Wow! Have I ever been happier to see a weekend come to its conclusion!
Initially, I was looking forward to the weekend of shows we had: Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, WAVVES and Heiruspecs. Not bad for a bunch of college “kids” I’d say.
On Friday at Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin I told Sam I was actually going to stand in front and enjoy myself at the show and he was cool with it. Everything was going really well until a few songs into Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin’s set, two obviously drunk and obviously underage kids decided to jump up on stage and become part of the performance (I’m sorry I don’t have pictures). It resulted in me conferring with Sam and running up to the office to get my badge to show my authority and a few seconds deliberation with the band leading to a quick stifling of the two drunk underagers’ antics. Both Sam and I had to pull them off stage multiple times. By the end of the show we decided to send one of them packing which compelled him to call me an “ass” and give both of us the gooney bird. By the way, this was on Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin’s twitter: “driving to Dekalb. Last two shows have been like Girl Talk shows , but with way better music.”
On Saturday at WAVVES, Brandon, John and I must have turned away at least 50-75 people from The Project Lodge (capacity of 75). That was to be expected but you don’t expect when telling someone “sorry, we’re at capacity and not letting anyone in right now” that it is up for discussion. Do people in Madison have a sense of entitlement or is that just the frame of mind that free shows create? I don’t know how many times I had to argue with people about why they couldn’t come in.
“Dude, I have a ticket. You’re letting in people without tickets.”
“Well, if you would have read what was on the ticket, you would have realized that it was only good until 7:30pm and it is now 8:30pm.”
“I guess I didn’t realize…”
“Well, that’s why you aren’t getting into the show right now.”
What drives me nuts is that if a show was sold out at the High Noon Saloon, you wouldn’t be arguing with the doorman about what that means and that you should get to go in anyways.
There were also some local Madison musicians who thought they could subvert the system and either sneak in the back door (Zola Jesus, Burial Hex) or bum rush the front door (Deep Shit) at 10pm when WAVVES went on even though everyone else who got into the show had been waiting since 7pm to see WAVVES. Is there an unwritten code about shitty local bands thinking the world owes them something? I encourage you though to listen to “Sea Talk” by Zola Jesus. It is a really good song.
The real kicker of the night was WAVVES’ Nathan Williams only leaving his van for the 25 minutes it took him to play his set, then ducking into the alley to smoke a joint and then back into the van. He didn’t even help load-in, albeit he was sick. It just left a bad taste in my mouth. People seemed to have fun and walked away pleased.
How was Heiruspecs? I couldn’t make it. Too exhausted. At least I made it out of the weekend in one piece.
-Patrick
