Destination Unknown

What a week.

Jewish high holidays started this week, beginning with the New Year. But like all Jewish holidays, the day before, the day of and sometimes, the day after are also celebrated. Lots of family, lots of food... busy, busy, busy.

I went and saw Rancid with Orry today. We had an extra ticket (Tahl ended up flaking out) that we ended up selling to a scalper for $9. We met up with Jeffy and his friend Tony at the show just before it started.

The first band was this terrible group called Societies Parasites (or something along those lines, it had "society" and "parasites" in the title.) They were on the 1/2 an hour and left without complaint. Listen, I don't expect much from an opening band... just a beat that I can nod my head too... and I couldn't even get that.

Next was Manic Hispanic. I like those guys a lot. This is the 2nd time I've seen them, the first being when they opened for Offspring. They're a cholo punk cover band that just sings the songs they cover in spanish. Good fun, very entertaining.

Finally came Rancid. Lots of energy, fairly basic setup: 3 guys in front, drummer in back, huge screen on which generic rancid videos are playing. Apparently they ended up playing 32 songs (30 +2 encore) which was awesome, that's punk music for you. After about the first third I went into the pit. I moshed to some random song I didn't know and then Maxwell Murder came on (one of my favorites) so I had to continue. I ended up shooting out of the pit in places I didn't like, so I kept going back in until I got to a spot I liked.

I ended up at the front border of the pit next to Tony. He and I ended up rocking out together for the remainder of the show. At Time Bomb I boosted him to start crowd surfing, which was fun.

Only two downers of the show were the following: At some point some guy from the pit spun into me and elbowed me at the base of my spine, just above the hips. I freaked out because everything below my waist got tingly, but I recovered. Another time was this guy next to me asked for a boost so he could crowd surf, to which I was happy to oblige. So he's standing facing me, I bend down and put my hands in a cradle to support him. He puts his left foot on my hands, I boost him; and just as he is coming up, his right leg kicks out and hits me square in the balls. My god did that hurt. I had to put my arm across the back of the guy in front of me so I could recover. All in all, not bad.

In the end I was sore, (very) sweaty and slightly deaf. Very friendly put, lots of friendly people and all-in-all a really great show. I had a lot of fun and was happy to lose some frequencies in my hearing in exchange for the good times I had.

As tradition dictates we met up at Denny's after the show (we decided on the one at Sepulveda and Burbank), grubbed up and went our separate ways. I peeled the sweaty clothes off myself as I got home and jumped into the shower. A perfect ending to a very full day.

Tomorrow I run errands with Jeffy and play D&D. Looking forward to both... hopefully I get some good sleep tonight. I'm pretty sure I will, I'm exhausted.

Goodnight Neverland!