November 10, 2004
Don't you hang out with a lot of porn stars?
"Don't you hang out with a lot of porn stars?" Those were the first words I recall as I woke up groggy tired from the long night before on Tuesday morning. But more on that later.
On The Radio with SUBSONIC (Ron Marks / Celtic Frost and Dan Laudo/ Prong)
I got rather busy over the weekend, and Saturday night I went to Delilah's for the USURPER record release party. We were a few of the first to get there and I was surprised to see a lot of friends there. The band were actually decent and nice guys and their music is incredibly heavy. Thanks to Curran at Earache in NYC for the invite. Rolling Rock flowed free and it was pretty weird drinking such heavy beer, as opposed to somethng light.
I got out of there pretty early and got into bed by midnight. I was almost asleep when the phone rang and a friend who was leaving the Helmet show asked to meet up over at NEO. Who was I to say no, I was bored anyway. I keep myself busy to keep my mind off of all the things that have been haunting me lately. I jetted over to Lincoln Park and walked into Kelsey's to find a friend. I did run into most of the staff on their night off and chatted a few. Matt bought me 3 Makers and Cokes. (He later confessed he did not remember and claimed to have been seeing double. I guess it was one for each of me.) Dakota was dressed really nice, breasts proudly abundant, and it didn't take much persuasion for her to join me for a crisp walk to NEO and we cut line and enjoyed a few stiffies. The place was packed and I had hugs from everyone. I hadn't see some of theses faces in awhile. I think Dakota was intimated and rolled out a little early. Actually she is a bit on the conservative side when it comes to the Saturday night Neo crowd.
I chilled out there a little while longer and got home before too late. Sunday morning around 930 AM (cst) my cell rang and it was my ol pal Kryztoff from BILE asking if I'd be at the show, and I replied "What kind of question is that?" I made a call for him to the lady he wanted to see that night and AZ Rock n' Roll Pimp Extraordinaire earned another endorsement. And he called back a few more times and then I heard from MARAZENE who I also squeezed onto the 4 band bill. I made sure they'd be the band who'd play right before BILE. So the afternoon was spent preparing and filing some paperwork and about 5PM I made my way to the Bottom Lounge. I was dropping KMFDM aftershow fliers at a store when I heard my name called out. It was Bear the bass player and we walked in the cold Chicago air together to the load in area. Kryztoff and I spent about an hour catching up and I met some people out front and had them wait for me. I helped;ed with some load in and when the MARAZENE boys arrived, in the big van, I said something like, "Look at these homos?" Bear yelled out "HEY" (he's gay) and I said, " not you; those homos." And we laughed it off. For the record I call all of my friends homos. Though they're not. At least not the lot of them anyway.
After the show finally began Worm opened and as usual they were pretty impressive. next up was project .44 who typically covered MINISTRY and some of their own material. I hung out downstairs with Sinderella Pussie and some other attractive ladies as well as the guys in BILE. When MARAZENE too the stage they were at their peak. They continue to out do themselves every time and really have morphed into their own stage presence. I and a lot of first timers we very impressed.
Naturally there were a lot of friends at the show and Chris Connelly worked the merch booth most of the night. I spent my time between sets trying to spend as much time with as many people as possible. Another example why I have a difficult time maintaining a relationship when 99.9% of the fairer gender I have been guilty of spanning any time with, are in constant need of 100% of my attention.
BILE rocked as always and delivered a non stop, in your face, full throttle, display of sonic brain damage, and eardrum abuse. They even dropped in a new number or two. Afterwards we all chilled out and made plans to all converge over at NEO, and we did. I rode with some friends to the club and we all were in attendance a short while later. Sinderella's stalker who she had just had a restraining order served to actually had the balls to show up. I had the fool ejected in no time flat. And then he calls her cell. What a joke. Looks like he'll be in the pokey sooner than later. As the night grew long and the daylight was just around the corner, me and the MARAZENE boys picked up some girls and broght them back to my pace where we were up so late that Stern had been on for an hour. I finally felt worn out and sent the amazing bunch of musicians and great friends, and spectacular showmen on the rode I was beat and I had another long one ahead of me.
It was Monday and that meant KMFDM.
I ran some errands and got a little work out of the way and made my way to Metro around 6 or so with Karlton and the lovely Natalie. I met up with the boys and we found a god spot to chill out where the VIP area used to be. Jim Marcus of Die Warsau and I caught up and talked about my mother, the election and shop. We also ran into a few others and watched Acucrack work it than then made it through the first half of KMFDM. Now I've maybe seen them around 20 times, maybe more or a little less, but I've seen nearly every incarnation of the band. This time they were Wattsless and it showed. It was not just KMFDM light, it was boring. Phellon referred to them as "The industrial Sonny and Cher." and that statement drew a few laughs. Paul, Greg, K RAWK Nat and I all left halfway into the set and waited at Ranalli's till NEO opened up. We had 1 drink each, they ate and we were off to Neo again. And as the show ended, a rather large crowd or a Monday night entered the club. But KMFDM pulled a no show and the club were pretty unhappy as were me and my krew.
I must also point put I had the pleasure of meeting Jason Novak's (ACUMEN NATION / DJ ACUCRACK) daughter and she was very impressive, polite and even offered a handshake. Very pretty little girl and from what could gather, very smart for her young age.
As another late night grew closer to the end, by way of Jason, I was introduced to a rather attractive young lady with the unusual name Curiosity, and we chatted and share a few common interests. It was pretty bizarre actually, because we had a lot to talk about. We ended up crashing at my place with one of my cats sleeping on my lovely companions head, and when I awoke I put on Stern and we laughed and I fell back asleep and woke up again to hear the query; "Don't you hang out with a lot of porn stars?" And my response from what I recall was "What's wrong with that?" or something fairly similar. We finished listening to Stern and watched a DEVO concert filmed in Japan. As it turns out my new friend is majoring in Japanese, has lived in Japan and studied there, and has traveled all over the world, or at least from what it seems, she has. Then we goofed off all day quoting lines from movies, Seinfeld, playing mental trivia, and just hanging out, till the darkness wrapped our "windy" city in her arms.
It was a chilly early autumn late afternoon. We went out for pizza and ended up at her place where we surfed channels and I became impressed with her collection of Japanese artifacts, photographs, her sound recording from and album I must share, is coming out this month. And me, the man with too much on his mind had a difficult night trying to sleep but managed to catch a few Z's as the daylight peaked it's sunny head over Lake Michigan. All in all it was a nice escape, a welcome distraction, and though we both played hooky my conclusion is it was worth it. I for one needed it.
Not sure if I see her again as she has her world and I have mine, but I certainly wouldn't mind spanning a few more hours with this one. It was nice to peek out of teh dark hole I've been hiding in the last few months.
I think that gets my weekend update all in there. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
ALMOST HUMAN - Gene Simmons
I'm almost human, can't help feelin' strange
The moon is out, I think I'm gonna change
You're so smooth and tender, a living, breathing dream
I've got to have you, baby, I'm listenin' for your scream
I'm almost human, I'm almost a man
I'm almost human,
I'm almost human, baby please don't run away
'Cause wherever you run, I'll be a scream away
I'm very hungry and you're what I'm thinkin' of
Ooh baby, baby, baby, so hungry for your love
I'm almost human, oh, almost a man
I'm almost human.