November 24, 2003
Type O Negative Saturday
Saturday night was certainly the strangest Type O show I've ever seen. I
must first state that I've lost count of how many times I've seen this band
live, but it's somewhere around countless.
They are my favorite band of all time next to the Doors. And as it was Americas moodiest band were in a moody mode last Saturday night at Chicago's Riviera theatre. At least one member was out of his regular character.
Greg and I rode together and Brigette and Leah went in another car. We
arrived and the line was around the corner and being that I hate lines and
most of the time refuse to stand in them we waited for the duo to meet us at
the front under the marquee. When the doors opened around 5:30 we jumped in
and got our VIP passes and photo passes. We got the very front row in the
balcony and prepared to wait it out.
I saw the whole gang of Chicago Rock Scensters there. Madman Mike J from
Rebel Radio, Brian from WCRX, three members of Fashion Bomb, Scott Davidson from Rebel, Rudy from Tomato Tattoo, Rick Linus from WRRG, and I even ran into my pal Tony for the third straight show and hooked him up with a box
pass.
As we sat and watched the variety of plump breasts showcasing for us and
everyone else in the crowd amidst laughter we also watched a completely
annihilated and an obvious Hoosier male play bad air guitar with his shirt off. I
know he wouldn't make it and as I suspected before Moonspell even took the
stage he was evicted from the premises. Moonspell took the stage at about
6:50 and played a 30-minute set of pagan laced songs and were fairly well
received. I was anxious for my boys and about 1/2 hour after Moonspell TON
came onstage.
It was a hilarious scene. Type O's stagehad a huge prison wall and guard tower for a backdrop, and the guys came out to the theme from cops "Bad Boys" and were dressed in Prison garb. This alone begged for our laughter. (Brigette was
down front shooting photos for us.) Then after kicking into my favorite
song, "Unsuccessfully Coping With the Beautiful Reality of Infidelity" aka
"I Know You're Fucking Someone Else" something was different, and I don't
mean Peter's Lemmy like handlebar moustache, it was Josh. With chainlink fence across his keyboard and on the other side across Johnny's drums the stage was set up to look like a prison yard. The keyboard player began kicking at his chain link fence and knocking it down. After the stagehands would set it
back down he began kicking it again thus knocking it down. Greg and I
laughed and when Brigette came back up she was laughing too. I thought it
was part of the show and maybe it was but it looked like Josh, normally the
quiet one was pretty fired up. He'd give the audience evil stares and would
glare at the roadies when the came over to fix the prop and he began unlugging
the wires out of the back of his keyboards. During "Love You To Death"" it
occasionally sounded as though he was playing a note or two off key on
purpose. This was not like the wild-haired keyboardist we all know. Or like
to pretend we know. Finally the stagehands gathered Josh's fence and took it
to the side where he couldn't reach it. And when Kenny's was running across
the stage in his typical wildman manner Josh spit on his head. Kenny didn't appear to notice.
Suddenly the short set was over, Peter said thank you and the band walked off the stage. I was bummed as it was an incredibly shortened set. After an extended break the band came back out and Peter thanked us all for our patience and the band tore into a faster paced version of "I Don't Want To Be Me" and it was a lot faster than the original or the last two times I saw the guys play it. I almost forgot to mention that I was interrupted numerous times by people feeling the need to have the security guard of our box grab me so they could talk to me. That is just plain rude. I mean it's a show and not to mention my favorite band. I can't figure out for the life of me why people cannot wait talk to me till after the performance. So, at one point Josh leapt from his platform and ran over and tore down Johnny's chainlink fence, and then went back and unplugged his keyboard. A tech came over to fix it and it looked like Josh told him to fuck off and played the final two songs with only one set of keys. After the final song "Black #1" Josh walked over to the tech and squeezed his nuts so hard it doubled the poor guy over.
Johnny came out when the house lights were on and tossed out autographed
drum heads like they were Frisbees. This was a real nice thing to do. He
certainly seems to be the happiest guy in the band these days. And we all
pondered why the show was so different than usual. I must admit the Riv's
sound does not do Type O any justice. And the set was about 10 songs too
short for my liking, nevertheless it's always great to see Type O Negative
under any circumstances.
I cannot say what transpired after the show but I can say that I was outside in the 59 degree weather for 20 minutes at the most. And enjoyed one of the best Sundays I've been treated to in recent memory. And I am a lot more happier and content right now even though it's cold and 25 degrees out than I've been in a long time. And you know who I am thanking as she reads this. Thank you.
Today Greg picked me up and we went over to Superior Street studio to move some gear back to his recording studio in a cargo van. It's cold, damn cold, and windy out there today. But he made it worth it as always and paid me back by treating me to lunch at Hacienda. Tonight I don't think I'll be at my usual Monday night spot, Kelsey's. Wanna spend a little quality time with my lil Motor Booty since she's going to Vagina, I mean Virginia for the holiday and coming back with a new car. And I'll miss the old days with my grandparents where I used to spend every Thanksgiving of my youth. But at least I'll have a few fiends around here to keep me company and toast the Alc O Holiday season in our Libertine manner.
Did I mention it's cold and windy here?
I have to outline my speech for career day Wednesday when I wil be speaking in front of 800 High School students. I'll have it videotaped and it should prove to be very interesting. - AZ
Posted by Alex Zander at November 24, 2003 02:23 PM