Seeing there was no hockey game that night I knew traffic in the area would be normal and parking would be easy. Unfortunately I failed to check the schedule of the larger concert venue next door and pulled up to find ICP was playing this night as well. Having already purchased the tickets I figured I'd grin and bear it.
So with stupid kids running around everywhere, and spraying their stupid Fagyo everywhere, I figured I'd park in a different lot a bit further away. But rest assured if a drop a that shit landed on my car there would certainly be a beat down. I was almost hoping it woudl happen to so I could choke one of those little bastards with their own wallet chain and jam their 3 liter bottle up their Aaaaanyways ....
With all the BS I got into the venue late and there really weren’t any good viewing spots. The stage in the venue is down in a pit which means if your in said pit the acoustics are pretty good. But if your in the back your forced to stand behind the typical 6' 5" tall people that usually attend concerts.
Opening band wasn't bad but very reliant on their synthesizers. They also had a purple/blue/green strobe light going the entire time during half their songs. It's ok when bands use the strobes to accentuate their chorus or a heavy part of their song, but the entire time is overkill.
One of the roadies was also filming the entire event. Not with a camcorder, not some little digi cam. A MACBOOK.
He was walking around the stage filming the show with the built-in camera on his macbook. God that looked so stupid.
Next band came on had like 10 members. Half of them loaded with percussion instruments. A rattle shaker, a tambourine, that rattlesnake sounding instrument Cake uses frequently, and yes the mother of all percussion instruments: The Cowbell. Apparently this band needed as much cowbell as possible to entertain the crowd because their music was rather staticy and just all ran together.
Thankfully no strobes and it was a rather short set.
So then I waited for Shiny Toy Guns to come out.
I stood around watching them setup the small stage with the bands instruments, some signage, and 2 mannequin torsos splattered in blood. (A little odd but I can deal) And so I waited more, and more, and a little bit longer while the band finished up an 8-ball in the back or something.
Finally the lights went out a fog machine came on, and now just a white strobe light filled everyone’s vision. You couldn’t see the band at all, just black shadows in the fog.
The intro song wasn't bad but nothing I herd of. Couldn't understand anything just a bunch of synthesizers and shouting. 2nd song was more of the same just replace the shouting with mumbling. By the 3rd song the only thing I understood was 'Hello Columbus!' 'How you all doing tonight?' and onto more of the same.
Oh did I mention the fog machine was still on and the small venue was completely filled with smoke? Apparently the strobe machine was stuck on as well. Anymore of this nonsense and I was about to have an epileptic seizure.
So I searched my way to the front door coughing and gagging through even thicker smoke and fog and finally some fresh air.
There was a police officer at the top of the stairs of the venue overlooking any ICP kids dicking around outside. I asked him when the ICP show let out.
He could tell I was rather annoyed by the kids as well and said with a bit of a smile "2 mounted patrols will be arriving in about 30 minutes along with some extra crowd control. Your show ends in 45 minutes this show ends in about an hour"
I took that as my queue to GTFO and walked back to the parking garage across the now sticky Fagyo soaked sidewalks.
Damn kids and their idea of "music" these days.
