EMOTION

MxPx. I think that one word(? Is it?) should be able to tell you a large part of my history with my youthful punk-ness. To be honest, the last couple of years haven’t been so kind to my relationship with them. I lived, breathed, and died by them throughout high school, attending my first MxPx show back in 1999. Geeze Louis. I was in love with Mike Hererra (lead singer/bassist) for years, even asking his parents at a music festival if he had a girlfriend. HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA.

Fast forward 11 years and we are both married and they are playing a reunion show in Seattle. Seeing their e-flyer on Facebook, I messaged on over to Djds and she was up for the trip down without a moment’s hesitation. And why not make a weekend out of it? On the day of the show, we headed out early (in case the border guards were feeling prickly today) to get ourselves ‘southbound on I-5’. Turns out the border guy was all standard-critical until he got to the question of which concert we were going to. “Oh cool – I didn’t know they still played concerts.” Yesssss! MxPx for the win!

After a quick trip to the Bellingham Cost Cutter to pick up some cheap wine and snacks, we made a beeline for our hotel in Bellevue. Thanks to Priceline, I won the Hyatt for $90, all-in. Yesssss! Two hours later, we were settling in nicely.





The 18th floor view wasn’t too shabby, if you ignore the miles of pavement and squint to see the mountains in the distance. Whatevs. $90.



After lounging in the hotel room and generally being lazy, eating snacks, and pre-listening to MxPx for two hours, we dragged ourselves out into the world again and down the street to the big ol’ shopping mall – Bellevue Square.


EMOTION….THAT’S MY MIDDLENAME



After wandering the mall like proper Amurrricans (said with a southern accent), we settled for some hearty grub at the Cheesecake Factory. And everything I ordered tasted like crap. WORST.



Why did I order a Hawaiian pizza? Crap. Why did I order a key lime cheesecake? Crap. $25 later, I’m a little bitter.

After dinner we wandered back to our little home in the sky and slowly began preparations involving beautification. This is MxPx after all. We need to show them what they are missing! Confident that MxPx would close the show in a raging performance, we planned our entrance about an hour and a half after doors opened.




Yeah, it’s tall.


And the lobby looks like a forest.






Rock and roll ready!


The ugly twins, 2011.

After debating on taking the bus vs taxi, we decided that the bus schedule was too crappy and coughed up the $28 for the taxi ride downtown in a little green car with pumping bhangra tunes.

Strolling up the club quickly turned into a nightmare when I heard the bass strings of a late-in-the-album ‘Chick Magnet’. (The whole show was them playing my favourite album, cover to cover.) We were horrified. The door guy had to check our bags and then we had to present our tickets and all that regular crap which took what seemed like forever and we rushed inside into the sweaty crowd.





They played first.







And just like that, it was over. We caught about 30 minutes and the last six or so songs. Of course, that followed with a rendition of ‘Punk Rawk Show’, but it was of little consolation at this point. Thanks to Djds’ tenacity, we snaked our way through the crowd whenever there was a surge and ended the show next to the stage. But…WHY OH WHY DID THEY PLAY FIRST!!!

Some pretentious band wearing moccasins was up next and I can’t even be bothered to pay them the courtesy of typing their name here because they ruined my night with their simple existence! URRRRGGGHHH. Okay, I’m going to try to be mature here. We tried to stay and enjoy, but really the highlight of their set was Mike Herrera up at the merch booth in full sight of the club. After realizing that the teenage dream has died, we soldiered off into the night.

Since it was early, we started our hunt for the bus. I’m not coughing up another $28 for the ride home when the bus costs $1.50. After useless information from Seattle-ites left, right, and centre, we finally found a homeless lady with good info on how to get our asses back to Bellevue. Jen gave her a dollar and change. It was worth it because we finally found the bus stop and settled in for the wait.



