Now, the weekend... Well, it was an interesting weekend - of highs and one
low - a bit of a baby roller-coaster so to speak.
Where do we start?
<lj-cut text="Friday">Friday - Well apart from cleaning up some stuff at the
office, and being able to leave early due to crazy hours last week, it was a
night to get into the city early (well, earlier than normal actually) for
Hellfire. Early? Moi? Well it was the beginning of <lj user="arby_doll">'s
birthday weekend. Hellfire was an interesting place to be that evening, I
always forget how few people are there at the beginning of the evening,
because I get there about midnight, usually. It was good catching up with
the regulars, seeing the shows (the first show was a doozy - nice to see a
fire-breathing-burlesquey-cirus strong-man-fakir-style show... (Makes me
realize just how far they've come since I was doing weekly shows there back
during the early Blackmarket days). Ahhh memories. Caught up with <lj
user="shinnanigans"> as well, which was more than very nice. We should catch
up a little more often when we get the chance. Also, I wanted to get
something off my chest which I did, and felt a lot better about that too.
Later in the evening, it was also very nice to have a chat with Larry &
Ayelet and invite them back to The Fortress, afterwards. We'd chatted a
little bit before, around Leather Pride, and Uber, but had a renewed
catch-up and that was good (Perhaps something we'll do more often as well).
Of course, that evening/morning wore on into the early afternoon, when it
became imperative to snooze before <lj user="arby_doll">'s birthday drinks.
</lj-cut>
<lj-cut text="Saturday">Saturday - Snooze?... Well that was actually 2 hours
of unconciousness ;) Thence getting up, scrubbed, and getting ready to head
into The Madison for <lj user="arby_doll">'s birthday drinks. Waiting there
was a collection of the wonderful usual suspects, including <lj
user="pornofairy">, Non-LJ-Elliot, <lj user="rocksluts">, <lj
user="lucidean">, Abigail, <lj user="chuppa">, <lj user="dj_voodoo">, <lj
user="agent_beckles"> and <lj user="combicritter">, along with a host of
others. A good load of drinks - free snacks from the kitchen (well, they
screwed the order, so we got free stuff) and then a mosey 2 doors up to The
Gaselic Club. I will note that the Madison Security were getting a little
over-zealous in their ID checking (especially of black-clad persons) toward
the end of our drinks there... And I'll re-visit that issue a little
later.</lj-cut>
<lj-cut text="VNV Nation">It was good to catch a great many more people in
at VNV Nation, the vibe felt OK, though the bar staff seemed a little
overwhelmed/harried. We got into a good position at the stage and the main
show started. (Might I say that the more gigs I get to, the more I
appreciate my early decision to continue to wear earplugs, especially if I
am taking shots at the front of the stage. Standing in front of
speaker-stacks is something I did many years ago - and then stopped that
after persistent ear-ringing (which went away eventually)). Anyway - on to
the show. It was damned well paced, the gig rocked (as they did when they
were last here 2 years ago), yet there was an interesting tension in the
room. I couldn't place it really until I ducked into the edge of the mosh to
get a few shots from centre stage. I got hassled by a few tall guys who were
certain that I was a paid photographer, and should clear off out of their
way - and out of the way of the paying public. Of course having paid, I just
waved the ticket at them and shot 2 more (remember that this was on the
fringe of the mosh not IN the mosh, and I am always respectful of the
audience - which I am always one of, anyway). After a few repeated (not
light) pushes to my back, and yelling in my ear that "Ronan hates
photographers!" "Stop peesing off the guys playing!" "Get out of our way!" -
Now, I'm not so tall...I'm 5'7", these guys topped 6'+ easy - I just shook
my head at them, told them to read the Terms & Conditions of the tickets,
talk to Security if there was a problem, and chill the fark out. They were
obviously in a mood to spoil at someone - but I'm used to that ;)) Anyway, I
had the 5 shots I wanted (no, no flash - although there were many cameras
with flashes running theroughout the gig) and headed back to the
front-of-stage. I didn't think anything else of it, really, until later on
at the encore stage of the gig. OK so there was an interesting development
then, which I hadn't really seen a lot of before (in this scene) and it
disturbed me. Many people enjoyed the DJs and the support act, and that's
not where I am looking. Ignoring the changes of DJ lineup and times (due to
the band becoming victims of jet-lag), I am referring more to the issue of
audience composition and behaviour.
