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.