Friday February 2, 2001

the Rave with White Knuckle Trip, Relative Ash and Downset.

Once you go once, I SWEAR you can't stop. If there was a Factory 81 concert by here all the time I would be so poor. All my money would go towards going to see them! Their live shows are so increadible! The first one was so wonderful, I didn't think that I could possibly have a better one. Oh but I was so WRONG! I went with Kat again, 2 hours early AGAIN! Oh but it was great. We ran into Kevin right away, and he took us inside. He was kind of ill that day, but he didn't act like the usual person would when they are sick. He was still a nice guy. We watched Kevin string his bass and then watched them warm up. It was kind of like a mini concert just for us, only we were standing on the other side of a window. Nate came over to the door, he had remembered us just as Kevin did. That was cool. It rocked to know that we actually had an impact on THEM! It made exstatic! Bill came over for awhile to and me and Kat begged him to take off his hat. At first he said no, but then me and Kat were like please Bill, just for a little while. He promised us he would later. So we waited to get in, and we got front row AGAIN! Lucky us! Our friend Josh came with his friend Josh almost right before the show started. White Knuckle Tripp was pretty cool. Kevin was standing around watching them, he thought they were pretty damn great. So did I! Relative Ash's pit was so wicked. I thought I was going to pass out before Factory 81 even got on stage! I would have killed myself if I would have pulled that! As they were getting on, I thought....I want to get a drumstick. I took a few picture of the guys before they started to play. I got some great ones! They aren't on my webpage though....maybe someday. They started to play and the pit got so crazy! I was getting kicked and elbowed, but most of the people that did it asked if I was okay. That is cool. Most Factory 81 fans I come across are some awesome, kick ass people! Well, this guy came over my head and the area around my eyebrow went right into the corner of an amp! OUCH! I looked up and Kevin had this look of concern on his face, I was amazed. Most bands, they go up there and they don't get a second thought to their fans that are getting the crap beat out of them just so they can get closer, but Factory 81 is different. Everyone of them cares. I love that about them. Well, as I was looking in the other direction, Kat got her hands on a drumstick. However, this guy was trying his best to get it from her so she called for my help. We pulled at this thing for a good minute or two, then this guy tried to take it away from us. I was like HECK no! And I got it, then this guy behind me tried to get it, I just screamed "Back off!" Then me and Kat were in awe at it, but here was the question...who got it? AHHHHH!!!!! That about killed me. I just said, "We re cutting it in half." So we got out of the crowd before Downset came on and we walked around looking for Mike, of Roast, and finally found him near the bar along with Steve and Cameron. We knew that they were going to be there (due to the fact that we talk to Mike on the net nearly everyday) so we chatted we them and took picture. Then Andy came over and we told him the story about the drumstick, and this guy on the other side of him was like,"Those are the girls who took it." So we huddled around it. Andy kinda giggled at us. Then we asked him to sign it on both halves so we could cut in 1/2 and share it. He just said,"I can get you another one if you want. WE were like awesome. So we arranged to meet up with him later. We stayed and talked with Roast for a while, then after a warning from Mike we scattered. We ran into Kevin who appologized for being cranky earlier, but I never really caught the cranky thing to begin with. We talked to him for a while, and then he said he was going backstage so he could take some meds and relax. Kevin gave us both a hug and then und then he left out the door. So we started to look for Andy. We finally found him! He then got out another used drumstick from his bin and signed it. MY WISH HAD COME TRUE! Then we asked Andy where Bill was so that he could fufil his promise. Andy told us that he was probably backstage. So we asked him if we would go get Bill for us. Then Andy said why don't you just come backstage with me? Me and Kat where FREAKING out! Then on our way out the door we saw Bill and tried to get his attention. Andy said he would come down later, so we kept following Andy. Bill caught up to us and took his hat off. He wouldn't let us take a picture though. Sadness. Andy talked about how he was going to floor it back to Detroit. We the got backstage. There was about eight other fans down there. Kevin said,"You again?" We were just like yeah you can't get rid of us. Everyone was quiet, except for the band members, which was REALLY stupid. Bill then walked out of the room before I could say good-bye, I felt kinda bad about not saying bye to him. So I asked Kat for the pictures form the last concert and I walked over to the couch and sat on the arm of it closest to Kevin and asked him if hae wanted to see the pictures. He was getting re-situtated when Nate asked for the, and since Kevin wasn't ready anyways I handed them over. Then after he was finished I gave them to Kevin. Then Nate and Andy said they were going to leave so I chased them down and took somemore pictures. All the other fans followed us out. I think Kevin was the only one still in the room. Nate asked us for copies of the pictures we took, and we told him we would get him some. So we gave them hugs. After mostly everyone was gone me and Kat headed out towards the car. It was another great night! This time I didn't even fall!
-Chelsea