Daniel, Andrew and I decided to drive up to DC for a ThouShaltNot concert on Saturday, since I didn’t feel like mentioning if before now, apparently…. Anyway, I got really depressed on Friday for reasons I don’t really want to go into but let’s just summarize that Erin pulled his impressive man-child act and reminded me why I broke up with him the last five times. So I decided I had to have a pink plastic mini-skirt.So I bothered the boys into going to Hottopic in Roanoke where we found nothing but did get lost coming home, big surprise. And we made a new bad joke at a McDonalds called “mcslash” but it’s difficult to explain and another that’s “McDairyQueenBlizzard”. Coming home the three of us saw a sign that seemed to say that the local Hottopic was going to be open that night from 11pm-1:30am which made no sense but we decided to go anyway. Well, Andrew and I went and Daniel didn’t, he just told us to go home and go to sleep. Turned out Harry Potter was going on sale so Andrew and I chatted with David and Tucker before going home. By now it was past midnight and I couldn’t sleep so I called Shen. Then Andrew and I left at about 9:30 to go to the thrift store where we bought a bunch of cool stuff then went to the mall where we bought things that could have been cooler. I also got a stuffed Whale named Sean t. Whale. David also told us that the Hottopic employees don’t like it when you call Hottopic “goth in a box”. We picked up Daniel and got on our way, finally. But first I bought a new lipstick which is glaringly pink. Nothing all that interesting happened on the way so I’m just going to summarize:
- We actually listened to ThouShaltNot for most of the trip, as opposed to the Freezepop trip where we listened to tons of Rob Zombie and about an hour of Freezepop.
- We got mildly lost in some unnamed backwater town that advertised that it had gas but only seemed to have signs for peaches. We never did even find the peaches.
- We tracked the life of a highway and what it was doing with its life by the mile markers. Well Daniel did and the boys made rude jokes about how I could finally date the highway around mile marker 27-28. It was kina funny but mostly dumb.