After giggle fits, friendly transit staff, and zero homeless people lingering around, the bus came along and we boarded for the long, underground ride out of Seattle’s core. Once we arrived home, the next party began…

Too early to be in bed, we headed across the hotel plaza to the Joey’s for a nightcap. And what a nightcap it was – a double long island later (let’s not forget the bottle of wine from earlier), I was happy and the sad memories from the ill-timed concert were gone. At least something turned out the way it should have! After our sufficient messiness, we headed up and fell asleep to the oh-so-appropriate ‘Hangover’ movie on the TV.

Ah, morning cracked and we headed out for some morning shopping at the World Market on the corner. I bought several things – cocktail wieners from Germany, martini glasses, a proper bottle opener, bulgogi sauce – but there was one item I didn’t buy which caught my attention the most:


WHAT ON EARTH? Microwaveable spotted dick. Yum.

After the crappy dinner I had last night, I had high hopes for lunch. We went to this Japanese place called ‘boom’ and after hearing assurances from the waiter that their food tastes like it does in Japan, I ordered the tonkatsu curry.









Two fatty pieces of pork later, I couldn’t be more disappointed. Again. It did not taste like Japan. I’d take CoCo Ichi over this any day.

All in all, food aside, the weekend kicked a lot of ass. Djds and I hadn’t taken a trip to see a show since, well, 2001, when we drove seven hours down into Minnesota after one of my night shifts to see the Warped Tour. Djds and I reminisced that a lot had changed since then – we’ve gone from working like mofo’s at our minimum-wage jobs, driving down in some ratty old car, sweating in the sun at punk shows without being able to afford so much as a water (despite buying band t-shirts), and then driving home again that same night because were too poor to take a day off or pay for a hotel (and sleep in the car, if we must.) Our punk shows now involve Audis, Hyatts, wine, and stylish restaurant meals with a dessert selection. But…at least we are still going.

As one of our old band songs go, “I wanna rock and roll until the day I die”…so far, so good.

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(Day 14) Helping Johnny Pay His Bills

NYE. The last day of the year. We’ve arrived. It’s a good time to reflect, no? 2010 began with slightly less than a *poof* in my parents farm house in snowy Manitoba. I was reading my old school diaries to my older sister who was laughing so hard I think she almost peed. It was pretty funny. The year itself was fairly uneventful – no job changes, home changes, friend changes – but I did discover where my next major stop in life is going to be. So while 2011 won’t be the year to bring that about either, it will come eventually. Also, I finished school this year, which is monumental. I get a least a few letters behind my name for that. But right now, I’m closing 2010 in this crazy city, so let’s focus on that for today.

We woke up this morning and casually discussed going to the major Johnny Countdown concert at Tokyo Dome tonight. And then we decided that we should go. It was that simple. Now the small matter to find some tickets… But first, ramen in Shibuya.




Oh Ichiran, let me have your babies.

After lunch, I bought the exact sweater I’m wearing as I write this (though it is actually Marty’s) and then we busted over to Harajuku to procure the aforementioned Johnny tickets. And I grabbed a crepe along the way just for the hell of it.





So…after wedging ourselves into Gorakudoh’s ticket shop (glorified scalpers) along with a bucket-load of tweens, we escaped with two overpriced tickets in hand. Instead of crowding around the display case, we went straight to the counter to buy. And so we beat everyone to the bunch. Hah! Suckas. Then we hunkered down for some Sutaba.




Whoooo! Johnny’s Countdown 2011, here we come!

We were still lazy bones, so we killed time at the killing-time parlour again.


Hallucinogenic qualities.

So eventually the hour arrived and we prepped for the long night ahead. Janelle was pondering our opportunities for imbibing alcohol and was attempting a stealthy sneak-in into the arena.


Good hiding spot. They’ll never notice it there.

So we headed to Suidobashi and followed the masses up and out onto the streets. We then had the foresight to grab snacks before heading inside, so we joined the 40-strong queue at Family Mart. But damn, they are fast. We were out in about five minutes. Then, into the dome.





As you can see, our noses were practically bleeding and we were in the first floor stands – there were two sections above us yet! Turns out they don’t care if you bring food and booze in – only cameras. Oh Johnny. The poor, poor girls who landed behind us must have been a total of four and a half feet tall…though they were a step above, we were still taller than them. They kept saying ‘mite nai!’ (‘I can’t see!’) Sorry, girls.





