Getting to this show was half the problem. The nearest venue to where I live was in Richmond, but the date of the show was on the same day as the begging of my five day chemo treatment, so that was out of the question. The next nearest show was in Norfolk, four hours away. After flexing my persuasive muscles I convinced my parents to let me go, under the conditions that they would come and we would stay in the area overnight. That being settled, the problem of tickets arose. I did not know exactly when my chemo treatment would begin until shortly before the show, so of course when I called to get tickets, the show had sold out. Fortunantly, my dad works with a guy who used to be a part of the music scene in Norfolk, so after a few pulled strings I managed two spots on the guestlist.
Once we arived at the show my friend and I quickly positioned ourselves for optimum viewing and hearing. After about an hour, Feeder came out and played a pretty good set. I was particularly impressed by the guitar players ability to manage alone (one of my weak points, it's just no fun with only one guitar player). Jimmy's Chicken Shack (don't care how that's spelled) didn't impress me much. I guess the musical style was too far from my own. My friend and I had to save some kids from some moshers and a poorly placed railing during "High" (being a music purist, I cannot condone the practice of anything which takes my attention from the music, i.e. moshing).
After that set my friend and I postitioned ourselves in front of the sound guy because the sound at the venue really sucked, so I wanted to optimize it. Unfortunately the sound guy was pretty far back, but at least there were fewer people there. As always has been the case, Everclear started their set with the the "Pet Sounds"esk intro, and then staight into So Much For The Afterglow. I was suprised to see the band come out in full suits (a la the back cover). I know I'd never go out dressed like that from fear of melting. I guess those guys will sacrifice much more than I will to look cool. Anyways, the set was much like the last show I had seen, except that it featured Local God, which rocked. However, it did lack a song from World Of Noise, which severly disappointed me (sortly before My Sexual Life, Art or Steve played a litle D to G thing and I thought they were getting ready to play Sparkle, which kinda depressed me that they didn't, oh well). They closed as always with Sin City, in which I managed to keep my arm raised throughout, which is a little unconventional, but I love AC/DC, so I had to do it.
One of the coolest things of the night is that while my friend and I had been rocking out about half way through the set, that none other than the guitarist and drummer from Feeder walked over and positioned themselves right next to us. We said hello and shook their hands and congratulated them on a set well played. They were really nice, which suprised me cause they looked like they were trying to be annonomous when they first came over, but they were really cool. They even said good-bye when they left a couple of minutes after we had stoped talking.
On a whole, the experience was very cool, and would rank fourth overall. The sound at the venue reaked, and the smoke was killing my fluid filled lungs (yet another lovely gift from my friend cancer), and I didn't get to meet the band because of asshole security guards and the fact that I'm too poor to join the fan club (hey, I'm in a band, 15 dollars will buy me three packs of strings and nine picks). I did meet a guy who recognized my White Lightning t-shirt, and my parents paid for everything. It was also a great way to raise my spirits shortly before a lengthy hospital visit. All in all, a pure experience of rock and roll.
May 16th, 1998
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