Tagged: Van Halen
No, I never “grew out of it”….
Dozed off on the train on my way home, and when I woke up, just a few minutes before my station, the girl next to me smiled and said:
– I remember you from junior high!
I looked at her and I could have sworn I’d never seen her before. But I generally suck at remembering faces, which gets me in trouble as people probably think I’m a stuck up bitch for not remembering them…
She turned to my colleague, pointed at me and said:
– She was the only girl in the entire school, who was into heavy metal.
Well, okay then. Apparently she DID know me. :D
– So… I guess you’ve grown out of it now, huh…? she said and smiled.
Grew out of it? Of what? Being a metalhead? Are you kidding?
Hell, NO.
– No way, I’m still a rock chick, always were, always will be. Well it was nice to see you! I said, still not knowing who she was.
She said she used to be in a grade above us. Okay, that makes it even better. Back in those days you definitely didn’t socialize with anyone YOUNGER, that was very uncool. So, I must have left quite an impression if even one of the “older chicks” noticed and remembers me – from 1983!
My mind just wandered off to those days, when I started my walk home. 1983. Junior high.
I don’t remember much from that time really, other than being intensely crazy about heavy metal.
I was still a kid, trying to find my identity – which was especially hard being the only girl in school who was into metal. I had no one to share that with and I didn’t really belong anywhere.
I used to hang with the guys, which of course the other teenage girls in my class didn’t do, unless they wanted a boyfriend. So, I guess I was just…different. :)
There were very few female role-models for me. I remember getting into Rock Goddess but they were pretty much like guys… Same thing with Girlschool, guys with tits.
Then Lita Ford came along and that changed my whole world. She became my “guiding light” through the jungle of metal where girls simply didn’t belong back in those days. She was a tough woman, but still a woman. Not a dude-chick.
I was so in love with the whole heavy metal scene that I couldn’t focus on ANYTHING else. It was ALL about hard rock/heavy metal.
I would go and buy those cheap LP’s with cut-outs from Spain, cause I couldn’t afford anything else. I remember buying Scorpions “Blackout” and it had all the titles translated! Hang on, I’ve still got all that shit here…. Yeah, this is what it looked like:
I would sit and carve the names and logos of the bands I liked, on my school desk with a sharp pencil – leaving permanent traces of where I’d been. I guess you could call it an obsession, cause it really was.
My backpack was decorated with the same thing – the Judas Priest logo and a bunch of Van Halen and Def Leppard-buttons and patches.
I read everything I could get my hands on, any metal magazine – which of course would be from the UK or the US cause we didn’t have anything like that in Sweden. Until the music mag OKEJ came along.
I used to hang outside the newsstand every Wednesday morning when a new issue of OKEJ would come out, right before going to woodwork class. Then of course, I couldn’t concentrate on anything else all day, I would read that freaking thing, cover to cover, not missing a WORD! :)
And it had all these cool posters too. This was my first Judas Priest-poster, that was from OKEJ. ME – I looked dorky as hell, but the whole world of rock’n’roll was all still new to me. Before I “converted” to metal, I had been a BEATLES-fan…! Quite a transition to say the least.
My parents worried. This was not supposed to happen, they wanted big things for me, I was supposed to go to university and make something of myself. Not listen to that….noise.
Dad used to say that music wouldn’t “put food on the table” and I needed to focus on the IMPORTANT things in life. Well… When I got my first job writing about metal 5 years later, he couldn’t really use that as a motivational speech anymore. ;)
Eventually my parents accepted that this was my call in life. I loved the music, it was very important to me and I incorporated it into my life with a passion.
[14 years old, just started decorating my walls with ugly longhaired men dressed in black leather!]
And no – I never “grew out of it”!
I told the girl on the train, that there is nothing to “grow out” of – because metal is the ULTIMATE music in my book. There is no higher level.
Many are always going to think that classical music is fancier but when it comes to complexity, you will find a lot of those influences in metal as well, only modernized and better suited for electric guitars and amps.
