5/22/99- The DC 101 Chili Cook-Off
Featured at the 20th annual DC 101 Chili Cook-Off were the Flys, Virgos Merlot, Bare Junior, Emmit Swimming, Fuel, and Finger Eleven.
The Flys: The Flys were the opening band. I heard that they really rocked, but since I got to the concert late due to traffic, I missed their set, which stinks because they were one of the main reasons I went to the concert.
Virgos Merlot: Now these guys are awesome!!! If you haven't heard of Virgos Merlot, it's probalby because they're fairly new. The look like ()rgy, but they aren't industrial or techno like those guys. Virgos Merlot is a rock band, like Fuel, the Foo Fighters, or Sponge. They have a song out now called Gain that's pretty good. At the concert, I bought their CD. I also got my picture taken with the band and got them to sign a couple of things (no, I don't mean my boobs. I wasn't wearing the right kind of tank-top for that!) When I get my pictures developed, if they turn out okay I'll scan them and post them here. Bare Junior: Bare Junior reminded me of the Bare Naked Ladies. Their's nothing wrong with the Ladies, but I just wasn't in the mood for that. I was in the mood for heavy, moshy stuff. The guys from Bare Junior were cool though. They all had a ton of energy, and had this long, thick, curly hair that was flying all over the place. The bassist (i think he was the bassist, or he could have been the second guitarist) looked like Carrot Top! But my friend and I weren't into Bare Junior, so we went back to where Virgos Merlot was signing autographs and oggled over them for most of Bare Juniors set. We probably wouldn't have seen any of it, had it not been for the fact that we followed Virgos Merlot as they were going to their tour bus, which was behind the stage. After we lost sight of Virgos Merlot, we were near the stage, but to the right of it, so we sat down, at which point I began blowing bubbles (not with my spit, with bubble solution and a straw) and my friend read my Guitar World magazine (I brought it to get it signed by Fuel, since it had and article about Breet and Carl, guitar players, in it). Bare Jr.'s big song is "You Blew Me Off (It Turned Me On)" and things picked up for that, but it was a pretty tame set (audience participation wise) for the most part.
Emmit Swimming: Seeing Emmit Swimming was the only reason my friend went with me to the concert, so I felt obligated to make sure we got to see them up close. So, even though I had to pee, I dragged her along to the front of crowd so that we could have a good spot for Emmit Swimming (I ended up "holding it" for 5 hours). We were very close. Only one or two people were between us and the barrier (incase you don't know what I'm talking about, at most concerts, there's the audience, then a metal or wooden barrier that's about waist/chest high on most people, about 3 feet of space for the security guards to stand in, and then it's the stage. So technically, we were about 6 feet, if even that, from the stage, and that's where we were for most of the concert). Since Emmit Swimming's from this area, they had a lot of hardcore fans, including one guy who was really hilarious, I think he was gay, not that that matters or anything. The lead singers name is Todd, and we kept shouting "Hi Todd", and it was freaking him out because he didn't think anyone knew him. The there was more crowd surfing during Emmit Swimming than any other band, because, well, they sucked. They have good music, and they're good players, but they aren't rockers. They'd fit in on a Dave Matthews Band/Blues Traveler tour. It was so annoying, because they'd play this really cool opening guitar riff, and then lead into some mellow song. Todd was complaining about the number of moshers and crowd surfers. He said "Okay you guys, this is not a Tool concert. There's nothing wrong with Tool, but save the slamming for a Tool concert. Don't do that here." I dunno, I don't like the Dave Matthews Band or Blues Traveler, so I didn't like Emmit Swimming. One thing that was kind of amusing though is that since Emmit Swimming isn't popular, they don't get the frills that some bands get. Most bands have multiple guitars, so that, let's say one song is down tuned, well a roadie will have a down tuned guitar next to the stage waiting for the guitarist, and in between songs they'll switch guitars. Emmit Swimming didn't have this, so in between songs Todd had to retune his guitar and attache a slide, etc., I thought that was interesting.
Sponge- Sponge kicked from the get-go. The lead singer ran out to the edge of the stage and immediately started shaking people's hands. But someone threw something at him and his forehead was bleeding for the rest of the concert. I think that was an omen. Because the entire Sponge show was violent. It seems that everyone had had 1 too many beers, people were fighting left and right. Just my luck that a happy circle of drunken idiots decided to locate themselves right behind me, so when one of the 30-something extreme moshers got thrown out of the circle, he ran into me. Now it's just a natural thing at a concert, you're going to get smooshed. You will be totally violated. There was some chick who didn't like this fact though, and she was agaisnt the barrier. So every now and then, with no warning at all she'd push herself back from the barrier, ramming hard into anyone behind her. Once when she did this, she knocked me and my friend Jenn onto the ground, right into the middle of the moshing circle. I've never jumped onto my feet so quickly before in my life, and I grabbed Jenn seconds after she hit the ground. Even though I got kicked in the head, hit in the face with a water bottled, and had 2 crowd surfers dropped on me, it was worth it because Sponge was soooo good! (Besides, you can't feel pain if you have Happy Joey Mazzola there watching out for you!) They've been on tour for a year and a half, so I think they'll probably stop soon, but if they come to your town, you have to check them out because they're a great live band.
