippin’?” and he hit an effect to make the word “trippin’” echo. We went nuts. Were they trippin’ that night? Only they would know the answer to that. I also came away from that concert with the greatest concert souvenir anyone could ask for. My friend Ross is about six foot six and skinny as a sign post but made it to the front of the floor section. He was snapping pictures and at one point Maynard turned to him and said, “please stop, the flash is hurting my eyes.” Ross snapped a picture at that very moment and somehow managed to escape the wrath of the whole security force that was after that camera. That picture has since been blown up and resides on my wall to this very day. This was the last time I would ever see Tool with Maynard performing front and center. Sometime after this he retired to the back of the stage and though their shows have progressively got more elaborate through the years, nothing will ever compare to that moment in time at the Gorge.

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No Doubt 5/24/97

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Fast-forward 7 months and a lot has changed in my life. I started seeing a girl named Rose at the tail end of the 1996 summer and she ended up being the one I lost my virginity to (late bloomer). Jack had also moved out of the townhouse because he had somewhere to live for free. The guy that was sleeping on our couch, Chip, took over Jack’s room. Once Jack’s free stay ended he persuaded me to get another place with him across town where rent was cheaper. That second residence with Jack lasted all of about 4 or 5 months before we moved out. It wasn’t exactly our choice but everything turned out alright. What happened was about a month after we moved in we had a new apartment manager and she decided to move into the apartment that shared a wall with ours. Not ideal for a couple of 19 year old males who like to party. After several warnings and an illegal run in with the cops the final straw came when our buddy Joe backed into my downstairs neighbor’s car in the middle of the night. Joe was drunk and therefore fled the scene. These people could barely speak English but went up to the manager’s place and proceeded to complain. We were to be evicted but luckily for us the assistant manager of the place was the mom of someone we knew by association. She also happened to be the manager of the apartments right down the street. She loved us and not only prevented us from technically getting evicted but put us in a place down the road with no upstairs neighbor, a drug dealer next door, and a huge field outside the back sliding glass door. She said we could be as loud as we wanted to and nobody would mess with us. She was right. I also started working at a place called Autobahn Autocare Center. It was essentially the same job I had at Super Lube but it paid more because now I had the title of “Supervisor.” Right about this time Rose and I also broke up because she decided to move with her family to Corvallis, Oregon.

As far as the concert I don’t remember too many details. I remember Weezer opened for No Doubt and that was the real reason I wanted to go to the show. They were still touring for Pinkerton and had these creepy trees on the stage. They played many songs from the Blue Album and Pinkerton because those were the only albums they had to choose from at the time. No Doubt was touring for the album Tragic Kingdom and played all the hits from the album. I feel lucky to have seen them again at this point in the time before Gwen Stefani became a mega-star.