2 Gigantour dates, 2 tickets and 2 backstage passes for both, what can be better?
Seattle, arrive at the venue to find out that there is 1 ticket, 1 Anthrax guest pass (remember, Anthrax guest pass, becomes important later). Well, gotta call my buddy Clint and tell him doesn't need to come to the show, since don't have the spare ticket. He was on his way already, so he had to turn around.
Got through the gate, 2 friends I came with were heading to get their pit pass. Sounds like a great plan to do. We get in line, almost to the front, they have a guy come back and check tickets. "Sorry, your ticket doesn't have a pit pass on it." "What?? Really??" "Yeah, you can't go into the pit." Turn to John and Sean, "well, guess I'll go backstage, you guys have fun in the pit." Wait for them to get their pit pass, and we head down to the pit and backstage area.
Security guard at the backstage gate, "you need an escort for your guest pass." "who do I get for an escort? what escort?" "I don't know, I'm just the guy at the gate." Friends have deserted me to the pit, so, wandering time to find someone who knows what the hell is going on.
Walk back towards front area and see my friend Allen (he becomes important later). Hang out with him for awhile, we go around and check out Nevermore (3 frickin songs is what we got to hear). So, it's off to find someone who knows anything. 5 event staff later "uh, I don't know, he might." "I don't know, she might." "Maybe he knows..." "Have you tried guest services?" Hey, there's a thought, where is guest services? Get to guest services (turns worse here). They get on their little headset and radio someone, "where does this guy with an anthrax guest pass go?" "he goes to the backstage entrance at 6pm for a meet and greet." (remember that time, you'll hear that again). "where's the backstage entrance?" You guessed it, it's where I started out my little adventure. He still doesn't know what's going on, out of boredom I walk to the other side of the venue to a completely new set of event staff, again, 5 dif people, 5 dif ways of saying I don't know until I got to someone that said, "go to guest services." I'm thoroughly entertained by now. I walk around more, head into the beer garden to talk to Allen, he informs me you can upgrade to a pit pass at the ticket booth. Well shit, I've got 30 mins till 6pm, I'll go do that. It's my buddies at guest services that check me out, so I can upgrade. Well, get to ticket booth, "you can't upgrade a free ticket, you can't go into the pit." So, now I can't see Anthrax from the pit, I've got time to kill, but hey, there might develope a line at the backstage gate, heading down. Get to the backstage gate and my buddy who I eventually get to know real well. A line starts behind me, and find more people in my plight,but their passes say Megadeth VIP (this is important later) or just Megadeth Meet and Greet. I feel lost being the only Anthrax Guest there, especially since Fear Factory is now playing and well, there's no one after them before Anthrax. I'm here in line, I'm going to get to the bottom of this. 6pm comes along, some people come out and they realize the VIP people are really that, and they're taken care of. There's a group of Platinum pass people also ($200 to meet Megadeth and get a bunch of stuff signed). They go backstage. 6:30, I'm getting worried, Fear Factory finished 5 mins before, and there's no sign of anyone. 6:45, still noone. 6:55 cheers erupt and I hear the blues brother theme. Fuck it, I'm in line, I'm going to get answers for tomorrow at least. 7:15, finally go in there. I'm 3rd in line to meet Megadeth. This is a not quite as special group, they get 1 thing signed only. I don't care about getting stuffed signed, I have Sean and John's stuff to get signed "backstage". I get to Dave, I ask about the Anthrax Guest pass.
"Anthrax is on stage dude. We're Megadeth." (Like I don't know who the fuck you are, I've only seen you live 3 times before this concert)
"I know, but I've asked every event staff person about this pass, and not a single one knows what it is for."
"This is for Megadeth fan club only, I don't know what's going on, talk to Anthrax."
"I've been trying to. No one has gotten me anywhere since I've gotten here today."
"Go talk to my assistant Jenny."
She's standing there, I explain what's going on and what's happened so far and she goes off to find out what needs to be done.
