Uncle Sam wants YOU...to back the hell off

I just got back from the Ludo/Pomeroy show. Wow. That was pretty good and I have some stories to tell about it, but I'll breifly give you a smattering of the weekend's events thus far before I get to it. As I was leaving Springfield (read: evil city of my imprisionment), I remembered that I had gotten one (well actually two) of those "certified mail" tickets. You know those little pink slips of paper, the gist of which is 'You weren't here when I tried to deliver this envelope, so we took it back to the post office, you have to come and get it or we'll send it back'. Despite this vague threat of missing out on a random letter I really wasn't that inclined to go get it. Since it was from my school and certified mail I decided it was either really good or really bad. And they were sending it back the next day so I figured that I could swing by the post office on my way out of town. Good thing I did. Apparently what they were trying to mail me was my Associates Degree. Dodged an embarrassing bullet there.

Anyway, I started my weekend (on Thursday) with a call to Mr. Barry. Known to all others as Barrett Schmidt. After a breif round of cool guy greetings we got down to buissness. I wanted to go see Constantine and so did he. So we settled on the 10:00 showing in Edwardsville because he was already there visiting his girl Emily. So I picked them up and we went off to the theater. There's a hilarious story about the convesation I had with/co-opting into my plan of Emily, but I fear that if I talk about it here I might give it away. Suffice it to say, Constantine was surprisingly good. Although it seemed to be a very different take on the Roman Emperor who brought Christianity to the Empire and later took over a city and renamed it Constantinople (which was later named Istanbul, but was Constantinople, now it's Istanbul; not Constantinople. So, for example, if you have a date in Constantinople, she'll be waiting in Istanbul.)

Ah, but my friends that was yesterday. Two days ago if you consider that it's 2:46 AM as I write this. Today was a horse of a different color. Two colors actually gothic black and preppy pink. You see, those were the colors of the crowd at the Ludo show. Apparently Ludo is the rare band that attracts the hardcore crowd and the kids from Hollister. I find both to be equally annoying. Why not just tatto yourself "I'm trying to differentiate myself from others in the exact manner my friends do". It'd be a hell of a lot less hassle.

In any case, the opener was actually a pretty decent band...if you were listening to them on the radio. Other than that they looked like the biggest goons that had ever chanced being on a stage with people watching. I took one look at the lead vocals, turned to Barrett and said "Fattest. Frontman. Ever." He makes Jack Black look like someone from the 'Feed the Children' commercials. And he didn't help himself any either. When he was talking up the next song he said "I meet a lot of lesbians, that's what this song is about" to which I yelled "Yeah. THAT'S WHAT THEY TELL YOU!" Why must I heckle so? Later on their drummer was being being generally annoying (I have no idea how he annoyed me) it was after their set and he was throwing the drumsticks into the crowd. But instead of just doing it he teased us with it like a person with a bone teases a dog. So while everyone was waving their arms to get his attention I just gave him the finger. And he threw the drumstick right to me. I would have it now if this Harry Potter look-alike jerk hadn't flown out of nowhere and knocked me out of the way.

Next up was Pomeroy. They were decent. Not too much to report here. Except that they sounded NOTHING like what I would have imagined from the one Pomeroy song I know: "Roboflow." They were a lot lighter, and unexpectedly good. Although I have to say, no matter how many times I see it white people seriously rapping cracks me up. Cut to right before Ludo. I've gotten seperated from Barrett and Emily because of my love for the mosh pit. And it put me in a better position. So I was gesturing to B-Funk with my head to come up to where I was. Me and him had a whole conversation with head gestures. I thought this was pretty funny, but the little goth bitch next to me was being...well bitchy. I eventually got Barrett and Emily to fight through the gaggle of goth people (mostly girls) and get next to me.

Well as soon as they up to me that same goth girl starts giving Barrett all kinds of hell. She's making a scene as only a pissed off woman (goth or not) can. I could see the goths with her (two of them big guys) were kind of siding with her. So I did what comes naturally to me; work the situation to my advantage. I exploded back at her "Hey, why don't you lay the fuck off. This guy just got back from Iraq, he's a fucking hero. So don't give him shit about where he stands, he protects your fucking freedom." She INSTANTLY blushed severely, and turned away from us ashamed. All the people nearby turned and looked at us so I went on "He's a great guy, and I don't care who knows it!" I really had the support of the crowd at this point and they gave us plenty of room. You gotta do what you gotta do.

- Scott