She looked surprised but I walked away with a sense of pride. Yeah, I have to say that I actually felt proud to be remembered by someone, 31 years later, for being the only female rocker in junior high – and STILL BE that girl! :)
I don’t know what my life would have looked like if I hadn’t fallen in love with metal, but I’m so glad that I never had to find out, because I’ve really lived a life I could never have dreamed of when I was a kid- and I owe it all to rock’n’roll.
It’s the love of my life and will be in my heart & soul till the day I die. :)
AMAZING PERFORMERS – the best of the best
The times they are certainly a changin’.
The record industry is struggling with poor record sales and illegal downloads, but there is one thing that they can still cash in on, something that will never go out of style: The magic of LIVE SHOWS.
There are people in less famous bands and in local bands that “have IT” : that spark, that natural ability to work a stage and a crowd, that makes you come back for more time and time again. It’s not a competition and you can’t really compare musicians because they are all so different – it’s not the Olympics of Rock – but these are some of my personal favorites. Note that this is 100% a list of people who I think are outstanding LIVE PERFORMERS (which is not necessarily the same as favorite musicians or bands)
When this man walks out on a stage – he OWNS every single person in the crowd.
He has a unique quality of making every individual feel noticed and a part of the show. Although he is a larger-than-life rock star who works best on the biggest stages of the world, he always makes it feel like he’s playing just for YOU.
He mixes a sense of humor and self-distance with sex, confidence, authority and pure professionalism. Not to mention the way he moves on a stage like a rock’n’roll-emperor, using the micstand as his #1 tool. There is only one David – Coverdale be thy name. :)
When he’s about to hit the stage, he’s like a missile! The man oozes of pure, raw energy and rock’n’roll, nothing and nobody comes even close…! I’m not the biggest Twisted Sister-fan in the world, I don’t even have all their records, but watching this man on stage is a kick beyond belief! He is genuine and a real punch in your face.
If you could take everything that rock’n’roll is all about, and transform it into human shape – Dee Snider would be IT!
The ULTIMATE frontman. The one and only King of the Stage. The energy and the raw frenzy is beyond what I’ve seen ANY other artist produce on a stage – ever! He is the only frontman I can think of that was truly BORN to do this. If you took it away from him, he would languish, stop breathing, cease to exist. In 23 years I’ve only seen him suck ONCE. Don’t even ask how many shows I’ve seen with either Skid Row or Baz solo, but it’s more than enough to state that this guy is very unlikely to let you down if you’re looking for an action-packed show.
Entertainment personified. It’s enough to just mention the name David Lee Roth and people will immediately start thinking of a rock’n’roll strutter with his body as his main tool. He was THE sex-symbol back in the day, moving in a way that would make the ladies blush.
He would impress us all with the martial-arts high kicks while at the same time looking like a kid in a candy store who LOVES what he does. His sense of humor is contageous, and even to this day he hasn’t lost much of all that. He’s never been the world’s greatest singer, but it’s safe to say that he’s most definitely one of the world’s greatest entertainers!
Yngwie Malmsteen
The one and only ULTIMATE guitar hero – and probably the only one who turns a prolonged guitargasm into a show unlike anyone else! He was (and still is) WILD on stage!
Like a super-model, he will strike 30 different poses in one minute, yet continue playing that guitar like nobody’s business. How can you do all that running and posing and headbanging and still play making it look like a piece of cake??? The man is a guitar god and a top notch live performer in every sense of the word!
Those are my Top 5 live performers, but the list goes on – and on…
Joe Elliot of Def Leppard had an amazing charisma on stage, he just caught your attention from the word go and kept it there for as long as it took. I was mesmerized the first time I saw Def Leppard. Fantastic frontman. I don’t know what happened though, because the last few times I’ve seen Def Leppard, the magic wasn’t there. I guess there’s a peak in every band’s career and a fall – sooner or later. After 30 years of kicking ass on stage, I guess they are entitled to lose the spark.Same goes for my #1 hero Rob Halford (Judas Priest). He was never a “run-around-the-stage-like-a-marathoner” type of singer, but he had “IT”. All he had to do was stop and LOOK at his crowd and they would go freaking CRAZY! He just had what most entertainers don’t, it’s within your personality and he would make me forget that there was even a world outside whichever arena Judas Priest would be playing….
