missed concerts

Bought a ticket to see Magdalena Bay earlier this year, showing up at the curiously darkened venue to discover that the show had taken place the night before. I hadn't been feeling well so I probably would have stayed home anyway, but this was one of a handful of things this year where my mind proved fuzzier than expected about a date or time. I'm trying to be more proactive about referring to and double-checking my calendar app.

I got the date wrong on The Books in Milwaukee. we got down there and they were doing Mondo Lucha wrestling; The Books were actually the week before. said fuck it and saw the wrestling show. had a great time of course

Was talking with my sister this morning, who reminded me that I missed a whole set by the Deftones at Warped Tour '98 because I was getting us Cokes at the way understaffed concession stand. Otoh, I did hear but not see a bit of Kid Rock's set on a concession stand-adjacent stage (and I only remember that because he was rapping and people were freaking out over Joe C.)

I hate when shit like that happens.

I missed 25% of Napalm Death's opening set once because I was doing a meet and greet with Slayer that ran well over time. Furthering the delay, a LiveNation security guard asked to me my ticket when I entered the pit area, despite me being told all I'd have to show was my wristband. I said "my ticket?" and she said "*I* don't know you - I haven't seen you today!", while I fished around in my pocket for it. Kind of annoyed, I said back "what's the purpose of this green wristband if I have to dig out my ticket each time" and she practically leapt into the air and started SCREAMING at me that she wasn't going to take my bullshit today.

I spent the remainder of the set trying to find someone who was willing to listen to me complain about this asshole, couldn't find anybody, and just used the other entrance the rest of the night (who didn't harass me once).

that should have said "I only saw 25% of Napalm Death's set"

still, you must have heard a good 90 seconds of music

lol

not mine, but man, feel bad for this dude: https://www.reddit.com/r/Katatonia/comments/18e6tmd/dead_end_kings_got_played_in_its_entirety_tonight/

so I learned of this from a friend I know from Atlanta, but he went to see Katatonia last night. the entire tour has pretty much had two bands on it, from what I've heard, and last night, a third was advertised last minute, called Concrete Sky. My friend often posts little synopses after each band he sees at shows, and he commented that the instrumentalists were great, but was bagging on the vocalist for being off-key, and also hated the lyrics. so Gost comes out, he likes them ok.

then the next band comes out, and he sees it's....Concrete Sky again. and he slowly realizes Katatonia had played a surprise opening set, playing the Dead End Kings album (which he didn't know), and he'd been bagging Jonas Renske's vocals! this second set was the standard set.

well I guess it wasn't clear to everyone and those that recognized Dead End Kings, well, a few of them went home early thinking they had switched the order with Gost...like this guy.

are surprise sets a thing? don't know that I've ever run into that!

the name "Concrete sky" came from a lyric on one of the songs on Dead End Kings, so even when they played they didn't reveal they were Katatonia. I guess it was the ultimate 'true fan' test. if you don't recognize this music, you're not a Katatonia fan and don't deserve to know it was us!

The ultimate “true fan” test of whether you recognize the band you came to see when they come out early(?)

Or do they wear masks or something…?

I mean Katatonia aren't exactly rock stars like King Diamond, I wouldn't be surprised if fans who'd never seen them live before haven't looked at pics and don't know what they look like, maybe have only looked at images of them a few times. I remember the first time I saw the Sword and saw a buncha dudes who look like the guy who fucked omar little's roommate come on stage and was like "THIS is them"?