During the encore, something went down in the mosh. I know I had seen one
guy hassling Holly (our cyber-wheelcjair-goth) earlier on, but she handled
it - as she does. Anyway, there was an altercation between a few people,
which ended up including Mouse being shoulder-blocked over on top of Holly,
then punched in the face when he was down. The protagonists then apparently
laughed, and then took off as soon as they saw that they's been made from
the stage, by the band. Kudos to Ronan for stopping the show right there (it
pleasingly shows a lot more social responsibility than Fred Durst did at BDO
that year) Now, I accept that Ronan was incensed by what he saw, that stupid
aggressive behaviour of 2-3 people out of the 300+ there, and that behaviour
is just not acceptable anywhere. Granted, that there was an interesting
percentage of farkwits in the audience, but I thought that Ronan going off
at (what came across as) the entire audience and then storming offstage
seemed a somewhat childish act - the show had been great up until then.
Maybe it was partly the jet-lag? I don't know. However, perhaps stopping the
show, immediately getting Security to do their job and detain the idiots, or
picture them, until the authorities could be called, then
continuing/finishing, might have been a better approach (but remember,
that's being said from my audience-member perspective). Maybe Security just
weren't on the ball to handle the issue? There are more details to this
incident I am sure, and my comments are from what I observed only (fully
ackowledging that I don't have the whole story). Having that caveat, it also
suggests that my perception would be one in concert with a large percentage
of the audience. It left a poor taste in the mouths of those in attendance,
the rest of whom were probably agreeing with Ronan. I don't know...
penalising them all for the actions of 3 seemed a little heavy-handed.
Security then were left in the unenviable position of explaining why they
didn't grab the perpetrators. As I said earlier, I was particularly amused
by those 2-3 who assumed that anyone with a camera didn't pay to get in and
therefore had no right to be anywhere in the middle of the audience,
specifically when they are a couple of heads taller and tried to use that,
that 'looming down in-your-face tactic' to intimidate. I didn't laugh, but
almost did. In retrospect, I wonder if they were the ones who bounced Mouse,
as they were more than aggressive in their earlier behaviour, and not
readily recognisable - to me, anyway - as 'scene regulars'). After a few
moments, Ronan came out to chat to Holly, which I thought was great,
unfortunately Mouse had left (I had walked him to a cab, nursing a
soon-to-be-bruised eye), and we went to make the trek next door to The
Madison.
Now, The Madison (for some reason) was closed to anyone from The Gaelic, yes
that was specifically said by Security. Something about everyone being too
drunk (Not with the Gaelic's prices). Anyone dressed in black was being
refused entry, regardless of age, sex, etc... the guards also then shoved
one person physically, and refused to show their IDs when requested - this
IS being reported to the appropriate authorities. Anyway, overall, these
were smallish (although they did stand out) glitches in the entirety of the
night. </lj-cut>
<lj-cut text="Sunday">Sunday - we trekked back to The Fortress for The Spa,
which had 9 people happily soaking up more alcohol and bubbles until the sun
came out and became a 'very hot thing'. Big applause for Miss Kate, for her
brilliant hand-made Barbara's-Birthday-Greeting-Of-Awesomeness. It was great
to catch up with both Miss Kate and Brian - they're both damned fine people,
and was great to have them over... Must do that more often (perhaps with
less people). It was also damned good having Alex, Kate, Gill,
Non-LJ-Elliot, Abigail, over. As an aside, thery helped me get rid of a slew
of old clothing I was going to clothes-bin this weekend (I must dump the
rest of them this afternoon). At the end of the weekend, the important thing
is that Barbs had a good Birthday weekend - her actual Birthday is today -
and for that I am very happy.</lj-cut>
Tonight - <b><a href="http://ss08.wwe.com">WWE Summerslam Pay-Per-View
(spoiler-link alert)</a></b> with some of the usual suspects - and a couple
of new ones (depends on who can/will make it), which also means
steak-goodness.
Oh yes! Voting is over for <lj comm="barbarianplates"> with a clear
winner... So the attendance is being trawled for now. Go over there and vote
(in about 15 minutes) ;) Now, back to the grind of the daily work-thing.
--
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