However, just like Joe Elliot, Rob Halford has lost some of his magic. I can still see it when he’s with his own band Halford, but it’s like he’s a parody of himself when he’s with Priest nowadays.There is a reason why this man has been on the top for more than 4 decades! It’s not because he’s Pavarotti, but because he has this wonderful way of truly loving what he does, just being OZZY.
Watch this and try NOT to smile! :-))
Speaking of Ozzy automatically leads me to another, fairly new, aquaintance and favorite performer: Gus G (guitarist w. Ozzy & Firewind, in case you’ve managed to miss it)
I was stuck after the first time I saw him with Ozzy. He walks onstage and becomes a true old-school Rock Star!
He owns the stage in a very natural sort of way, with a charisma that few “new” musicians possess. This guitar wiz handles Madison Square Garden just as well as the smallest, tiniest little dark club in the middle of nowhere.
The posing, the hair-fan, the guitar-hero moves all that stuff makes Gus a true arena-entertainer.
Another kick-ass live-performer is Kevin Rothney (Circle II Circle, JOP) who played bass with Jon Oliva’s Pain on the 2006-2010 tours, when I saw the band countless times.
Jon Oliva might be the songwriting genious, but Kevin was the one who brought rock’n’roll to the live performances of JOP.
I’ve always been impressed with Kevin. When you see musicians like that, you realize that the music business is all about being in the right place at the right time, there are amazing showmen (and -women) out there that don’t get the recognition they deserve.
Moving on to a more local level, where singer Andy Pierce (Nasty Idols) without question, makes it to my list of favorite performers. It was his natural talent as a frontman that made me notice the band in the first place – 25 freaking years ago! He was a real rock star before people even knew it and he will be till they have to roll him out on stage in a wheel chair!
PART TWO – THE BEST LIVE BANDS!
Where in the world are you going to be THIS weekend?
One of my colleagues at work was asking people, quite randomly, what their plans were for the weekend. He got replies along the lines of “I’m just going to take it easy...”, “I’m going out with a few friends...” – then he turned to me and went: “So, Daniela, where in the world are you going THIS weekend?” with a big grin.
Guess it’s been like that back and forth since I ran out of vacation days. I’ve had to do everything on weekends!
Athens, Greece the first weekend in January (for Firewind), New York City two weekends later (for Steve Stevens and Sebastian Bach on Iridium, Broadway), Tampa, Florida for just one day to see Van Halen… And probably some European dates inbetween that I already forgot about.
I didn’t do this a few years ago. I guess that the general opinion is that you “can’t” do crazy shit like going overseas for a weekend, unless you’re a millionaire with nothing better to spend your money on.
But then I realized that you CAN.
Maybe it’s crazy, but really, the only “crazy” part is the short time-frame. Nothing else. And if you think about it, it’s not that crazy at all, because usually HOTELS cost a lot more than the actual trip, so going for a weekend is SAVING money, not the opposite. Two hotel-nights equal a flight ticket, most of the time. For that, you get to visit more countries instead of just one. :)
And going several times a year means that you don’t have to squeeze in everything you want to do in a few days and then think that you’ll never come back. You do what you need to do – well knowing that you WILL be back, and probably pretty soon too. :-)
There are different ways of making it possible – apart from living on crispbread and noodles.
