At about 9:30, Rev, Dodge and I piled into a cab and headed over the bridge. I made a call to get a 20 on Chris, but he clearly had already begun drinking and I couldn't really make out where he was, except that he was already in the burg somewheres. We pulled up to North Six to a gaggle of metal hipsters hanging on the sidewalk, asking if we had the hookup on extra tix. After being carded and bag-searched, we were fed into the outer lobby just in time to see the 6'6" bouncer "escorting" an unruly metal head out to the street, via some kind of choke-hold I'd never seen before. I called Chris again, and all he was able to get out this time was "Berry and North Six. Drink."
"What's the name of the bar?"
"I unno. Berry and North Six"
So the three of us headed to Berry and N. 6 and met up with Chris, his wife, and a fellow named (Andrew?) who was quiet and mysterious. They were just standing out on the sidewalk, and I think someone must have suggested a bar, because Chris staggered off in a direction and seemed to know where he was going. I think we were looking for Greenpoint Tavern, but never did find it. On the way, Chris ran into the Early Man drummer and the guitarist for the opening band, Priestess, and they all engaged in some kind of shop talk, while Rev, Dodge and I hung back. I told them that if they were gonna do this groupie thing, they'd better get in there and introduce themselves, so we stepped up but let Chris do the introductions. He didn't mention that Rev's goal was mind-bending sex with one of them by the end of the night, which is probably just as well. After not-finding our destination, we just went into some random bar and I got my beer on, while Chris ordered a bourbon straight-up. He'd mentioned on the phone earlier that he'd been keeping sober lately, and planned on just "dipping his toe off the wagon" but not until next weekend. As we waited at the bar, I said "I thought you weren't dipping off the wagon til next week", to which he replied "The minute I heard your voice on the phone, I knew I wouldn't be staying sober tonight." I was flattered that I could have such an effect on someone.
11:00 PM: We make it back to NorthSix in time to catch the end of Priestess's set which they rocked to a sea of headbangers, many of whom were waving the obligitory devil-horn fingers in the air. We'd hoped that Priestess would be an all-girl metal band so that I could get in on the groupie action too, but alas they were all dudes. I lost Dodge and Rev in the crowd, but when Priestess finished up, they found me and began waving their own devil-horns and screaming about how Priestess rules the world! They asked if I could get Chris to let them downstairs so they could start mauling the band members. I disappeared to find him, and when I did he said "This isn't really a Matador show, so I can't really start sneaking them around. Besides, Rev Jen is going to have to do some of this groupie work on her own. I told her earlier that the key to being a groupie was patience, and she'll just have to have some." I felt like I was being given a lecture on self-restraint by Keith Moon. I got another drink and headed back to break the bad news, but the pair were, once again, nowhere to be found.
As it turns out, NorthSix isn't too tough a place to sneak around in. Rev and Dodge had done just fine getting backstage without Chris's help and apparently they were able to meet and socialize with many of the band members all on their own. Chris would be proud, I thought. However, Rev made the cardinal error of telling the dudes she was a journalist ("I never should have done that!" she said this morning) which made them all take a big giant step away. Apparently, musicians don't like their "gee-eff's" knowing about their groupie activity, much less reading about it on urban hipster websites like Nerve. By the time the 2 of them came back up to get me, Early Man had already taken the stage and the heads were banging once again. We strolled right by the "security" guy and went back downstairs to an empty green room to do some more drinking. Dodge, by this point, had fallen in love with Vince, a member of Priestess and was lamenting that he had given them the brush. "Maybe that's his jacket," I said, pointing to the brown leather fur-collared bomber laying on the chair. I felt through the pockets to see if there were any identifying objects, and sure enough, there was a wallet in the inside pocket. It should be mentioned that Priestess are from Canada, and apparently are not too hip on the do's and don'ts of the big bad apple, the first of which is DON'T leave your wallet alone in a room by itself. Lucky for Vince I'm not a thief, but I did pull his driver's licence for Dodge, who swooned when she saw it. "Look! It's got his address!", she gasped, and immediately wrote it down. I also found his cell phone, and tried calling my own number from his phone in order to get Dodge some digits to go with the Montreal residence info, but we couldn't get a signal in the basement.
We remained downstairs until Early Man got offstage and Chris came down with the band for a little late night metal schmoozefest. I was already about 7 or 8 pints in at this point, so here is where the old memory starts to crackle out. I know that we were downstairs for a while (although I don't remember who I talked to, if anyone) and then left, Dodge went home, and Rev and I went with Chis and the band to some other bar where we drank big giant beers out of styrofoam. "Is this Greenpoint Tavern, Rev? Did we finally find it?" I remember asking. "No," she said "We're somewhere else that also has beer in styrofoam." I was confused. I was very drunk. It was very late. I went outside and got in a cab and went home. Rev never did get laid, but hopefully she got something to write about.
The green room
This dude is wringing the sweat out of his shirt.
Hangin' with Early Man
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