"You need to talk to Bo. He's Anthrax Tour Manager."
"Where's he at?"
"At the Soundboard."
Off to the Soundboard, hey, I get to catch the last half of Anthrax, I came in while Joey's introducing everyone before Medusa.
From where I was, Indians had a bad ass mosh pit, they recorded it, and that circle pit ruled. So did the guy in the wheelchair.
Wait for end of set, I finally talk to Bo.
"I have to go to the bathroom, I'll be back in half hour, wait here by the gate." (hey, it's my buddy the gate keeper)
Half hour, Megadeth takes the stage. Nevermore guitarist comes out (sorry don't know his name). He seemed important and I only saw a couple Nevermore songs, and from way back (no pit pass) so ask, "hey, do know Bo? I'm waiting for him, he said half hour."
"yeah, I'll give him a message."
He comes in and out of the gate 3 times, "Bo hasn't came out yet? Damn, I've told him."
Megadeth set ends. John and Sean join me. Security clears out everyone, "who are you, what are you doing here?"
"I'm waiting for Bo, Anthrax's tour manager."
"you can't wait here."
"I've been here all day, c'mon. Can someone find out what's going on?"
The security guy goes in, comes out,
"Bo's doing interview stuff, he can't come out. You HAVE TO LEAVE NOW."
"what about tomorrow? I'm supposed to go to the Gigantour tomorrow also."
"that's not my problem, leave now."
"hey, c'mon, really. I've been here forever, ask him."
"go wait out by gate 3, that's where vip's leave."
swearing and cursing whole way out. very pissed off. get to gate 3.
"hey, I'm supposed to wait here for Bo, Anthrax Tour Manager."
These guys have a phone, they get right on it and call in. "someone's coming out."
A guy shows up to escort me backstage, Bo's talking to Joey. I wait patiently, hey, what's 5 mins when he's talking to one of the guys I'm trying to meet? Bo half introduces me to Joey, "what do you need, thanx for being patient."
"Well, I was setupu from Tad, head of Anthrax Street Team for this concert and tomorrows, there was 1 a foul up with the tickets, supposed to be 2, and no one knows what this pass is for."
"Well, can't do anything tonight, see me tomorrow at Clark County at 10am."
Joey says, "hey, I'll be right back."
"so, okay, tomorrow at Clark County, 10am, I'll get there."
"see you tomorrow, I'll hook you up." He turns away, and I'm dismissed. Well, so now I have to leave. (again, you're tired of this, but becomes important later)
I walk out, grumbling whole time, didn't even get to have anything signed from Joey or even talk with him.
Fast Foward Time
9:40am Clark County Ampitheater
I get to the vip entrance and they have no idea who Bo is. 10:20ish. They called Bo, but he's sleeping on the bus (despite him saying the night before he's up at the venue by 8am) and they left a voice mail. Wait outside in your car and we'll get you when he wakes up and see what he says. 10:50 I think. Okay, come on back, this lady will escort you to Bo.
Go backstage, and wait for Bo, see he's in talking to the band (well, calling them, I think for wake up call, so they can see Portland and know when to get back for the ride to the show). Wait for awhile, finally he comes out of the office. "What do you want again?"
"Tad from the Street Team was setting me up passes through the management."
"I have no idea who he is."
"okay, I was supposed to be on the guest list."
"alright, I'll get you a ticket and that pass."
"what's the pass good for? no one knew last night."
"when the band gets here I'll get you a meet and greet later." (yeah, okay...)
"so, come back to will call later, pick up the 2 tickets and 2 passes and then when they get here we'll get a meet and greet. how do I find you for that?"
"come back later and we'll get that set up." turns away again and another dismissal.
Well, it's 11ish, I have time to go home real quick, meet my friend Dan at 1pm at his place to head out to the show again.