I just applied for an American Express card with flyer miles. If you get approved, you get 20,000 miles as a welcome-bonus, which is enough for a roundtrip somewhere within Europe. With my 10,000 current miles on the bonus card, that makes 30,000 miles which is enough for an upgrade to business class. Never flown business class but always wanted to – and so for my next overseas-trip I’ll use the miles for that! :-)
The best thing about a credit card that offers miles for everything you buy, is that it’s effortless! I need food anyway, I will buy concert tickets abroad and trains, flights, buses, whatever, every 100 SEK gives 20 flyer miles (100 SEK equals 1 loaf of bread, butter, milk, a piece of cheese and a pack of chewing gum – now you do the math how fast you get to collect miles to get free flights!).
But for now… A “regular” vacation in Split, Croatia. Three weeks of getting pissed off at crappy internet-connections, no car, no cable TV (just regular, standard TV which is like 4 channels I think….) expensive phone, so I can’t call friends anywhere else in the world like I’m used to. And most of all – no rock’n’roll. GAAH! It’s going to drive me NUTS!
The highlight last year was hanging with this dude – the only person I got to talk music with during my stay in Split last year. I hope there’ll be an opportunity to hang out this year as well. Was nice of him to travel all the way down to Split eventhough he lives in the north part of the country, I think maybe about 4 hours travel or something like that.
[A Justin TImberlake-song never sounded this cool, lol!]
I’m just not cut out for “regular vacations”. If it doesn’t include music in one way or another, I’ll most likely not going to enjoy it. Maybe a week, tops.
Was checking tour dates for Ozzy, Steel Panther, Billy Idol, Firewind, Lita Ford, and wrote them all down in my calendar. And all the festivals of course. That’s the only way to keep track of the bands I want to see. Otherwise I have no clue what day it is, yet alone who plays where!
But I’m getting pretty good at this, I get away with the travelling fairly cheap, simply because I’ve learned how. I wrote a few tips last year, but I might write a little book about it someday. :-)
Here are the travel-tips blogs from 2011:
http://lita77777.posterous.com/the-rocknroll-travellers-best-tips-part-1
http://lita77777.posterous.com/the-rocknroll-travellers-best-tips-part-2
http://lita77777.posterous.com/the-rocknroll-travellers-best-tips-part-3
An internet friend e-mailed me the other day asking if I was going to see Ozzy in Dortmund, Germany in June, cause she wants to go and figured we could split hotel costs and go to the show. It’s never difficult to persuade me to something like that. :-)
I wanted to go to that gig anyway because it’s at Westfalenhalle, a venue that I remember from my very early days, beeing a teenage rocker in 19something….. [mumble….].
Ozzy, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Def Leppard…. Those are only a few of the bands that were playing there back then, and it was aired LIVE on TV at the time. It was a big deal when something was aired live back in those days, so I remember it as a big event.
[Def Leppard back in the day when they were really cool:]
As it’s only two days from the Ozzy-gig in my home-town Malmo, I need to know when my friend Bianca who’s visiting me for THAT, is going back home, so I’ll have to wait before I book any trains or flights. I’ll probably take that whole week off and go to Germany and then to Sweden Rock Festival two days after THAT.
Yeah, the madness is about to begin. Soon. Very soon. :-D
I love my life. :)
Van Halen in Tampa – second and final part of the story
After passing out early (US time) on Friday evening, I woke up extremely early. It was maybe 5.40 AM, sunrise, quiet… But to my body, it was noon.
Gave me plenty of time to get dressed, write a blog, upload pics and stuff. Spent the most perfect afternoon in Clearwater (I even like that name, very “indian” – clear water…), which started at Starbucks – my “home” everywhere in the world!
Around 4 PM I headed down to Tampa. This time, I didn’t have any problems, and I was among the first ones to park because the parking house had opened only 5 minutes before. I’m so glad that I paid for that and got my ticket the day before! Made things SO much easier.
When I got out of the car I heard music playing, so I went to check what it was. A band was playing while people were waiting for the doors to open.
I went to find somewhere where I could grab a sandwich or something, cause you never know what time I would get out of there or when I would get my next meal. As I was walking around looking for a deli or something, this man with a funny hat handed me two stickers.