Now let me put things into context. I’ve been watching this countdown on the internet for a few years now and it really is the event of the year for this stable of Japanese male idols. Hence the inflated ticket prices. But this year had lost a certain ‘oomph’ because a bunch of groups weren’t in attendance. The screaming wasn’t any quieter though.




My baby, stuffed away at their concert in Osaka. They really needed to show more of them on the big screen.

The big moment arrived…



There it is – the first moments of 2011, rang in while breathing the same air as 60,000 other people. Yippee! But I was disappointed with the lack of hugging and general goodwill people show when a new year is born. How sterile these people are…but I hugged Janelle with abandon.


The reason for cheaper tickets this year. Thanks for not showing up, Arashi.


Cute!



Aaaaaand, scene. I didn’t get any close-ups of individual hotties because the zoom is really kind of sad on my lovely camera. And they were moving around wildly. And it was dark. And we were far. So, excuses. And then we all shuffled down to the subway to wait in the congestion for the single train that comes each hour. C’mon Tokyo. If you are going to run the trains all night, RUN ALL NIGHT.

Our next stop was Roppongi. Drunkards littered the streets and the train stations bathrooms were the grossest facilities I have ever encountered. And that’s saying a lot. Puke in the sinks, toilet paper and pee on the floor…if you’ve been to a public bathroom in Japan, you’ll know that this is quite a departure from the norm. Oh and ps, I was sick with a crazy-nasty cold that night and so I didn’t drink at all. And so I didn’t even have the alcohol to temper my grossed-outed-ness.

We headed to Lex to find a massive crowd brimming in every direction. I made it as far as the bar before I turned back and headed outside. Not a single person could move inside. Fire hazard! I was kind of crabby and so we just headed home. Well, not quite. We made it back to Akasaka and then searched for food. We found that Matsuya place which is ridiculously cheap, but the food was crap. Oh well. Happy New Year.

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(Day 7) Three-Letter Words

Christmas Eve! It wouldn’t be a stretch to say I used to LIVE for this day every year. However, being in Japan, things just aren’t the same. You’d think it would seem more Christmas-y with all their lights and decorations, but…no. We headed over to Harajuku for lunch and to be honest, this is the first time during any vacation to Japan that it has taken me THIS long to make it over to this side of town. What’s that noise? It might very well be my bank account draining.

We got suckered into this guy holding a sign restaurant-place. It was called ‘Café Ratia’. I called it ‘Rat-face Café’. It was right beside the Johnny’s store. I kept watching women being herded, over and over.


I love buffets!




Tradition.

Surprisingly, I didn’t buy anything today. Well…I knew also that it was a long time until I’d actually make it home to drop the stuff off, so its better to travel light today. We made our way over to Omotesando Hills and finally got to really enjoy the holidays, watching people trying to “skate” on some waxy plastic stuff. Hee hee ha ha HO HO HO.











Ahh, it was too funny. We watched people “skating” for nearly an hour. Japan is so quaint because they have things like this. And people use them! Awesome. The stuff was seriously like a hard waxy board.

Leaving Omotesando behind, we rode up to Kameari in Chiba to enjoy a Christmas concert of thunderous proportions. TAO, who I saw back in January in Vancouver, was holding a one-night-only engagement in a little hall on top of the Ito Yokado department store. Only in Japan.





Wheee! So great. Best Christmas concert ever! (Sorry EMMC.)

So, of course, on this most festive of holidays, the only way to ring it in was in a dingy little club underground in Roppongi. So we went to Lex for their Christmas party and it was body x body x body. Some weirdo with a balloon tied to his head tried to kiss me. Some guy with cornrows started chatting me up. Some dancing and drinking was done. And then, after the party, some ramen was had in the company of a large black fellow from Africa who invited himself along with us. Random. He was interested in Janelle – but of course he was.

And with that night, we officially greet Christmas. HAPPY MERRY CHRISTMAS!

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