August 7th-9th, 2009 will witness the return of the legendary concert festival known as Lollapalooza in Chicago, IL at Grant Park.  Performers include TOOL, Jane’s Addiction, Beastie Boys, Depeche Mode, Kings of Leon, The Killers, The Kaiser Chiefs, and many more.  Advance 3-day passes are currently available for $190 each, with regular pricing tickets still TBD.  VIP Lounge passes are available at $850 a piece, and private Cabanas are available for large parties at an undisclosed price.  If Lindsey and I were to buy tickets, airfare, and hotel now, we would be spending over $1,600 after tax.  We don’t have $1,600 right now, so…yeah.

Whoops! Where did that come from? Who put that there? Oh well, what’s done is done!

-Because I said so

So last Friday was our 8th episode. Crazy to think that we have been doing our MehCasts for about 2 months now but it’s been great. Prior to the show we were at the local Tweet Up that I mentioned in a recent blog. We were originally going to try and air the show from the event but since we have ghetto equipment there would have been no way we could have cancelled out the background noise. Our viewers probably wouldn’t have been able to hear us which would have defeated the entire purpose of the show.

Instead Chris and I went to the event to have a little bit of fun, and then rushed like crazy people across town so that we could get set up and have everything running by 7. Since our lives are filled with WIN (please detect the obvious sarcasm) we had loads of tech issues which resulted in our show starting about 7 minutes late. Sorry guys.

On the show we did talk about the Tweet Up, how I totally blew it when meeting Maynard (see prior post and laugh at my misfortune), how Disney is releasing the original X-Men cartoon on DVD (finally!!), our Wii addiction, and then talked about random stuff like how Limp Bizkit (God help us) is getting back together and touring.

Some sad things were discussed like how Nine Inch Nails might be no more after this years tour with Janes Addiction. James Iha, of Smashing Pumpkin fame, is supposedly creating a “super group” with Taylor Hanson (yes…. Hanson), a guy from Cheap Trick, and some other guy that I can’t remember right now. I think the only thing remotely close to “super” in that group is James Iha but whatever. What do I know.

Now our Weekly picks:

Song of the Week (chris) – Eulogy by Tool

Song of the Week (lindsey) – Maynards Dick by Tool

TV show of the Week (chris) – The Original X-Men Cartoon

TV show of the Week (lindsey) -Throwdown with Bobby Flay

Movie of the Week (chris) -Knocked Up

Movie of the Week (lindsey) – Don’t Be A Menace To South Central While Drinking Juice In The Hood

Thanks again for checking out our MehCast and remember that if you can’t make it, we do record it!

Episode discussion at:

http://worldofmeh.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=26

- She Who Has The Last Word

On last weeks show I mentioned the amazing arrival of Maynard James Keenan to Fresno. For those of you who have been living under a rock, MJK is the lead singer of TOOL, A Perfect Circle, and Puscifer. The man is a God. I’ve seen TOOL in concert 3 times over the past 10 years, and have been a huge fan for as long as I can remember.

Let me tell you how insane I get over this man.

Back when I was 15…almost 16, I heard over the local radio station KRZR that TOOL was coming to Fresno. This was back in 98 and it was the show held at Fresno State. After I heard the radio announcer I fled out of my bedroom shrieking like a banshee heading towards my mother who was in the kitchen at the stove cooking something (obviously). I was so excited and amped up that when I reached her I grabbed at her. Instead of getting a grasp on her arm, I got her disgustingly bright neon lime green shirt. This shirt had been around since the 80′s and makes me get the Flashdance theme song in my head right now just even mentioning it. Anyways…. I had forgotten just how freaked out I was and the next thing I heard between my insane ranting was RRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIPPPPPPPP!!!!!!! I ripped her shirt with my beastly TOOL induced strength.

At that concert I almost had my nose broken, passed out for who knows how long from hyperventilating, and cried when they played “Pushit.”

The second time I saw them was in July 2002 down in Bakersfield for their Lateralus album tour. Again, they were so fantastic but there was no passing out, no risk of bone breakages, and unfortunately they didn’t play “Pushit” so no tears were shed.

In 2003 while in labor with my daughter I brought my DiscMan and while waiting for the fun pushing part (please detect the sarcasm) I did listen to a bit of TOOL and it was very helpful. Maynards voice could calm a pack of rabid and starving lions.