I don’t know whast he wanted really, but I did understand that he was from some kind of religious uhh, place, and wanted a donation. I told him I didn’t have any cash, I was from Sweden and just there for one day. He laughed: “Yeah, right! You have SUCH an accent!”
Wasn’t sure how to respond so I just said:
“Well okay…”.
“Stockholm”.
“And where do you live?”
“In Malmo, south of Sweden, near Copenhagen, Denmark…”.
It dawned on him that I wasn’t kidding.
“So, Eddie Van Halen is from there somewhere, right?”
“I don’t think so”.
“Well, Holland or something, that’s near Sweden isn’t it?”
Ya. Just around the corner…
When he realized I wasn’t going to contribute to his cause, he whipped the stickers out of my hand and went on his way to grab somebody else he could bother. Funny dude. :)
When the doors to Tampa Times Forum finally opened I went to find my seat. Not bad considering it was a regular prized ticket and not one of the zillion “VIP”-tickets (http://lita77777.posterous.com/van-halen-ticket-hell )
Kool & The Gang entered the stage and although I, and many others, had wondered what a band like that was doing on tour with VAN HALEN, they proved to be a great party-band that did their job well. They warmed up the crowd. Like it or not, we all know those old songs – “Celebration“, “Get Down On It” and whatever else was lined up on their musical menu.
Regardless my personal taste in music, I’ll give them credit for being incredible musicians. Great job. Maybe you need to be a sceptic sometimes because when you expect less than nothing, that’s when you get pleasantly surprised.
The arena kept filling up, people just kept coming in like ants, row after row, seat after seat… I don’t know if it was sold out, but if it wasn’t it must have been damn close.
Van Halen took the stage in an unexpected way – they just quietly WALKED RIGHT IN…! No flashy entrance, no light-effects or sound-effects…. Just “hey guys, we are here! Let’s do this!”
And off they went! My god. A thousand thoughts were rushing through my head. Eddie Van Halen – he’s lost weight, worked out, dressed cool but casual in black – and played like the one true classic guitar-master who has inspired an entire generation of guitarplayers.
David Lee Roth…. The embodiment of ENTERTAINER is STILL an entertainer. He’s in great shape, and although he can’t do the impressive jumps and kicks that he used to do in his early days, he’s still very fit, does a few high-kicks here and there and at some point in the show he also did a few splits to show off that he could still do it. I was thinking “Jesus man, you’re gonna break your hip or something!” But he got back up like a rubberman, smiling – always smiling.
David Lee Roth to me is so much more than just a singer. He is inspirational. I read his biography “Crazy From The Heat” years ago, which to this day is still one of my favorite rock’n’roll bios. He’s an adventurer and really lives his life to the fullest. He challenges himself, he gets the most out of his life and I just LOVE his attitude. Read it if you haven’t already:
Van Halen’s stage was simple. Not much laser and lights, no pyrotechnics or any of that stuff.
But it was magnificent – tasteful and very mighty with that simple big screen behind them that didn’t just project the band, but also provided some pretty cool mix/footage between different cameras put together onto one screen. It gave you the feeling of really being close no matter WHERE you were in the arena.
Also, kudos to their sound-guy, whoever he (or she) was. Fantastic sound! If you can make it sound like that, so that even people way in the back can hear everything crystal clear, every little detail, then you really deserve your paycheck. Thumbs up!
It was like being a kid again hearing all the classics – Panama, Hot For Teacher, Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love, Euroption, Running With The Devil…. Oh MAN! If anyone asked me if it was worth going to Florida just for THAT, I would say… HELL YEAH!
You bet your ass it was worth it!
Diamond Dave sounded better than I remember him doing even back in 1999 on his solo tour. Eddie was enjoying himself and Alex was the powerhouse we all know, love and respect – impressing us all with his powerful, engergetic drumming.
