A Weekend in the Doghouse
written by: Jacob Robison
DAY TWO: SHOWTIME
1:00 - 1:30 p.m.: Cris woke me up and told me that we were leaving in thirty minutes. I got in the shower for a quick wash and put in my contacts. My wisdom tooth started to hurt me but I couldn’t do anything about it. I grabbed my briefcase full of goodies and climbed into the car behind Cris. We drove to Jackson and stopped in a restaurant that had an all you can eat buffet. After gorging ourselves on some really good food, it was off to the American Legion.
1:30 - 5:00 p.m.: We arrived to find out that Brian and Mike had gotten the p.a. system working perfectly in fifteen minutes. I guess there had been too many people who wanted to get it working the first night, making it more chaotic. One by one all of the members of the bands rolled in and began setting their shit up. Lappdog did their sound check and wrote all of the p.a. settings down, and then Fliptop did a partial sound check (their bassist and vocalist weren’t present to do a full one). Kevin showed me how to work his digital camera. The batteries on it were low, so he went to the store to get batteries. I sent money with him for a pack of smokes (the cigarette machine at the Legion charged three seventy-five for a pack). After he left, I noticed that one of Jereme’s picks was lying on the ground where he had been sitting. I picked it up and put it in my pocket, intent on keeping it for ransom (by the way Jereme, if you ever want to see your pick again you’d better pay up. Gimme two slob jobs and a reach-around and I’ll give it back. Hehe.).
5:30 p.m.: Brian left to go get food and to find Cris an electrical acoustic to play. Fumanda from Mississippi showed up and unloaded their equipment.
7:30 - 10:15 p.m.: Kevin finally showed back up with batteries and my cigarettes. I loaded the fresh batteries into his camera and lit up another cigarette. Brian came back and attempted a sound check for Fumanda. They played too fast for the sound check, so Brian said screw it. The doors opened and people started coming in. By nine o’clock enough people were there to start the show. After the band’s first couple of songs, I went back and set down in a dark corner to sleep. I didn’t like this band in the slightest. I sat through their set and entertained myself as I waited for Fliptop to come on. After their set was over, I went out and talked to Cris for a little bit. He was at the table taking door money. He introduced me to two of his friends, the Boston Strangler and Houstos Paco and suggested that they take me for a ride. I went along, glad to be away from the first band.
10:15 - 10:35 p.m.: We drove around in the Strangler’s red van for about twenty or so minutes. They showed me a few residential neighborhoods and the hospital on our little expedition. Strangler offered me a beer as we drove around and partook of some funk. After what seemed like an eternity, we finally finished what we had set out to do and arrived back at the Legion nice and toasty.
10:35 - 11:00 p.m.: We got back to find Fliptop midway through their set. This band was much better than the first. Their highly energetic show combined with their unique style drove the crowd to move around. Several honeys were scoping me out, so I had to keep reminding myself about my girlfriend sitting back in Clarksville (I was a good boy...damnit). Fliptop got done with their performance at around eleven o’clock, and I went up to each member and gave them some props. I told the singer we’d talk about getting listed after Lappdog’s set was over.
11:00 - 11:15 p.m.: In the time between the bands the crowd seemed to double in size. The cops showed up due to some idiots fighting out in the parking lot (no matter where you go, you can never get away from stupidity), so everyone stayed inside while Lappdog set up. Three times Cris asked the audience if they were ready to tear some shit up. Right before they went on, Cris announced to the audience that there were two important people in the place that night. To my surprise, he announced myself as one of them. My head swelled instantly (hehe...that’s a joke). He then invited me to come up there with them to take a picture of him and the two-hundred some odd people flipping me off.
11:15 p.m. - 12:15 a.m.: Lappdog’s intro began to play and the lights went out. The whole place got real quiet, kinda like the calm before the storm. Three strobe lights came on one right after another at the same time the band began playing. Almost instantly the crowd began moving simultaneously to the beat of the music. A huge mosh pit formed in the middle of the crowd. I took an assload of pictures with Kevin’s camera (I couldn’t figure out how to load my own camera, so I just used his). The whole time Lappdog played the audience never set still. They were in constant motion. I was standing to the left of the stage and about fifty feet from Jereme. Two kids were right in front of me: a really big kid and a much smaller one. In the middle of "Flybye" the bigger cat said ‘let’s go mosh’ to the smaller one, grabbed him with one arm and pushed him into the pit where the kid was literally destroyed. His friend laughed and followed him in. That was funny as hell. Lappdog put on one helluva show.
12:15 - 1:00 a.m.: Lappdog signed autographs for nearly thirty minutes. I got with Mark and Matt from Fliptop to go over the Terms of Use, and got them to sign it. I went outside to chill, and some dude went to grab a hack from his car. I asked if I could get in, and proceeded to show some few skills. We hacked for about twenty minutes until Cris came outside and asked if anybody wanted to go to IHOP (International House of Pancakes for those who may not know). The hack circle disintegrated and everyone piled into their cars. I looked down and saw a Zippo with the Tennessee Titans logo on it, so I bent down to pick it up. I turned around to ask if anybody knew who it belonged to but there wasn’t anybody there. I put it into my pocket and climbed in Cris’ car to head over to IHOP with about thirty-nine other people. (If you’re reading this and you lost your Zippo, don’t worry. It’s okay. I’ll bring it with me the next time I’m in Jackson. Just don’t let me forget it).
1:15 - 2:30 a.m.:
We arrived at IHOP (close to forty of us) and proceeded to take it over. I could see several employees cussing under their breath. There wasn’t any room in smoking, so we all had to sit in the non-smoking section. I was out of cigarettes, so it didn’t matter to me where we sat. Spit balls and paper airplanes flew through the air for a long time before the manager came over and asked us to stop it. They were hitting the other customers. We ordered our food and waited for it to come. The guy setting two people down from me damn near made me throw up though. He ordered a steak as rare as possible, and when it came blood was literally pouring out of it. He ate it all. That’s one guy that I definitely don’t want to be stuck on a deserted island with. Our waitress brought the bill, and Cris (who paid for thirteen people) forked over one hundred and fifty dollars. "I wish I knew a band that’d buy a hundred and fifty dollars worth of food," he said as we walked out. That was one of the coolest things I had seen anybody do in a long time. We said goodbye to everyone, and then made the trip back to Cris’ house.
3:15 - 4:00 a.m.:
We got back to his house and watched the video from the show. Cris talked his girlfriend into going to the store to get something for everyone to drink, and I gave her some money for cigarettes (I smoke way too damn much. Anybody got any good ideas on how to quit?). After we got done with the video, everyone passed out. I rolled over four or five times this time before I passed out and woke up in the morning.