The third time I saw them in concert was in August 2006 for their 10,000 Days album tour. I had the pleasure of going with a friend of mine who had never seen them in concert before so he was a wee little virgin. Peter (that’s his name) drove all the way from Palo Alto for the show here in Fresno at Selland Arena and we had a blast. Both of us lost our voices for a couple of days because we were screaming out the songs.

All of these events lead me to where we are now.

Late last year Chris had mentioned to me that Maynard was going to tour some Whole Foods in promotion of his wine that he runs from Arizona. I thought I was going to have a heart attack until we saw that Fresno wasn’t on the list.

Last week Chris was on his way home from work when he sends me a text message alerting me that Maynard was indeed coming here and for me to look it up on the internet for day, time, and specifics. At the time I was on the phone with this super nice lady from Oregon State University because I was inquiring about their online Political Science program. It took all that I could to not get hysterical on the poor woman but I pulled it off. During the conversation I did look it up and texted with Chris a bit while the excitement was starting to build up inside my body. After getting off the phone with her I immediately called my Mom and left her the most pathetic/disturbing voicemail she has probably ever received.

I first started off saying “Oh my God! Oh my God! OH MY GOD!” In between the “oh mys” you could clearly hear me breathing. I proceeded to tell her everything but I all of a sudden started bursting into tears. I was so emotional and crazed that my throat started closing off and I couldn’t get out any words. The end of the message was me squeaking out that I had to go since well… I obviously couldn’t say a word! Chris and I were to go somewhere (I can’t remember right now where to save my life) and I got so messed up making that voicemail that I had to fix and reapply my makeup.

Ever since I found out that Maynard was coming here I kept calm. Every once in awhile I would get hella stoked but I was doing my best to stay calm so that I wouldn’t get anxious and maybe have a panic attack (I have a history of getting those). Then a bit of fear struck me that maybe I would freak out and possibly pass out  in front of the man that I have wanted to meet for over 10 years. I knew that all of it was going to boil down to a battle of wits and emotion since the odds of me crying were against me. My Mom was convinced that I would break down into a massive downpour of tears and I didn’t blame her. I was convinced I would too but I was going to do my best to not become “one of those.” By “one of those” I mean stupid girls that you would find at a Jonas Brothers concert.

On Tuesday, the day of his arrival, I woke up early because I couldn’t sleep. I believe I woke up around 7:45 which is way earlier than I usually do. At 8 Whole Foods started handing out tickets that would hold your place in line so after getting ready and driving there we arrived around 8:30. When we got there we saw this HUGE sign with a list of what we couldn’t do. I already had it in my head that I was going to take a massive amount of pictures. Not only for you guys and for this blog, but for myself because I would really want to remember this day. Chris even came up with the idea of maybe bringing one of my ticket stubs for him to sign in which I thought that was a really good idea. I had questions in my head that I was thinking about asking such as: “What is your favorite book?” and “What is your favorite video game?” I even laughed at how I would probably pull a Butthead and ask some stupid question. On the big board of NO I saw that no cell phones were allowed (not making this up), no cameras, no bags, no large purses, no coats (I know… it was raining, cold outside and it’s February but no coats. What the fuck ever.), that no other items besides wine bottles would be signed, and a bunch of other bullshit that I didn’t read.

Chris and I got our tickets and we were 108 and 109. Lucky bastard pulled the 108 lol. We went back home and vegged out on our Wii until we went back around 2 so that we could get in line. We were told that was the time they were going to start selling the wine. When we got back to Whole Foods we were told that it was actually at 3:30 so we went and got some lunch at the nearby Apple Bees.

Back in the waiting area we were told that we would be put in groups of 20, us being in 100-120 (obviously). While standing there we talked to some pretty cool people. One guy got to go as part of the first group so we didn’t get his name, then there was this dude named Dane who was super cool. We talked with him for a long time about various stuff and we even gave him the blog URL so Dane… if you are reading this hellloooo and I hope you enjoyed that day as much as we did. When we got into our little group to go get the wine we had this really nice woman named (I think… if I remember) Christy. She had seen TOOL almost 20 times and she was great to talk to. There weren’t a lot of women there and the ones that were there would have given my daughter nightmares for sure. Christy wasn’t one of them. If you saw her walking down the street you would have assumed she was into stuff like Dave Matthews or something (not that there is anything wrong with Dave Matthews…but I used him for the sake of creating an image).