Wolfie van Halen – not sure what to say there. He did his job, but he’s not in the same league as the big boys. He still has a lot to learn, maybe not musically but how to work a big stage. He did a good job, but he’s not the one you remember when you leave a Van Halen show.
I can’t really review this, because to me it was more of an emotional thing than a professional. It was really like stepping into a time machine and be taken back on a journey through time and space. All I can say is that there is a reason why Van Halen is one of the biggest, greatest and most popular bands on the planet – it’s because they are truly unique!
The music, the playfulness, humor and virtuosity is beyond most “regular” bands today. I hope they will make it to Europe soon so that everybody gets a chance to see this before the band decides to retire for good.
Here’s a good review from those who could review it “professionally” (that wasn’t my job this time):
http://www.vhnd.com/2012/04/15/tampa-van-halen-concert-reviews/
On the way back to my hotel, I made another doodoo – by driving through Tampa in the middle of the night, up on the highway and whatnot…without lights! I didn’t know, cause here in Sweden most cars have automatic lights. It’s cause you need to have lights on daytime as well, by law.
So, of course I didn’t think much of it. You follow the traffic, it’s not like you need lights unless you’re alone on a dark, deserted road somewhere…. When I stopped at the toll, a man behind me yelled for all he was worth: “YOUR LIGHTS ARE OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Oooops.
I barely slept that night. Maybe an hour. Was packing, uploading videos from the show… It was around 6 AM when I left Clearwater to go to the airport and return the rental car. Beautiful morning. Palmtrees, sunrise, quiet…. amazing.
Had breakfast at TGI Friday’s at Tampa airport, then continued to the passport and security gates.
In the LONG line of people, I saw this man with a Van Halen tour t-shirt that I had seen people wearing yesterday. He saw mine too, and said: “So, what did you think of the show?”
I probably had a smile from ear to ear when I explained how it was totally worth the trip. He was from Michigan and was also on his way back home.
“I had the VIP package… we were allowed to attend the sound check, and there was a free bar and everything….” I asked how much he paid for the VIP-thing and he answered “Not much…about a thousand bucks….”. NOT MUCH?? :-) But he was a big fan, was 51, good job and had liked Van Halen since the early days, and also seen them several times throughout the years. He wanted to treat himself with something special this time – so to him it was worth the money.
The conversation ended when we finally reached the “security scanners” that look like something from Star Trek that’s gonna beam you up. After the usual piling of bags, laptops, liquids, jackets, shoes etcetera, I grabbed all my stuff and headed for the nearest bench so I could tie my shoes back on.
As I was walking towards one of those, I heard someone yelling behind me: “HEY!”
It was the guy. He was holding a guitarpick under my nose, from the sound check the day before. He put it in my hand. “This is for you. Safe travels!” He smiled and left.
My god. It may seem like a small gesture, but it just shows how the love for music ties people together everywhere. It was just such a sweet thing, I was really touched.
Spent many hours at Tampa Airport, but what I love about Tampa airport is that they have FREE Wi-Fi and it’s fast too. I don’t have to deal with the crap Boingo-WiFi that costs a fortune and never works (like I had to do in Detroit).
Everything went just fine this time, except for when I got to Amsterdam’s airport Schiphol (or the more appropriate Shithole….). I was checked in for a trip with KLM in the afternoon, but I had bought and booked another trip with SAS to get home earlier. But they had checked me in wrong in Tampa so… I needed to find a self-service kiosk OR somebody at the airport to help me PRINT my boarding pass.
THAT’s when the nightmare began! I RAN to one of the kiosks with my laptop open – cause I had the boarding pass on there as a pdf…. Didn’t work. I turned to the lady who was there to help passengers. She had ALL the time in the world, worked nice and SLOW while I was feeling the PANIC accelerate.
A free TIP to the lovely service people at Amsteram airport:
When someone has PANIC written all over their face, breathing like they just ran a marathon and has sweat dripping from all over, it’s a sign that THEY ARE IN A FUCKING HURRY!
