Shows and shit like that!

Dateline August 30th, 1998: Metallica with Days of the New, Jerry Cantrell, and probably some other suck ass band I forget, at the Shoreline Amphitheatre. Normally I wouldn't pay 30 bucks to see Metallica (I like them, but not a whole lot), but this was a present from a close friend, so I went. I accidentally showed up an hour late, I forgot when the show started. My friends didn't get too pissed, though. I managed to miss pre-opener Days of the New. I have still heard very little from this band, but from all I know, they suck pretty hard. I did have to sit through the Jerry Cantrell set. This also blew, it was basically Alice in Chains, which also blow.
But it started getting cool once Metallica actually stopped gang-banging college-football cheerleaders and actually came on stage and played some fucking tunes. I actually recognized half of the songs. I also met this punk rock girl named Rebecca, who was really cool, and apparently thought I was cool too. I think she had knocked a few back though, she kept touching me in front of a dude whom I think was her boyfriend, who thankfully didn't kick my ass. He was a lot bigger than me. I gave her my phone number, but I believe she either lost it or thought better of actually calling a stupid punk kid like me. Also, she screams like a motherfuck. She was right behind me, and her screaming did more damage to my hearing than the music did (I was on the front of the lawn at the Shoreline).
The band rocked, although the set and encores dragged on way too long. And during one of these encores, Rebecca seemed to get really pissed off at Metallica for playing 'Last Caress' by The Misfits acoustic. Admittedly, that's lame, but not that big a deal. All in all, not the most pleasant experience of my life (see 'Rancid at the UC Berkeley Greek Theater'), but still pretty fucking cool.

Dateline September 19th, 1998: Rancid with AFI and Hepcat at the UC Berkeley Greek Theatre. This show was the coolest fucking thing I have ever seen. First, AFI opened up. They were a little noisy for me, but still rocked it like Mike D after 50 cups of coffee. I had to sit through Hepcat, though. They are apparently a sucky-ass ska band from LA. Maybe they're just too old-school for me, but their set was a big pain in the ass. I kept thinking to myself, 'Get off the fuckin' stage! Where's Rancid?' When the headliner finally got to it, it was all worthwhile. This show was absolutely inspirational. I was standing there like 15 feet from the stage, and thinking to myself, 'This is what I want to do.' Needless to say, Rancid rocked your stupid ass like no motherfucker ever will. I skanked like Jordan Ceccerelli after a triple espresso. Plus, I again saw my good friend, the ever-lovable Theresa Parsley, who is unquestionably braver than I, for she actually ventured into the pit. ("I'll do stupid shit to impress girls, but I'm not goin' in there.") However, I later discovered that she broke her nose that night. Big bummer; she's a pretty girl and it sucks when she sustains facial damage. She could still have me any time she wanted though. I'm an easy lay.

Dateline October 9th, 1998: MxPx with the Dingees and Homegrown at Slim's. Also, Pretty Fucking Cool. I managed to miss the Dingees set, but I got to Slim's just before the Homegrown set. I didn't know any of their songs, but they seemed like the type of catchy, melodic ska-punk stuff I like. Oh, and as you are probably anticipating, MxPx, like their new record which they were touring in support of, rocked the ass like Shannon motherfucking Hamilton in the backseat of a Volkswagen. Mike Herrera is one of my favorite songwriters now, along with Tim Armstrong, Art Alexakis, and Kurt Cobain.

Dateline February 2nd, 1999: Everclear at the Warfield. As King Missile's lead vocalist once said, "I FUCKIN LOVE HIM! I FUCKIN LOVE HIM!" Art, Craig, Greg, and whoever the hell that other guitar player was (I think this was Scott Birch), rocked the muthafuckin house. Towards the end of the show, they started pulling people onstage to be the Everclear dancers. I tried to get over there, but I didn't get to the stage fast enough. They were even kinda funny. Mainly in the form of Art's rules for the Everclear dancers. Something like, Rule number one, don't touch Art's fucking microphone. Rule number two, don't touch Craig's dick. (This is the one that discouraged me.) And Rule number three, (to the audience), you'd fucking better dance or Art will have his percussionist go down there and kick your lily asses.

Dateline: November 19th, 1999: MxPx, Too Bad Eugene, No Motiv, and 22 Jacks at The Edge. Once again, MxPx rocked my ass. Also, Tom Wiczniewski made a joke about Mike Herrera wetting the bed (I think on the tour bus). I missed the first band (Too Bad Eugene), but No Motiv were okay. And before MxPx finally played, 22 Jacks were on, they kinda sucked. Their singer was a little obvious about working the crowd, too much showmanship for a punk band. For example, on more than one occasion, he asked the audience something to the effect of, "Do you like the sound of the rock'n'roll guitar?" My sister, who ended up coming to the show with me for the sake of convenience, cleverly mocked this schtick in the question, "Do you like the sound of the rock'n'roll lead singer?", to which i replied, "He sure does." The coolest thing though is that she came to be kinda fond of MxPx after this show. Second time she's liked one of my favorite bands after coming with me to a show, she dug Rancid after that show at the Greek Theatre too.

Dateline: November 20th, 1999: Boy Kicks Girl at the Cactus Club, with The Timeouts, The Hi-Fives, and Mr. T Experience. I missed most of this show. By the time they fucking let me in (they made me wait around forever before they opened the doors, then I got to wait around for an extra half hour or so because I didn't have ID and it was a 16 and up show), BKG's set was over, and I didn't feel like hanging out for the other bands sets after this insult, so I left between the Timeouts (who shot a video on my block last summer) and the next band. It wasn't a total loss though, I bought a BKG T shirt and got Evil Kevin to autograph it and shit. What a mensch, eh?