Will Call didn't get passes or anything until way late, so there was a nice group of us waiting (gotta love waiting). Eventually get the passes and ticket. It's time to start asking where to go. Event Staff says...
"oh, at 6pm you go to the backstage gate for a meet and greet." (I'm now a veteran at this)
"No, see the pass, it says ANTHRAX!!!! NOT MEGADETH!!!!! I went through that last night, not again. This is completely different. See, it says Anthrax, they really are different bands."
"okay, go by the gate now then."
So dan and I become friends with the girl at the gate, we ask about the passes, a guy comes out (not Bo), "come back here later and we'll get you back to meet Anthrax."
Alright, getting somewhere. We check back after every band. I see during Life of Agony's set, that Charlies in back, "dan, let's go, we know they're there now."
Bo comes out, "just be patient".
Anthrax comes out and walks right by to do their signing for the people that bought cd at fye booth. While they're doing that, Bo said we'd get to say hi when they came back through.
So, we wait, anthrax comes back, Bo says, "hey, scott, frank, say hi to these guys."
Frank, "thanx man"
"hey, remember me, met you guys before down in Texas"
"oh yeah, how you doing man, talk to Bo, he'll hook you up." (hahahahahahahahahaha)
Charlie and Scott just go in, one last hope since didn't see Dan go by, and I know Joey's still out there signing. Joey comes back, "hey, what happened last night?"
"I was dismissed."
"so what was going on?"
I explain how I got the passes and what's been going on, shorter version than this, like the 10 sec version.
"oh..." he turns to a security guard and says, "hey, find out what needs to be done, and do it."
I'm thinking, cool, finally as he heads backstage. Security goes and confers, they comeback, "what's going on?"
I explain, "sorry, uh, one sec." that one sec was interrupted by the guy from fye who's organizing the Megadeth meet and greet at 6pm and we're shunted by security. They all scatter.
Fuck this, I'm not missing Anthrax this time. We head into the venue. All this time, I'd been sending Tad messages of updates.
We go to far side of seats, we walk half way down, and go in towards the center. Fear Factory is playing still at this point. I see seats way closer (clark county has all seats by the way, stupid, I know.) I point them out to Dan and we head down, security stops us, but he sees the pass (it finally did something, and I later find out, I think it wasn't supposed to do something). We get to the other seats. Fear Factory ends, the people at the beginning of our aisle go to get beer (and being opportunists, they lose their seats). We're 3 rows back.
I remember how Frank said talk to Bo about hooking up. I know he does the sound stuff, "hey, you've been bugging me since 10am, my patience is really thin right now."
"what about what Frank said?"
"we'll see, go to the gate after the set."We watch Anthrax. Tad calls towards end of set. After the set, I call Tad back on my way to the gate again. Dan stays at the seats, guarding other opportunists, Tad sends word to Scott. Scott sends back saying that Megadeth put a lockdown on the passes and couldn't set up the backstage. So after all of that, it's because Dave Mustaine wouldn't let John and Sean and Dan and I go meet my favorite band. And even while Megadeth was playing, where we wouldn't be where he was.
After finding this out, I'm not thrilled with Megadeth, I wait around longer see if Bo will hook us up anyways, somehow. But, decide, fuck it, I've been standing to fucking long. I go sit in my 3rd row seat since I can't seem to find a way to get into the music. I look around, and even Dan commented when we were leaving and agreed, the crowd did not seem into Megadeth like they were for Anthrax. The crowd, despite having chairs blocking the way, were trying to do stuff with Anthrax, but not really with Megadeth. Dan, the huge Megadeth fan was underwhelmed by them, but excited to see Anthrax. Maybe something good came from that. As for those seats, during Megadeth's set, Dave pointed out that the seats there were for people who donated to the Katrina fund, and there were more seats there than people for that section, so we didn't steal the seats from people who actually donated to Katrina. As for when I met Anthrax before, that was with John and Rob. I flew down to Southern Texas and had a blast that weekend.