How about at LEAST asking “Can I help you?” The first one was slow like an 80-year old, her colleague ignored me and decided to help some old indian dude who CUT the line (I was there FIRST, hello, am I invisible???).
She FINALLY gave me this look that said “What’s YOUR problem?” and answered, like I was a total idiot, “That’s not HERE – you need to go to gate T5, around the corner!”
I RAN to “around the corner”. Nothing there. Followed signs. No T5 anywhere. Grabbed 2 stewardesses who were just off their flight, asked them about T5. They started discussing is amongst themselves but didn’t know, I just ran off again, found the T5 eventually.
THEN they told me it wasn’t T5 but T3… Off running again, clock was ticking I had about 10 minutes to find somewhere to print the boarding pass and get to my gate!
They said T3 was through passcontrol and security. And of COURSE the person in front of me had to ask and tell his life story to the passport officer. Why couldn’t I just get behind someone who shows his passport, gets it back and leaves?!
Once through pass control – he hurried cause he saw my panicking face – I saw all these people in line for security… I just shouted “Are you all in a hurry…? My flight is in a few minutes!!”
They kind of smiled and said I could cut the line. Even the security people helped speed it up a bit thank god.
RAN to that fucking T3….. But couldn’t find it. So I stopped at an information booth. I looked like a crazy person I’m sure. The two ladies were trying to hide their giggles as I was cursing and swearing at every idiot I had encountered so far, and the excercise of the day that I hadn’t asked for after 9 hours on a plane…
I found T3 but there was a LONG line of people there. Forget it! NO WAY! What the F……..!?!?
Then I couldn’t find the GATE. C13. Oh yeah. Figures. C11, C12, C14….
WHERE THE FUCK IS C13???????????
I finally found the damn gate, battery on the laptop was about to die, I could barely breathe and I couldn’t stay in control anymore. Was too tired and too stressed out, I just burst into tears. BOOHOOO, I JUST NEED MY FREAKING BOARDING PAAAAASSS….!!!
The man behind the counter gave me my boarding pass. Finally. I could relax but I was so upset that I was sobbing all the way up on the plane. Life sucked.
And from THAT….straight to work when I got to Copenhagen. I just fixed my makeup a bit and took the bus out to the office.
So if you wonder why I haven’t been in the most productive mood this week, that’s why. :-)
But all this crap is part of the memories you have for life – it’s always funnier AFTERWADS, not while it’s happening.
Would I do it all over again? You bet your ass I would………..
Photos from all this – and David Lee Roth showing hiss ass,
is on the Facebook-page:
http://www.facebook.com/intherearviewmirror
In Florida – Van Halen up next!
In Tampa, Florida. It was a long and somewhat awful flight, I kept asking myself the whole way over why I had even decided to do this crazy weekend-trip 5000 miles over the Atlantic.
But it’s not all bad, the greatest thing about these trips are all the people you get to meet. Strangers, but always interesting in its own way. The tango-dancer at the bus stop when I was going to the train station, who was telling me about her tours all over the world, one of those energetic, smiling, positive people that you will remember.
The immigration officer in Detroit. He was shooting the usual questions that makes you feel like a criminal “What are you doing here??” – those kind of questions. I said I came to see a concert. “What concert?” “Van Halen, in Tampa...”. He immediately changed his expression and smiled, then said: “You’re probably going to kick my ass for saying this, but I actually always prefered Sammy Hagar“.
I probably had eyes as big as plates when I replied that Sammy is cool but as a solo artist. He then called another officer – “Hey Mike, get over here! Sammy or David Lee Roth?” The uniformed guy looked at him like he was nuts and replied “David Lee, of course!” I gave him thumbs up, said that THAT guy knows what he’s talking about!
Don’t ask me how, but there I was discussing Van Halen with two immigration officers who were clearly Halen-fans, but prefered different eras of the band. He almost forgot to take my fingerprints and all that but the best part was how I immediately got a different reception!