We finally got to Oxon Hill, Maryland, where our hotel was, and started getting lost. First we couldn’t figure out what road we were supposed to take nor which way to turn and wound up in three lanes waiting for a light to change. Someone honked at us, like we weren’t aware of our predicament. We also saw “Eastern Restraunt” no country just eastern, but it did have a handwritten sign that said “crab” which solidified that we would, in fact, not ever be eating there. Finally we reached the hotel. That was scary… The woman behind the counter was… Let’s just say her nails were about 6 inches long and bright red. The boys nicknamed her “Lady Deathstrike”. I’M NOT MAKING THIS UP. But she was nice and upgraded our room to one with two beds while confusing all of us by saying things like “Now I can’t charge you for a two bed room since you paid for your room through an outside party” which made it sound like she wouldn’t upgrade our room but she still did. It was weird. And she couldn’t pick up papers because of her nails. Our room turned out to not suck. I called Jo, who was supposed to go with us, but she couldn’t make it, I was sad. The next hour or so was trying to figure out when the show was (Yay Shen!) and trying to book our taxi in advance which is apparently unheard of in DC. Finally Daniel and I left Andrew to go buy marzipan (I’m not explaining this joke but if you have access to Tonsillectomy! you should get it) but some creepy guy was trying to talk to me, stoned enough to think I was someone he knew named Storm. I got so flustered I left my wallet in the parking lot and we had to go back and get it. The Kmart (Where we also bought Freezepop panties, if you remember) was really scary and had a very hostile vibe so we went to Safeway which I’ve only ever seen on the west coast. Turns out marzipan comes in a sausage tube and you can easily kill someone with it. Then we watched Seven, which kina sucks, and I read the new Harry Potter book, which really sucks. Since the show was in a goth club and ThouShaltNot is kina gothy we decided to dress for the occasion! Except Andrew. Daniel even let me do his makeup which was fun, I put him in some really hideous shades, I wish I’d taken pictures of THAT. But in the end he looked…good? (1 2) I looked…something resembling good. Like a soth girl who missed a couple days of goth school, particularly the classes that say that Goths shouldn’t where a bright pink pleated skirt and pink fishnets (1 2). Andrew wore an orange shirt and silver pants, he didn’t look gothy, more like Kasson Crooker if he couldn’t quite dress himself (1, 2). Luckily we remembered the digicam, even if we left the Marzipan in the hotel room. Our cabby sucked. I’d had such luck with cabbys up until this point, he was just off and kina lost. The club was at a place called “The Edge” which is in conjunction with Wet which I think is a gay bar. The club was slightly better than Garfield Artworks (Freezepop concert) getting points for actually being a club instead of an art gallery but was in a worse part of town and it was pouring down rain. Plus, everyone there was, well, gothy. Freezepop only attracted a few emos. We slipped in, bought a $5 RedBull, stole a table, and got very happy we’d dressed up as to not attract too much attention. We’d seen some fuzzy pictures on earlier shows so Jeremy’s pink hair wasn’t that shocking (and looks fantastic on him), but I had negative-clue that Aaron’s hair was so long, and I was scared that Alexx would have silly “The Crow” makeup since he’s been known to do that, apparently. I probably would have had to laugh at him if he had, which would have been embarrassing. How extremely hot Alexx is was reaffirmed, which made me feel MUCH better, I worry about my memory sometimes… We were very impatiently waiting for them to take the stage so we tried to dance some but the music actually really sucked so we sat right next to the window into the band-lounge and joked around like morons and looking for “lovely” girls. Don’t ask. Then the concert started. I love Come a Time but Daniel had read that they might not be doing it anymore so I was bummed, but they played it first. And my heart just sank. I wasn’t enjoying myself. I was actually bored and embarrassed. I couldn’t hear the lyrics I love so much, Alexx’s antics weren’t amusing, Jeremy and Aaron were kina boring me. But luckily by the second or third song I was having the time of my life and now I’m just left with this sick taste in my mouth that I could possibly not like them. The crowd really sucked. Like really, I kina wanted to hit people. At the start there was something like 30-45 people milling around the stage and that quickly dwindled down to 15-20 and no one seemed into it. Except us. And Alexx had a midi-controller in a coffin and I could identify the arpeggiation, it was big moment. For me. I took tons of pictures but I had to use the flash (I have a few pictures without the flash which are cool but look a tad like the cross between the cover of a Lovecraft book and Hell) and I was worried that it was irritating the band. Aaron and Jeremy didn’t give me many photo ops which irritated me. You’ll notice the definite lean towards pictures of Alexx when I get them posted. They played some fantastic songs, some I knew and some I didn’t, and I was thrilled to hear the Projectionist again and with the band this time. I didn’t obsess over the Projectionist like I did Avoidant but I still missed it. I also loved Catch(Cat?) 10. During Without Faith Daniel and I clapped and sang during the part that’s supposed to be the chorus singing but no one else did so we almost stopped but Alexx noticed and started encouraging us so we did it louder and looked like even bigger morons but Alexx wanted us to so its ok. No one ever joined in, if you were wondering. Then the club told them they had two more songs to do, which pissed us off, understandably. Just to be dicks at the end Daniel and I yelled “Headhunter!” even though I seem to be the only person who actually likes that song. The band returned (Daniel was afraid they’d actually play Headhunter) but they played Better Roads which is a beautiful song NORMALLY and is just exquisite live. Since they played Better Roads Daniel and I decided it wouldn’t be THAT much of a stretch for them to play Marzipan, so we requested it. Alexx called us weirdos and played If I Only Were a Goth which I’d yet to hear and love-love-love.

Let’s back up for a second and remind the world about what happened in Pittsburgh. The boys and I drove up to Pittsburgh to see Freezepop along with two other bands called Girl Talk and ThouShaltNot. We’d listened to some ThouShaltNot and didn’t really like them and couldn’t find anything about Girl Talk. Before the concert I was bored so I started randomly chatting with this guy I thought was cute who turned out to be the opening act. The lead sing of ThouShaltNot but the band hadn’t actually showed up so there’s this guy on the stage staring at a bunch of synthpoppers with his acoustic guitar playing some ballady songs. I was so sorry for him. He played a handful of songs including the Projectionist, which Daniel fell in love with, and Avoidant, which I became obsessed with. After his set and while waiting for Girl Talk I went and bought his solo CD, Better Roads, almost made fun of CruxShadows, and bought the White Beyond because Alexx told me to. I also got his autograph on Better Roads (it almost didn’t occur me to, you aren’t supposed to easily meet people worth getting the autograph for) then we met Freezepop which kina killed most of the scene. I talked a tad more with Alexx at the concert, enough that he seemed to know my name. On the way home we listened to a bunch of ThouShaltNot and found ourselves really liking it. When I got home I got more and more obsessed with Avoidant until I finally e-mailed Alexx looking for the song and he sent me Tonsillectomy! and the Holiness of Now. I also advertised my friends’ and I’s band on the lj-cmmunity and no one seemed to notice. Oh yeah, I also called Alexx gay in my lj and he responded which was very embarrassing. Up to date? Good. (If not read this)

