dude.

i just somehow lucked into getting 2 tickets for the black crowes show at madison square garden on new year's eve! woo-hoo! also playing are my morning jacket and north mississippi allstars. i am so psyched! this is an awesome way to round out a year of seeing a lot of great shows; i was super-lucky this year. let's review: i saw the white stripes (twice!!), bob dylan, willie nelson, devo, kings of leon, beck, the shins, brendan benson, lou reed, the pixies, the killers (for like 10 minutes, but still!), interpol (also for like 10 minutes), tom petty, joan jett, john fogerty, def leppard (and they rocked, i don't care if you laugh at me!)...was there more? i can't remember right now.

anyway, the black crowes are a great live band. I've seen them 4x before. i'm not even the most rabid fan of theirs these days, but i have always have a killer time, and they really do have a lot of great songs. i used to loveloveLOVE "the southern harmony & musical companion" and "amorica" the most. although every show i've seen was good, there is one that stands out in my mind...

they played a secret show at the troc in philly in late 1994 under the name 'the o.d. jubilee band" or something like that. we found out about it at kind of the last minute, so we hightailed it down there and waited on line for like 8 hours in the bitter cold. the place only holds a little more than 800 people, and we weren't sure if we would even make it in (there must have been 2,000 people in that line). man, it was the best line i have ever waited in, EVER. all the people were so cool, and we were having a grand old time together. there was a LOT of drinking and smoking going on, it was crazy that it was right out there in the open and it seemed to be fine. there was a guy in a black crow suit dressed like uncle sam, and he threw black crowes rolling papers to the people in line.

at one point i had to pee really bad, so i walked across the street to the wawa. i was standing in yet another line to buy something so i could use the bathroom. while i was standing there, everyone started FREAKING OUT, and frantically trying to kill something with a broom. it turns out that a SCORPION escaped from this bunch of bananas on a stand right next to me. in my altered state, i was like, "!!!!!!!" it was so funny. oh, and they didn't have a bathroom, so i had to hold it for a few more hours until we got inside. ack! but we did indeed make it in and it was so worth it. i should scan the pictures i took, they are really great. i totally met chubby checker at that show, too! he was there, just rockin' out. it was great.

all these people were jumping on the stage, and then jumping off. weird for a black crowes show, but whatever. the guy i was with (see the "boo berry" post) was like, "i'm gonna do it! you have to get a picture of me onstage with the black crowes!!" i said, "sure!!" so he jumped on stage, and my only task was to take this picture, but i dropped the camera and missed it. then the guy never came back. turns out they made an example out of him and threw him out into the alley in the freezing cold. he missed nearly the whole show. when i got outside, he asked me, "well, did you at least get the picture?!?" i was like, "ermmm..." the last picture on the roll was of him giving me the finger.