That same thing happened in Amsterdam too, where I boarded the flight to Detroit. “Good day ma’m, I’m security officer xxxxx and I need to ask you a few questions. What is the purpose of your trip to the United States?”
“I’m going to Tampa to see a concert” “Which concert?” he asked, as if he didn’t quite believe that somebody would go just for the weekend and travel such a long distance. “Van Halen“, I said. “Can you show me the ticket to this concert?” he asked.
I showed him the ticket and he smiled, excused himself and went to his supervisor. I heard him say something about Van Halen and they both sort of laughed, then he came back and asked: “Do you like Kool & The Gang too?” I said NOOO, god no. “Cause it says here that they are playing too“.
Anyway, I got all my papers back and a big smile that wished me a pleasant journey. It’s funny how music can change people’s state of mind. They go from scary professionals to teenagers that are listening to and playing air-guitar to “Eruption“…!
The guy at the Tampa Bay Times Forum box office looked at my credit card and drivers license, and realized I was from Sweden. “So how long will you be here for?” he asked. “Just for the show… I’m going back on Sunday”, I said. Once again, his expression was priceless. “Well, you’ve got a good seat for sure!” and continued: “We’re all trying to figure out what they were thinking when they booked Kool and the Gang to open for Van Halen but… I guess they know what they’re doing…”.
Last but not least, the lady at Sephora, at the mall in Clearwater. “Oooh, you’re from SWEDEN! I’ve got a cousin who’s from Norway in Sweden!” Ah yes – that place. Norway… in Sweden. ;)
She kept following me around the store telling me her life story, laughing at my replies saying I was so funny – I was saved by another annoyed customer who yelled from the other side of the shelf: “EXCUSE ME! DO YOU WORK HERE OR WHAT??”
I quickly walked out of there. My gosh.
Those were the good parts of the story. Let’s not mention sleeping all night in a deserted airport or being stuck with an obese man on the 8 hour flight to Detroit who was farting rotten eggs and needed his own seat and half of mine…. So I was glued against the window all the way to the States…
[Deserted Copenhagen airport around 1.30 AM…]
Not to mention the ordeal with the boarding passes before I left and at every single airport on my way over…! Once again, dear sister and friend Mari, sorry for my awful temper, and thank you for helping out! :)
When I finally got to Tampa, I was hungry, tired, looked like shit, but had to go and pick up my rental car. So far so good, but the GPS that I had just updated a few days before, went bezerk. I was lucky to find the Times Forum to pick up my ticket.
But before that I created a traffic-chaos in downtown Tampa. Apparently people don’t bother with red lights here in Florida. I stopped at a red light to do a left turn. The arrow was pointing nice and red and I was waiting for it to turn green. Cars behind me started honking, passing me with middle fingers up in the air. WTF?!?!
Of course it didn’t help that this Swedish blonde with her fucked up GPS was driving around in rush hour on a Friday. It certainly WAS Friday 13th in every aspect!
Then I took off to find my hotel. Nice and cheap, great reviews, didn’t look like it was too far away… Right. Took me almost an hour to get there. I’m great at finding hotels in the middle of nowhere.
A few years ago I had booked this motel, also cheap and it looked nice on the pics on booking.com but when Jon Oliva’s keyboard-player John Zahner came to pick me up to show me the town, he immediately went: “WHAT are you doing in THIS part of town?”. It was a local version of Harlem, which of couse explained a lot…
I’m not in “Harlem” this time, looks nice and civilised but my hotel-choices when visiting Florida leaves a lot to be desired.
Anyhoo – local time is 7 am and I’ve been up since 6. It’s lunch time back home and I’m still on European time. By the time I get back there I’ll be on US time, which will screw up the rest of the week but that’s ok. I’m used to it. :)
It was cool walking around the mall yesterday but it sucks I can’t buy anything, I’m travelling with a carry-on, so…nothing fits in there.
A few more hours until the show. I’ll be back.. :-)
IN THE REARVIEW MIRROR 