Come back to the Northwest on a headlining tour to Seattle and Portland.
Seattle, arrive at the venue to find out that there is 1 ticket, 1 Anthrax guest pass (remember, Anthrax guest pass, becomes important later). Well, gotta call my buddy Clint and tell him doesn't need to come to the show, since don't have the spare ticket. He was on his way already, so he had to turn around.
Got through the gate, 2 friends I came with were heading to get their pit pass. Sounds like a great plan to do. We get in line, almost to the front, they have a guy come back and check tickets. "Sorry, your ticket doesn't have a pit pass on it." "What?? Really??" "Yeah, you can't go into the pit." Turn to John and Sean, "well, guess I'll go backstage, you guys have fun in the pit." Wait for them to get their pit pass, and we head down to the pit and backstage area.
Security guard at the backstage gate, "you need an escort for your guest pass." "who do I get for an escort? what escort?" "I don't know, I'm just the guy at the gate." Friends have deserted me to the pit, so, wandering time to find someone who knows what the hell is going on.
Walk back towards front area and see my friend Allen (he becomes important later). Hang out with him for awhile, we go around and check out Nevermore (3 frickin songs is what we got to hear). So, it's off to find someone who knows anything. 5 event staff later "uh, I don't know, he might." "I don't know, she might." "Maybe he knows..." "Have you tried guest services?" Hey, there's a thought, where is guest services? Get to guest services (turns worse here). They get on their little headset and radio someone, "where does this guy with an anthrax guest pass go?" "he goes to the backstage entrance at 6pm for a meet and greet." (remember that time, you'll hear that again). "where's the backstage entrance?" You guessed it, it's where I started out my little adventure. He still doesn't know what's going on, out of boredom I walk to the other side of the venue to a completely new set of event staff, again, 5 dif people, 5 dif ways of saying I don't know until I got to someone that said, "go to guest services." I'm thoroughly entertained by now. I walk around more, head into the beer garden to talk to Allen, he informs me you can upgrade to a pit pass at the ticket booth. Well shit, I've got 30 mins till 6pm, I'll go do that. It's my buddies at guest services that check me out, so I can upgrade. Well, get to ticket booth, "you can't upgrade a free ticket, you can't go into the pit." So, now I can't see Anthrax from the pit, I've got time to kill, but hey, there might develope a line at the backstage gate, heading down. Get to the backstage gate and my buddy who I eventually get to know real well. A line starts behind me, and find more people in my plight,but their passes say Megadeth VIP (this is important later) or just Megadeth Meet and Greet. I feel lost being the only Anthrax Guest there, especially since Fear Factory is now playing and well, there's no one after them before Anthrax. I'm here in line, I'm going to get to the bottom of this. 6pm comes along, some people come out and they realize the VIP people are really that, and they're taken care of. There's a group of Platinum pass people also ($200 to meet Megadeth and get a bunch of stuff signed). They go backstage. 6:30, I'm getting worried, Fear Factory finished 5 mins before, and there's no sign of anyone. 6:45, still noone. 6:55 cheers erupt and I hear the blues brother theme. Fuck it, I'm in line, I'm going to get answers for tomorrow at least. 7:15, finally go in there. I'm 3rd in line to meet Megadeth. This is a not quite as special group, they get 1 thing signed only. I don't care about getting stuffed signed, I have Sean and John's stuff to get signed "backstage". I get to Dave, I ask about the Anthrax Guest pass.
"Anthrax is on stage dude. We're Megadeth." (Like I don't know who the fuck you are, I've only seen you live 3 times before this concert)
"I know, but I've asked every event staff person about this pass, and not a single one knows what it is for."
"This is for Megadeth fan club only, I don't know what's going on, talk to Anthrax."
"I've been trying to. No one has gotten me anywhere since I've gotten here today."
"Go talk to my assistant Jenny."
She's standing there, I explain what's going on and what's happened so far and she goes off to find out what needs to be done.
