7/03/03: sorry if this is messy and rambley and damn long, i wrote most of it at 2 AM while on a Placebo high...
deemie goes to Philadelphia
a little background info on how i got there: i left Omaha at 8:15 AM (too bloody early!) on the Greyhound bus. we stopped in Des Moines, Chicago, Cleveland, Newark, New York, and a bunch of other little places that i forget. it took about 34 hours to finally get to Philly. i didn't sleep at all the entire way there (i read Interview With A Vampire finally though) The trip was 2 hours longer than expected because there was a huge traffic back up on the new jersy turnpike. we were going at a crawl and i was going mad. i was about ready to give up and cry and say fuck it all, i want my kitty now. but i got through it and all was well.
tee and i went to the eastern state penitentiary on Saturday, it was way awesome.
we did south street on Sunday and i went bonkers at digital ferret record store and bought about 120$ worth of stuff then we saw Bend It Like Beckham (omg, JRM! wowness!). And blah, blah, blah, we did lots more stuff.
deemie goes to washington DC to see Placebo
we to get to the bus station early in the morning. we got to DC around 11 and went to the zoo because it was free and i wanted to see pandas. OMG I SAW REAL LIVE PANDA BEARS! they were cute but all they did was sleep, lol. It was an okay zoo, but Omaha's is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better (that's the one thing omaha has going for it, a great zoo--that and The Faint).
my sister, Theresa (AKA Tee, AKA the 'the only Placebo song I know is EYEM and those you keep playing incessantly' girl) and I (both of us Placebo live virgins) got to The 9:30 Club around 5ish and there were about 15-20 ppl already lined up there. We could hear some of Placebo's sound check (apparently they played Then The Clouds Will Open For Me but we didn't hear any of that, DAMN!). Tee and i entertained ourselves (mostly by me rambling about Placebo and reading The Sentamentalist) while the minutes inched by and the line grew steadily longer. by the time we were let in at 7:45 the line was so very long, if the show wasn't sold out it must have been close!
i was sooooooooooooooooooo hyped (pissed off i forgot a camera though!). i got a spot about 3-4 "rows" from the barrier and on Stef's side. I'd ordered a rum & coke w/ lime, but barely drank any because i was already feeling ill (from lack of food or from nerves, dunno which). i didn't show it on the outside, but inside i was freaking OUT! tee had left me to go to the back and the minutes dragged by w/ no one to talk to. After even more waiting on my feet, Ambulance came out. they were okay, but you know, I WANTED PLACEBO!
after more god awful waiting the lights went down and the first strains of the hidden song on SWG rang out. words cannot describe how it felt when they walked on stage and began Bulletproof Cupid. i was finally seeing them live! after two years of not knowing if i'd ever get to see one of their shows live (then a horribly long month and a half knowing when and where but still fearing for the worst) IT WAS HAPPENING!!! OH MY GOD! Stefan, Steve, and Brian--in the flesh--were just metres away from me! PLACEBO IS SOOOOOOO AWESOME LIVE! even better than i expected!
Clothing report: Brian was wearing a black sleeveless shirt and black trousers and his helmet hair. Stef was wearing a sleeveless red shirt w/ a black X-ey sort of thing going on and black trousers w/ five lil white stripey bits above one knee (dunno if they were intended or not), a black cord around his neck, a white thing on his injured arm and a lil mohawk. Steve had on a white sleeveless shirt and i didn't see his trousers because he was hiding behind his kit the whole time. Xav had on a Placebo tee and Bill was dressed in a dark suit.
Stef is such a god (i'm sorry, i have a thing for tall thin guys!) during Taste In Men Stef didn't have his bass at first and was gyrating right in front of me, omg. He seems to know how god damn sexy he is, i could tell it in his expression and the way he plays and moves and gazes out into the crowd. He was in front of me or close for nearly the whole show, sometimes just a metre away.
I spent most of my time gawking at Stefan, but i also looked at the others. Brian is fucking hot too, but he was a little further away. He plays and sings so sexily. his mouth's really big though! During some songs he'd just sing and not play. During English Summer Rain he tweaked at a little knobby board-looking thingy. He said he had a frog in his throat so Stef did most of the intros and talking and stuff but Brian said a little too. During Protect Me From What I Want Bri grabbed the front of Stef's shirt and pulled him closer, it was sooooooo sweet and then Brian played the harmonica at the end, it was awesome. Bill was behind Stef on a variety of instruments and Xavior was behind Brian on keyboards. Xav's a lil hottie too. Everybody was singing along, it was soooo amazingly fun. Stef and Brian were walking around as they played, jumping around, dancing some. Stef's a tease though, he comes right up to the edge and plays, sometimes he even takes a hand off the bass and looks like he's gonna grab the many hands that are reaching for him... but then doesn't! GRRRRRR! This means i get squished for nothing, lol. he knows he's sexy though! During Taste In Men (or was it Slave To The Wage?) i was staring at Steve and he noticed. He kinda leaned forward and peeped between the drums and made a sad face right at me (i've been told i tend to look sad or mad when i'm concentrating) and so I smiled at him and he smiled back! *bouncy bounce*
It was fucking hot, my feet were killing me, i was tired as all hell, my throat hurt after the first 5 seconds of the hidden SWG song, but i'd do it all again for Placebo.
they played (not necessarily in order!): Bulletproof Cupid, Allergic, Every You Every Me, Plasticine, Protect Me From What I Want, Soulmates, Without You I'm Nothing, Special K, Special Needs, Black-Eyed, This Picture, The Bitter End, English Summer Rain encores: Taste In Men, Slave To The Wage, Pure Morning, and Where Is My Mind?