Up to this point I was still really calm. Every once in awhile I got a little flutter of excitement but I was doing well. Chris and I had already picked out which wines we were going to get so when we got inside Whole Foods we were ready. After going through the checkout we had to stand and wait for the remaining members of our group to finish up with their purchases. Around this time I was starting to need to fidget to help with the nervous energy that was starting to build up inside of me but I was still good.

We then were escorted by a guy to the end of the shopping area where Sharper Image used to be and there was a short line there. The line went inside one of the empty building suites where Maynard was with his wine partner. I tried to get a peek but they were behind tall black drapes. Total bummer. Standing in that line really started to mess with me because to know that somebody you think is fucking amazing is only behind some flimsy curtain can be really exciting and crazy at the same time.

Since people were still being douches about what we could and couldn’t bring with us, before entering that room we had to take off our coats. I had a sleeveless shirt on underneath a woven sweater jacket and I still had to take that off. People were having to take off hoodies, pull over sweat shirts… it was incredibly ridiculous.

When we got inside the room we only had like 3 others in front of us and I could hear his voice as he was talking to a guy. I got this incredible flutter in my stomach and knew that I was in trouble. As we inched closer to our time with him I made one vital mistake: I peeked. I PEEKED!!!

What in the FUCK was I thinking?!?!?!?!??!?!

This entire time I had been perfectly fine and then I blew it by getting a peek of him for not even 20 seconds. As soon as I leaned back to my position I immediately knew it was all over. Teary, weepy me was about to emerge and there was nothing I could do to stop it. I turned my head upwards to look at the pipes in the ceiling and I even asked Chris to give me something to think about. Him, being clever as always, told me to think about the little squirrel we saw the other day that was flattened and ran over on this road.

Thanks for that Sweetie. It was great.

Then it was our time.

My time to stand in front of Maynard.

I know that some of you reading this probably think that I need professional help but haven’t you all had somebody that if you met them you would be completely over the moon? Even if they were fictional like a super hero they still count.

As soon as I took the steps closer to the table him and dude (yeah… he was so important I obviously remembered his name lol) were at I really started to weep like a damn baby. Maynard was so sweet though and he joked with Chris about it.

Maynard: “What did you do to her man?”

Chris: “What?”

Maynard: “What did you do to her? She’s crying.”

I know that it’s hard to get the tone through text but he was being cute about it. He then asked if Chris had hit me (maybe he had seen in the news about fucking broke ass Chris Brown beating up on a certain lady) and if he should have the police man who was to the left come over. I did laugh at that. Chris did make me look like a goof by saying that I was crying due to this making my life (which is true but why would you admit that? sheesh!!)

Then things got worse… at least for me and my weepage. I then heard a combination of words that I thought I would never hear from that mans mouth:  “You look pretty today.”

OH MY FUCKING GOD!!!!

So here I am… in front of him and then I get to hear this? If it wasn’t for the fact that I enjoy living and have a lot that I am looking forward to, I could have dropped dead right then and there and been pretty cool with it. Hearing those words made me want to cry even more and I was able to squeak out the words “Thank you” to him. After that our time was up and then we left to get my coat and umbrella out from their little holding area.

As I was walking out there was another woman there who said that she was probably going to do the same thing (which, very selfishly, I admit that made me feel not so bad) but when I got to where my stuff was I felt like an ass because of the dude that was there working the event. I heard “Finally! Some passion!” directed towards me. Random dude was so nice to inform me that I was the first crier of the day.

Oh fucking joy to the world.

So… I’m sorry that I didn’t get you guys pictures, sorry that I didn’t get to ask any questions because I EPICALLY FAILED, and sorry to myself for being an ass.

On the show we will show you guys the bottles of signed wine and since Chris and I don’t drink, if you happen to buy a bottle and try it let us know what you thought of it.

- She Who Has The Last Word

If any of you guys know me, you will know that I love music. I have pretty much been this way even at a young age so it wasn’t like it came about later on in my life.

My Mom has good taste in music so I got a lot of what I like from her. She was born in 1961 and is really into Led Zeppelin, Rush, Journey, The Beatles and other similar bands. My very first concert that I saw was Bon Jovi. Skid Row opened up for them and I think I was around 6 at the time. Out comes Sebastian Bach with his fabulous 80′s hair and the first thing he screams out is “Are you all mother-fuckin’ right mother fuckers?!?!?!?” I think my Mom turned about 3 shades whiter when he said that because I was young but I didn’t pick up saying “fuck” until much later. I really don’t remember much of the concert except for the fact that I curled up in the seat and fell asleep.  I was exhausted from the stuff we did during the day plus I was young so I wasn’t used to staying up late. My Mom is still shocked that I was able to sleep through a loud concert like that, but hey, I LOVE sleep.

