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So, Saturday I was woken up around 11:30 by my phone ringing. I rolled over and dug it out of the pile of clothes on my floor and saw that it was my brother. I figured that he just wanted to say Happy Easter or something, so I just dropped the phone and went back to sleep. The night before, I couldn't sleep until about six or seven, and was still tired. The phone rang a few more times, then I heard the buzz that meant I had a new voice message. About fifteen minutes later, I heard my mom approach my door, clearly talking to Pete on the phone. I pretended to be asleep, but she woke me up anyway. She handed me the phone and Pete sounded excited, "Hey! Do you want to come to Carbondale, pick me up and take me to see Jake's band play in St. Louis? Then The Queers are playing here Sunday. It'll be a punk rock weekend! What do ya say?"
Pete's had random, "Hey, let's go a road trip right now," ideas before, and they usually always turn out fun. "Sure," I replied.
He was surprised, "Really? Okay, but you have to leave like, right now."
"See you then." I hung up, showered, dressed, crammed some extra clothes in my bag and left almost before even asking how to get there. From Chicago, Carbondale (at the southern tip of Illinois) is about a six hour drive. I listened to music on my iPod and had a fun time. I've always liked road trips. Around the middle of the state is Effingham, which not only has a hilarious name, but next to the highway has built a giant cross. It's really kind of odd. It's clearly supposed to humble you, but really you just feel... oppressed. I don't know how to describe it, it's not fun to drive past. Though it is worth a good laugh.
When I showed up, Pete showed me around his dorm but no one was there and there wasn't much to see, so we left for St. Louis. I had to drive because Pete didn't have his license due to some unpaid ticket he doesn't remember. Also, he was drunk.
The drive to St. Louis took about two hours, and we arrived at the show around 10pm. We would have been there sooner, but neither of us had ever been to St. Louis before and we got quickly lost. St. Louis was surprisingly nice. I had heard that it was crime-ridden and rundown, but the part of town we were in wasn't bad at all. The houses were all nice, and there was a lot of trees and grassy areas. Pete and I both said that it'd be a place we actually wouldn't mind living in.
The show was in some kid's basement. I'd never been to a basement show, but it was fun. Pete got to see Jake again and he got to meet Al Burian. Pet had been talking about Al all day. Apparently Al is a writer, and a good one at that. He's got two published novels and is on the New York Times bestseller list. :shrug: I never heard of him, and neither has anyone else I overheard Pete talk to about it.
After awhile, Jake's band Candian Rifle went to the basement to play. They were great! Made me want to drive back and start practicing my guitar. Al was crazy. He was jumping on the amps and running through the crowd. At one point he accidentally knocked a hole in the ceiling with his guitar's head. Afterwards, we sat around for awhile and said our goodbyes. Jake wanted Pete to stay around more and crash with them when they eventually found someone's house to sleep in, but Pete didn't want to. He's become a bit of a germaphobe over the years, and some stranger's sticky floor wasn't very appealing to him. It wasn't to me either, so we drove the two hours back to his dorm and experimented with jerky flavors along the way. (Jalepeno good, Chicken Fajita bad)
Jake, Al, and the side of my bro's head
When we got back around 3am, the place was downright crowded. Peter introduced me to Allen, the 33 year old who'd been there for 15 years but didn't have a degree because he constantly changed majors, and Macaula (sp?) the older Ukranian guy who already had a PhD in GIS Geography, but hadn't left yet because he couldn't find a job. He was also wearing three heavy coats, a scarf, and an ugly orange snow hat even though we were all comfortable in T-Shirts. There were also brief cameos by Matt, the guy who used to live in the woods near campus, and Ian (I think that's his name) the guy who got stabbed in the head by the schizophrenic bible thumper that used to live there. That guy's now in jail for life and Ian's just fine. He, Pete, and I carried on a very lengthy discussion about Prison Break. Around 6am, we finally got tired of talking and we all went to sleep.
Pete showed me around the campus the next morning/afternoon, or whenever the hell we woke up. The rec center was like a mall, full of fast food places, book stores, and campus souvenir shops. Then we went back to his room and watched some movies while waiting to head over to Hangar 9, where The Queers were going to be playing.
We showed up around 8pm because we were told that the show started around 9pm, but it didn't start until after 10pm. This angered Pete because that means he could have watched Sopranos and Entourage, but missed it to drink beer and watch Ultimate Fighting for two hours. Anyway, he drank beer and I tried to take it easy on Rum & Cokes while local bands played and everyone waited for The Queers to show up. Finally they did, they rocked, and they left.
In that last one, they pulled up a kid they knew in the crowd, Zack, and had him play lead guitar for some songs. That's awesome that they do s**t like that. Plus, Pete said that Jake told him the night before that he knew a kid named Zack in Carbondale, and thought it was the same one.
Well, around 1am the show wound down and Pete was tired so we went back to sleep. I wasn't very tired though, and was actually kind of depressed so I didn't get to fall asleep until around 6 or 7am, then I woke up around 10am, drove back and began writing this. Pretty much, yeah.
o.0 You're still reading?
CrashMD · Tue Apr 10, 2007 @ 03:42am · 1 Comments |
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