once again i won tickets to see a show from a radio station, in this case the dinosaur jr reunion tour.

this one included being able to watch a sound check first, which is a nice bonus and something that usually does not happen.

the pr person from the station and i were wandering around trying to find a way to get in, and some random guy asked us where the loading dock was. i guessed correctly, though did not get a gold star.

so the radio station winners are finally let in by people (about 20 minutes later than the appointed time, not surprisingly). we watch the soundcheck. i've seen soundchecks before. they're interesting more in concept than in actuality most of the time, if that makes any sense.

after soundcheck, we got to meet the band. i had them sign my 3" cd single of their cover of 'just like heaven." which is technically a collectors item because they only made them for about 5 minutes in the late 80's. i was smart enough to buy adapters and keep them, in case you were all wondering. (i also have a few others in my collection, including one with husker du's version of the mary tyler moore theme, but that's not really the point, is it?)

j mascis was the first to sign. he kept my pen. he appeared to be not in the mood for fans, so as a group we kind of left him alone.

lou barlow and murph were more relaxed and such, so we hung about in the dressing room with them for a while, which is not technically as glamorous as it seems. dressing rooms are like their are in your imagination only in larger venues and such as a general rule. no one really recognized murph. which is maybe not so odd as most pics of him that are not from the reunion tour show him not bald, which he is now, and looks quite a bit different for it.

out of the strangely large number of famous, semifamous, and infamous people that i've met, lou and murph were among the nicer ones. they even handled the more excited among our group admirably and handled the autograph and picture requests from us fangeeks with grace. i shared with them my tip for getting the post-club ashtray scent out of clothes until you can wash 'em (febreeze).

as the cluster of winners were leaving the club, some interns from the radio station that i had won the tickets from were coming in. they chatted with the pr person from the station for a while, and went in to set up their table. (not as pointless as it seems here as a random fact, just wait a moment...)

since i had time to kill before the bands were on i headed to pizza luce. i was sitting there flipping through some free papers and waiting for the pizza to be ready when murph walked in, got a slice, and sat down at my table. we were chatting about random things: bob mould, baldness (which i said looked good on him), music, getting older and concerts, etc., during dinner.

a bit later, one of the aforementioned interns (see? told ya.) with the station came in and sat down a table or two away from and asked something along the lines of 'weren't you one of those people just leaving the club?'

murph thought she was talking to him, but nope.

then the fun began.

murph asked the intern if they really liked the band there tonight.

the intern said that they loved them and specifically requested to work the show.

the more the intern talked, the more he was all... so, who do you like in the band? did they interview the band at the station?

i was trying not to crack up. especially since i had one of the free publications open to a page with a prominent, recent picture of the band in their sight line.

after a while, murph left. i stayed a while longer. as i was going to my car to store some stuff, i ran into him again, and we both agreed that the exchange was most amusing.

back in the club i went upstairs to watch the show from the non-mosh pit area with no pillar restricted view (which is pretty much all of downstairs).

i turn around and once again, murph. i asked if he was stalking me or something (one of those jokes that are more amusing in person, i think maybe perhaps)...

apparently when he was wandering around, no one else seemed to recognize him either. one of the servers even asked who he was even when he was backstage.

i wonder when they hit the stage if the intern realized... oops.

obscure drummers, on the next geraldo.