L.A. ROADTRIP - SEPTEMBER 1993
Umlaut hits the road with beloved friends Todd and Amy. We stop at Whiz Bugers on South Van Ness and 20th St. to load up on veggie burgers and fries. As we're about to pull out of our parking space, some undercover narcs leap from a car and bust a carload of Mexican dudes. One of the narcs starts hitting a guy on the back of the head to make him spit out something he's trying to swallow. After several blows, something falls out of the guy's mouth. We pull out and I take a bite from my delicious veggie burger. Later, Todd tokes up as the speedometer hits 80mph and Amy holds the wheel. RAWK!
TAD / NEUROSIS / SLEEP - The Auditorium, Hollywood, CA - Sept. 10th
The "Auditorium" is more like The Rec Room: small, low ceiling, carpet, couches, Coke machines. Around the corner, Johnny Depp was filming his new movie... Yeah, we hung with him. Alcohol consumption this evening = 1 delicious Thai beer at dinner. Steve Von Till gave me a hug. I gave him my ice tea. On the way back to the car some pimply-faced teenagers called us fags. Sleep shirts were $9, Neurosis shirts were $10. Tad didn't sell shirts, but his manager carried a briefcase. The next day we went to a thrift store and I found an old Leonard Cohen album for .65 cents, 2 promo photos from Slapshot (!) for .50 cents each, and a cool shirt for a buck or two. Score!
One of the Slapshot promo pics (From the Umlaut Attic)
Bad Religion / Green Day / Seaweed - The Palladium, Hollywood, CA - Sept. 11th
Overblown concert security. Todd's chain wallet qualified as a weapon and my STICK OF GUM was confiscated (It's true!). Teens with Misfits shirts are annoying. Alcohol consumption this evening = 4 shitty beers (SoCal is NOT a quality beer zone). On the way back to the car some pimply-faced teenagers called us fags. I dropped my ear plugs in the foyer, retraced my steps, and found them.
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POSTSCRIPT:
It's hard to believe that was 12 years ago.
The Old Mission Days: Burritos, Beer, & Rawk
It turned out that Johnny Depp was filming the opening scene of Ed Wood that night in Hollywood. Umlaut also caught the Bad Religion / Green Day Tour a couple of weeks later in S.F.. Billie Joe wore a dress onstage and Tim (Operation Ivy / Rancid) Armstrong stood on the side of the stage during their set. Jayne and I bailed after Green Day... The next time I saw Green Day was 11 years later.Two days before the show Umlaut turned 30. Good times for sure, but better times now. I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now.
Oh yeah, and on this date in 1980 John Lennon was assasinated. I was 17 and not a Beatles fan at all (METAL). I had worked the night shift at Carl's Jr. and my parents were watching the late news when I got home. They were showing all of this Beatles footage and I sat down to watch it because it was odd the news would be showing that stuff. Then they reported his death. I went up to my room and probably put on some Black Sabbath.
However, by the time I met Yoko Ono 16 years later I was fully versed in the Beatles. Better late than never, as they say.