we hung around inside for a while the crowd around the merch table thinned out a bit. i bought a black shirt w/ Placebo printed in gold letters on the front and the wings on the back. we were gonna hang out but decided we should get a cab back to the bus station while they were still hanging around cuz the club was in a WAAAAY dodgy neighborhood.
deemie goes back to Philly to see Placebo the next evening
we got back to Philly at 8 AM and went home and went to bed. i slept a few hours and we got up at 2 PM to eat lunch (or was it breakfast?) and get all tarted up (in my case anyway!)
we left for the TLA at 5 PM and arrived at 5:30ish. ppl were all ready queuing up so we were about 25-30 ppl back. Tee ran across the street to starbuck's and got us mocha frappuchinos (yum!) when Adrienne (another Placebo virgin) got there she said the show was 6 tickets away from being sold out when she'd purchased hers that afternoon. once we were let in at 7 PM, i found my spot (one person between me and the barrier and in the center). tee and Adrienne stayed around for a while and i raved to them till they decided to move back. i talked to four nice young ladies from PA so the time passed a little faster. I liked ambulance a little better this time (perhaps because i actually listened more?)
but then more waiting! that time when the roadies were setting Placebo's gear up was the worst. knowing the show was so close, but still it seemed like ages before the band came out. again, i was amazed, they're so energetic and amazing and rocking and amazing and fabulous and hot and amazing and fun and amazing. Steve wasn't wearing a shirt this time, woohoo! (my god, he's got some big arm muscles!) Brian and Stef seemed to be wearing the same clothes as the DC show (Bri may have had on different trousers though or maybe it was just the lights?) Brian seemed more animated this time around (which meant Stef talked less) During one song Brian turned his guitar around and stroked the neck of his guitar (like he was jerking it off) for a bit--that was a great, we all went mad! They played I'll be Yours instead of PMFWIW. Brian introduced it as something like 'ppl think it is but this is not a love song, it's about obsession' and played a little shaker thing while he sang. Brian changed the lyrics to slave to the wage to "sick and tired of bush's farm, with non-existent broken arms" and the lyrics of soulmates (AKA the rocking version of sleeping with ghosts) to "fuck the government, fuck their killin', fuck their lies" and we joined him in a mass flipping off. Later someone threw a tampon on stage--which Bri didn't seem to like--and threw it back. They left for a bit and came back to do encores, twice! During Teenage Angst Brian came forward and reach out to the crowd, several times. We all reached back (got squashed!), his fingertips touched mine! *swoon* the gig ended all too soon though, too bad they couldn't play for 5 hours, there's so many songs i'd have loved to seen them play but it was orgasmic so i can't complain. i remembered my disposable camera this time, so hopefully all the pics will turn out a-okay.
they played (not necessarily in order!): Bulletproof Cupid, Allergic, Every You Every Me, Plasticine, I'll Be Yours, Soulmates, Without You I'm Nothing, Special K, Special Needs, Black-Eyed, This Picture, The Bitter End, English Summer Rain. encores: Taste In Men, Slave To The Wage, Pure Morning, Centrefolds (w/ Stef on piano), Teenage Angst, and Where Is My Mind?
the post-show meeting
after the show i bought a tour date tee, the necklace, hat, and keychain from Morgan, the merch guy. we were gonna wait for the band to come out but there were tons of ppl milling about and the three of us were starving so we went to eat at a little 24-hour diner on 2nd street. there were other Placebo fans there, i could here them talking about Placebo, the staff must have thought we all were psycho, lol. after we finished we walked past the club again, the bus was still out front and the roadies were loading gear up and only about 10 fans were still there so we hung around. after the truck left, the boys finally appeared! (word was that they'd been hanging out w/ the bloodhound gang) but then just as quickly they disappeared into the bus, only Steve talked for a bit. we still hung around, hoping they'd come back out (as we were told by The Egg that they usually do). FINALLY at about 1-1:15 AM Stef and Bill came out and we all clapped and kinda circled around them to talk to them. Stef was busy so I talked to Bill a bit and he signed my Nancy boy import CD jacket. i'd never heard Stef talk so much--not that it was that much but he's just so quiet during interviews! then Stef turned to me and i told him it was an awesome show and thanked him for it & DC, and he signed my cd and i asked about his arm, he said it's fine and then i asked for a hug and he did! *melt down* his chin was touching my hair! he's so tall and thin! omg, the man is a GOD! He seems so different from the way he projects himself on stage, in person he seemed shy and unsure and prolly scared of us, lol.
then out came Steve and Brian *cue more clapping* Steve signed my CD jacket and we talked a bit, then Brian did while some other ppl were talking to him. Brian's so little! Someone (a nice girl from Baltimore) thanked him for the extra songs and he said that they'd had some problems in DC (his voice?) so they cut the second encore out. they touched my pen, THEY ALL TOUCHED MY PEN! THEY WERE INCHES (sometimes less, heeheeee) AWAY FROM ME!!!!!!!!!!!! then they walked off toward a bar and we followed (cuz that's the way we needed to go!). Steve was still outside so i got a hug from him too. (btw, he's got such a sexy accent!) :D i was kinda disappointed i didn't see Xavior at all (maybe he ran off w/ a groupie perhaps?)
i was so proud of myself, i didn't gush or slobber or giggle uncontrollably [otherwise they'd have thought that i'm a psycho fan (little do they know, HA!)]. I so want to see them again this tour. Who knows when (or if?) i'll ever get to see them play live again but i really can't afford it.
Now for the horrible come down... :(