Fuel: After Sponge, it started raining. Because of the rain, Fuel wasn't playing. That wasn't good, because most of the people at the concert came just for Fuel. Everyone started screaming "Rain of Shine" (since the concert wasn't supposed to be canceled just because it rained) and "We Want Fuel", and basically, annoying the security guards. And because they were so annoyed, they stopped giving us water, which sucked. To pass the time, a lot of girls climbed onto their boyfriend's backs and flashed the audience. After waiting in the rain for an hour, Fuel finally came on. It was so awesome. But unfortunatley, their amps were louder than their micrphones, so I barely hear Brett singing. The rain delay forced Fuel to do only half a set, because there was another band after them and the concert was supposed to end in an hour. They did "Untitled", "Bittersweet", "Shimmer", "Jesus or a Gun", "Sunburn", "Song For You", "Mary Pretends", "Ozone", and an encore of "Jesus or a Gun", which I loved because that's my favorite Fuel song. I was right in front of Jeff (bassist) the whole time and I got some really good pictures of him. Then Carl (my personal favorite) came over and that was cool.
Finger Eleven: Even thought I love Fuel, and I'd do just about anything for those guys, I didn't listen to them when they asked me to stick around for Finger Eleven, and neither did too many other people. I kind of feel sorry for them, because everyone left after Fuel, only about 50 people, if even that stuck around. But I remember they had one song out last summer that i didn't even like that much, and other people said that they were pretty bad. Besides, Jen was dehydrated and I was determined to meet Fuel.
Unlike some of the other bands, Fuel didn't got to this special booth to sign autographs. So after Jen discovered that there were no more food vendors, we walked with me back to the stage. For the Chili Cook Off, DC 101 (big radio station in Washington, D.C.) fences off 4 city blocks in downtown D.C. (near the White House). At one end of the enclosure is the stage, the vendors etc. are at the other end. So when we got back to the stage, I asked a security guard if Fuel was signing autographs, but she said they were going home. At that moment, they took apart some of fence near where I was, so I walked out of the hole. Walking out through this opening allowed me to be able to look at the bands "backstage" although the fence was still around them. I saw Jeff, the bassist, and decided that I wasn't leaving until I made at least one member of the band acknowledge my pressence. I wanted to hop the fence, there were no security guards in site. But Jen was tired, and my already oversized pants were soaking wet from the rain, so climbing the fence was impossible. Suddenly, I thought I noticed people coming in through and entrance on the other side. Walking around to approach it, I found Carl! He was talking to some Aussie girls. Carl is the lead guitarist and he writes the songs. I kind of annoyed Carl because I had this picture of him from "Guitar World" and I kept saying how he looked like his picture. Then I kept bugging him about going backstage and taking pictures of him. Giving up on Carl (or him giving up on me more or less. He started ignoring me and walked away), I continued my walk around the fences when I found Brett.
Brett is the lead singer, and he so nice. He was signing posters and posing for picture people were taking of him through the fence. I got him to sign my picture from "Guitar World" (Carl signed it too) since he was in it next to Carl. I said "Can you sign this? I already got Carl to." And after he signed it I said "Wow, you can actually read yours! Carl sigend in black so you can barely see it." Brett said "Yeah that guy with the bald head, he's not that bright." "But he writes all of the songs," I said, and stuck my tongue out at him. He laughed, then we gave each other a homey hand-shake (the kind where you grab the other person's hand) through the fence. Then some guy who was with him took a picture of me and Brett through the fence. I asked Brett if he could get Jeff and Kevin to come to the fence too, and he did. Jeff was kind of cool, and he's a great bassist. Kevin was a bit pissy, like it had been a long day and he had signed too many already. But he managed to feign a smile. I regret not shaking Jeff's hand though, because I like Jeff.
I think I did pretty good. I got to see and meet my 3rd favorite band, I took about 20 pictures of them, most of which csm eout decently, look for them here soon, and I my ticket stub and CD booklet signed by Jeff and Kevin and my "Guitar World" picture signed by Brett and Carl. Then only downside is that, even though my bag that I had kept everything in during the concert was under the stage, it still got soaked, trashing my magazine and CD book. The CD book is a little crumply, but the magazine is dead. I have no clue what to do with it now. To leave it as is or to take out the pic and frame it. Oh well, that was a great concert!
I saved the pics take forever to load because I saved them big, so I don't have them on this particular page. Just click on the description and wait a million years for it to load.
A decent pic of the lead singer for Sponge
A picture of Brett (lead singer) from Fuel (with me and my friend Jen standing next to him)
If you just want to see Brett in his cool little Homey get-up, click here
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