"You need to talk to Bo. He's Anthrax Tour Manager."
"Where's he at?"
"At the Soundboard."
Off to the Soundboard, hey, I get to catch the last half of Anthrax, I came in while Joey's introducing everyone before Medusa.
From where I was, Indians had a bad ass mosh pit, they recorded it, and that circle pit ruled. So did the guy in the wheelchair.
Wait for end of set, I finally talk to Bo.
"I have to go to the bathroom, I'll be back in half hour, wait here by the gate." (hey, it's my buddy the gate keeper)
Half hour, Megadeth takes the stage. Nevermore guitarist comes out (sorry don't know his name). He seemed important and I only saw a couple Nevermore songs, and from way back (no pit pass) so ask, "hey, do know Bo? I'm waiting for him, he said half hour."
"yeah, I'll give him a message."
He comes in and out of the gate 3 times, "Bo hasn't came out yet? Damn, I've told him."
Megadeth set ends. John and Sean join me. Security clears out everyone, "who are you, what are you doing here?"
"I'm waiting for Bo, Anthrax's tour manager."
"you can't wait here."
"I've been here all day, c'mon. Can someone find out what's going on?"
The security guy goes in, comes out,
"Bo's doing interview stuff, he can't come out. You HAVE TO LEAVE NOW."
"what about tomorrow? I'm supposed to go to the Gigantour tomorrow also."
"that's not my problem, leave now."
"hey, c'mon, really. I've been here forever, ask him."
"go wait out by gate 3, that's where vip's leave."
swearing and cursing whole way out. very pissed off. get to gate 3.
"hey, I'm supposed to wait here for Bo, Anthrax Tour Manager."
These guys have a phone, they get right on it and call in. "someone's coming out."
A guy shows up to escort me backstage, Bo's talking to Joey. I wait patiently, hey, what's 5 mins when he's talking to one of the guys I'm trying to meet? Bo half introduces me to Joey, "what do you need, thanx for being patient."
"Well, I was setupu from Tad, head of Anthrax Street Team for this concert and tomorrows, there was 1 a foul up with the tickets, supposed to be 2, and no one knows what this pass is for."
"Well, can't do anything tonight, see me tomorrow at Clark County at 10am."
Joey says, "hey, I'll be right back."
"so, okay, tomorrow at Clark County, 10am, I'll get there."
"see you tomorrow, I'll hook you up." He turns away, and I'm dismissed. Well, so now I have to leave. (again, you're tired of this, but becomes important later)
I walk out, grumbling whole time, didn't even get to have anything signed from Joey or even talk with him.
Fast Foward Time
9:40am Clark County Ampitheater
I get to the vip entrance and they have no idea who Bo is. 10:20ish. They called Bo, but he's sleeping on the bus (despite him saying the night before he's up at the venue by 8am) and they left a voice mail. Wait outside in your car and we'll get you when he wakes up and see what he says. 10:50 I think. Okay, come on back, this lady will escort you to Bo.
Go backstage, and wait for Bo, see he's in talking to the band (well, calling them, I think for wake up call, so they can see Portland and know when to get back for the ride to the show). Wait for awhile, finally he comes out of the office. "What do you want again?"
"Tad from the Street Team was setting me up passes through the management."
"I have no idea who he is."
"okay, I was supposed to be on the guest list."
"alright, I'll get you a ticket and that pass."
"what's the pass good for? no one knew last night."
"when the band gets here I'll get you a meet and greet later." (yeah, okay...)
"so, come back to will call later, pick up the 2 tickets and 2 passes and then when they get here we'll get a meet and greet. how do I find you for that?"
"come back later and we'll get that set up." turns away again and another dismissal.
Well, it's 11ish, I have time to go home real quick, meet my friend Dan at 1pm at his place to head out to the show again.
Will Call didn't get passes or anything until way late, so there was a nice group of us waiting (gotta love waiting). Eventually get the passes and ticket. It's time to start asking where to go. Event Staff says...
