September 05th, 2003

The New Layfette Club with Spine, Spil, Westbound, and None Taken

Well, I made it to a venue that wasn't the Rave. What do you know. I had an excellent time, it was by far my coolest fan experience, even if the crowd was small.

Kat and I got to the club around 5:15pm. We went to the back door and waited for a while to see if anyone would come out. Then finally we asked one of the guys from the other band if they could get one of the factory 81 members for us. Unfortunately, the were in the middle of setting up for sound check. The door was wide open, so Kat and I stood outside watching checks. Once they were over, Nate came outside and I gave him a present for his baby.

He went back inside and Bill and Kevin came out to say hi to us. They were both pretty hungry, so we went to the Taco Johns across the street. Nate and Andy Joined us later on. We sat around talking about misc. crap, including their camping trip the night before. Nate and Andy left shortly after they finished their food, but Bill and Kevin stayed and talked with us some more. Bill left, and we were still sitting around talking with Kevin.

By the time we got back to the venue, one band had already finished. We stood around the merch table with Bill and Kevin and talked some more. Then we wandered away and were talking on our own. We went back to the table and asked Bill about where Andy and Nate were. He told us they were probably in the dressing room and we could go ahead and go back there.

We knocked on the door...but no one heard us. So we knocked again. Andy opened the door and then shut it, so we just walked in. He was like, "oh it's you guys, what's up?" So we came in and sat down. Nate was dancing around the room and Andy was half asleep. It was pretty intertaining. A while later Andy got up and went out to the van to take a nap. So Kat and I sat around talking to Nate. He entertained us with his reinactment of the hanger scene from "Mommy Dearest" and his Whit Ninja moves. Then we threw ice around the room for a while. Kevin cam in and tightened his dreads and tried to get the sand out of them from the night before. Nate left to get Andy out of the van and Kat and I followed Kev out to the merch table.

We sat there talking about the venue, the internet, the joys of having dreads, and a lot of other stuff. Kevin left for a while and Bill sat down. I talked to him about the merch they had, being that I thought it was all stolen, and he was like yeah...we just found this sitting around. We talked a bit longer...and then it was time for the show.

Once they were all on stage, Kat and I found a spot in the crowd. They started to play and the crowd was just standing there....I was like...aahhhh..but then a couple people started moshing. Kat and I crowd surfed a few time. Which was AWESOME! Other than the fact that I was dropped on my ass and it hurts BAD right now. The show was awesome. They even played 14 left, which made me really happy because it wasn't on their set list.

After the show, I handed out fliers for my site and then head backstage again. Kat and I sat around and had a really deep conversation with nate about poeple, art, and love. It was pretty enlightening. He thinks a lot more about things than most people. It's pretty amazing. Unfortunately, our conversation couldn't go on forever, Kat and I had a 2hr and 45min drive ahead of us. We gave them all a hug or hugs, and left. It was so nice to be able to spend all that time with the guys. It really made the night. They are all so much fun. If you haven't gotten yourself to a show yet, I recommend you get your crap together and go!

-Chelsea