Well even after meeting Alexx before and driving him crazy with e-mails about nothing I was still petrified to go talk to him. And while standing around some guy tried to talk to me and I think hit on me, pretty much a first, but I was so flustered I blew him off and reintroduced myself to Alexx. Who remembered me. I just stood there with my mouth open. He remembered me, my name, my friends, my band, and, as I found out later, approximately where I lived. I was floored, completely floored, I can’t think of any reason at all why he would remember me. So that was cool. Like REALLY REALLY cool but I’m gonna be cool about it. I also introduced myself to Jeremy (who seemed mildly interested in talking to me but got distracted) and Aaron (who seemed mildly frightened of me). We told Alexx about buying marzipan but forgetting it and I said I wasn’t completely positive what it was (Alexx told me it was “almond paste” very sternly but I already knew that) and I didn’t know exactly what to do with it (Alexx told me to “cook with it” which I have to idea how to do). I asked Alexx if I could post the pictures I’d taken on the lj-community and he asked to see them and then if I could send him to him first. Then we talked about his kittens where Alexx was joking with us until a girl said “Aren’t they cats by now?” and he got very serious, turned to her, said “They’ll always be kittens” and then went back to joking around with me which lends weight to a joke that I refuse to explain without proper bribary. Then we tried to call a cab but all the numbers were busy so we walked past the Kevlar clad police officers to just catch a cab. Then we went to sleep. Oh sweet sleep. But not before Andrew took big bits out of the marzipan and declared it not that great. (1 2)

The ride home was pretty damn boring. We got lost and would up bout 25 miles off course and had to turn around, but I finally convinced the boys to let me buy coolant and top the car off with it. Andrew had lost a contact the night before so he couldn’t drive so half the trip was blasting ThouShaltNot and trying to keep Daniel awake. We tried to find food but nothing looked appetizing so we finally stopped at a place called “Rowes Kitchen” or something like that which was a very nice restraunt, complete with the hostess that takes your name and asks you to sit and all that. Unluckily it sucked. MONDO sucked. Our waitress ignored us for most of the meal, we paid expensive prices for very small amounts of drinks, I ordered rolls for the meal and she brought me them cold and closed in a plastic bags (we just ripped at them rudely, by this time we were all getting pissed off). Then I ordered “hot turkey sandwich, light on the gravy” and when I got it the sandwich had the mashed potatoes squished between the two pieces of sandwich and the whole thing was so slathered in gravy you had to eat with a fork and guess what the gravy was? Light gravy. What a moron. Daniel’s food was good, he also had a grilled cheese sandwich, but Andrew’s and I’s were awful. Andrew ate all of his but mine was exactly like what you eat after Thanksgiving when all you have is turkey and bread and seeing as I hate those sandwiches as well as Thanksgiving I could barely make it through half. Daniel had “Amish potatoe salad” which is apparently made amish because they shred the potatoes instead of cubing it, which makes no sense. I had macaroni and cheese which Daniel described as tasting like the mac&cheese from the high school cafeteria, which, to me, isn’t a compliment. Daniel then ordered a slice of chocolate cream pie (Andrew and I skipped dessert…) and the face he made looked like he wanted to puke all over the table. I went to fill the car with coolant (now that it had cooled down some) and the boys paid the check where the woman behind the counter was very rude to them but our waitress suddenly took an interest in them and tried to box up Daniel’s pie and made sure we left with the half-dozen rolls we had left. We left that place no tip. Luckily on the way out it started pouring down rain. The rest is boring and involves us still being in a bad mood from our failed meal after which I was still starving.

And now for some fun quotes!
“I looked like a sad little clown girl” – Daniel talking about his goth get up.
“Oh, it’s that guy that was opening, he’s kina good” – Daniel describing what he first thought about Alexx.
“If I’d dressed like you wanted me too I’d look like HIM” – paraphrasing what Andrew said to me at the Freezepop concert when Alexx took the stage
“It almost bothers you it’s so cool” – Daniel talking about something ThouShaltNoty
“Dismal Hollow” – A town/exit that we passed there and back
“Dance!” – Alexx commanding the crowd right before Trial by Fire (the last song)
“‘Oh, great, pictures of my ass’” – Alexx talking about some pictures
“I need to wash my hands because I’m covered in coolant and you know how you always want to lick your fingers when you get something on them? Yeah, and coolant is supposed to be sweet” – I said this. Don’t hate me because I’m perfect

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