"oh, at 6pm you go to the backstage gate for a meet and greet." (I'm now a veteran at this)
"No, see the pass, it says ANTHRAX!!!! NOT MEGADETH!!!!! I went through that last night, not again. This is completely different. See, it says Anthrax, they really are different bands."
"okay, go by the gate now then."
So dan and I become friends with the girl at the gate, we ask about the passes, a guy comes out (not Bo), "come back here later and we'll get you back to meet Anthrax."
Alright, getting somewhere. We check back after every band. I see during Life of Agony's set, that Charlies in back, "dan, let's go, we know they're there now."
Bo comes out, "just be patient".
Anthrax comes out and walks right by to do their signing for the people that bought cd at fye booth. While they're doing that, Bo said we'd get to say hi when they came back through.
So, we wait, anthrax comes back, Bo says, "hey, scott, frank, say hi to these guys."
Frank, "thanx man"
"hey, remember me, met you guys before down in Texas"
"oh yeah, how you doing man, talk to Bo, he'll hook you up." (hahahahahahahahahaha)
Charlie and Scott just go in, one last hope since didn't see Dan go by, and I know Joey's still out there signing. Joey comes back, "hey, what happened last night?"
"I was dismissed."
"so what was going on?"
I explain how I got the passes and what's been going on, shorter version than this, like the 10 sec version.
"oh..." he turns to a security guard and says, "hey, find out what needs to be done, and do it."
I'm thinking, cool, finally as he heads backstage. Security goes and confers, they comeback, "what's going on?"
I explain, "sorry, uh, one sec." that one sec was interrupted by the guy from fye who's organizing the Megadeth meet and greet at 6pm and we're shunted by security. They all scatter.
Fuck this, I'm not missing Anthrax this time. We head into the venue. All this time, I'd been sending Tad messages of updates.
We go to far side of seats, we walk half way down, and go in towards the center. Fear Factory is playing still at this point. I see seats way closer (clark county has all seats by the way, stupid, I know.) I point them out to Dan and we head down, security stops us, but he sees the pass (it finally did something, and I later find out, I think it wasn't supposed to do something). We get to the other seats. Fear Factory ends, the people at the beginning of our aisle go to get beer (and being opportunists, they lose their seats). We're 3 rows back.
I remember how Frank said talk to Bo about hooking up. I know he does the sound stuff, "hey, you've been bugging me since 10am, my patience is really thin right now."
"what about what Frank said?"
"we'll see, go to the gate after the set."We watch Anthrax. Tad calls towards end of set. After the set, I call Tad back on my way to the gate again. Dan stays at the seats, guarding other opportunists, Tad sends word to Scott. Scott sends back saying that Megadeth put a lockdown on the passes and couldn't set up the backstage. So after all of that, it's because Dave Mustaine wouldn't let John and Sean and Dan and I go meet my favorite band. And even while Megadeth was playing, where we wouldn't be where he was.
After finding this out, I'm not thrilled with Megadeth, I wait around longer see if Bo will hook us up anyways, somehow. But, decide, fuck it, I've been standing to fucking long. I go sit in my 3rd row seat since I can't seem to find a way to get into the music. I look around, and even Dan commented when we were leaving and agreed, the crowd did not seem into Megadeth like they were for Anthrax. The crowd, despite having chairs blocking the way, were trying to do stuff with Anthrax, but not really with Megadeth. Dan, the huge Megadeth fan was underwhelmed by them, but excited to see Anthrax. Maybe something good came from that. As for those seats, during Megadeth's set, Dave pointed out that the seats there were for people who donated to the Katrina fund, and there were more seats there than people for that section, so we didn't steal the seats from people who actually donated to Katrina. As for when I met Anthrax before, that was with John and Rob. I flew down to Southern Texas and had a blast that weekend.
Come back to the Northwest on a headlining tour to Seattle and Portland.