My second concert was the New Kids On The Block. Some of you might laugh while reading this but to see them in concert back then was a big deal. I loved them so much it was unreal. I had the lunch box, t-shirt, all of their books, the VHS video, and some other things that I can’t remember. Really the only thing I remember from that concert is crying like a huge baby when Joey McIntyre came out. He was one of my favorites.

As I got older obviously my taste in music got better, but I remember really digging some of the late 80′s early 90′s stuff. I loved Slaughter, Nelson, Guns & Roses, Metallica, White Snake, MC Hammer, and I really could go on.

When Slaughter came out with the music video for “Up All Night” I wanted to be that girl who was walking with the two Dobermans. Lucky broad. With the Nelson twins I just wanted their hair. My Mom thought they were just gorgeous. Looking at them now I laugh because they look ghastly. Even though Guns & Roses is piss poor now they were kick ass back then, same with Metallica. I don’t even recognize them anymore, and I’m not talking about appearances.

I saw Metallica twice in concert. One time was here in Fresno when they were out touring for the Load album and the other time up north at the Bridge School Benefit. For the concert in Fresno, KoRn (who was really unknown at the time) opened up for them. KoRn put on a really good show. Metallica also did really good as well, but I wish that they had played some more of their older stuff. The Bridge School Benefit concert was all acoustic and we even got a preview of some of the songs that would come out on ReLoad.

One nice treat was that Smashing Pumpkins was there. Looking back I think this concert was in 95 or 96 so they weren’t together for much longer. After Mellon Collie they sort of went downhill which is a shame. They were an amazing band. What Billy Corgan has done to them now makes me want to vomit. Their set was fantastic. It was the entire original lineup so that was nice. James Iha is really talented. They even played “Eye” off of the Lost Highway soundtrack. The twist with that song was that they brought out Marilyn Manson and Twiggy. While I might not like all of Marilyn’s music he did a fucking amazing job with “Eye.”

I would have to say that out of all of the concerts I have been to, TOOL and Nine Inch Nails are always the best. I saw Nine Inch Nails twice back in 2005 and I have seen TOOL a total of 3 times over the years. TOOL is one of my favorite bands so whenever they tour around this area I pretty much drop whatever I am doing to go and see them. All of their music is outstanding and I’m never disappointed. Maynard has the voice of an Angel and their drummer, Danny Carey, is a God. Not only is his kit a monstrosity, but he is so damn skilled. Same with Neil Peart of Rush.

The two Nine Inch Nail shows were really different. The first one was held in the Saroyan Theatre and that can hold a little over 2,000. I will say that it was hot as balls in that theatre. With the crowd and then all of the lights, it was like a friggin’ sauna in there. Worth it though. The second show was at Selland Arena and I made sure to get floor tickets. Going to a concert and being confined to a seat is no fun. However… I issue this warning to you all: Be prepared to get aggressive and almost get into fights. At the second NIN concert I almost got into it twice with some pretty large dudes. They were totally asking for it though. I did almost break my nose at the TOOL concert back in 98 which was an experience all in itself. I also passed out at that show for about 30 seconds and I was lucky to have some random guy who was standing behind me catch me otherwise I would have hit hard dirt and tree roots pretty hard.

One show I didn’t get floor tickets to was System of a Down. I’m not stupid because if I would have been on the floor bad things would have happened. I still had really good seats but I kept looking at the crowd on the floor. The mosh pits were insane and miscellaneous items were being tossed into the air. I saw shoes, clothes, bras (yes… bras) thrown into the air so either some poor girl was being ripped naked or it was a feeding frenzy down there.

Hopefully TOOL and NIN come around this area again because I want to keep seeing them. There are so many bands that I want to see in concert but unfortunately a lot of them have broken up like Soundgarden. They would have been fantastic to see but who knows. These days a lot of bands are getting back together for an album and then a tour. Maybe I might get lucky.

I’ll keep you all posted if I do!

EDIT: Chris was awesome and gave me a link to a video some guy recorded of the TOOL concert I attended in 2006. The quality of the video is actually good and it’s the entire thing which is hard to find. So, here is the link and enjoy! I know I am right now lol! – http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3101027634716204839

- She Who Has The Last Word