back in the dark ages (aka high school), i used to work in a record store. in such a business, random free music-related items and opportunities often are bestowed upon the store by record labels. much of said swag is dispersed along pecking order lines (mananger, assistant manager, second assistant manager, keyholder, any employee who happens to work full time, then whatever part time employee intimidates the rest of them more, etc.).

being the peon, i never got much of anything, but i usually managed to get a fair amount of the stuff i liked as no one else really liked it (beastie boys, peter murphy, those were the types of things i never had to fight over). though i have never been completely sure how i ended up with tickets to metallica... but this is not about them, as i never met them.

so one day the assistant manager ended up with the wherewithal to go to a meeting that the record company set up for a bunch of people who worked in record stores to meet the band the suicidal tendencies in the back of gluek's (free food and drink, too...), then see the show at first avenue. since they could probably find no one else to go, and i'll go to most any concert if it's free that i think won't completely (that covers a wider range than you would think) and they knew that, i got to go. or i asked to go. or something. anyway, i went.

this is another case when it would've been really handy to know who the band members were, as to make it that much easier for them to sign things. yes, once again i was talking to a band member and i didn't know he was with the band. good thing the person i was with did their homework. i will say it was considerably less disconcerting that said other case, as i had never heard a lot of their stuff before and didn't worship them.

i don't recall much of the show. i still have the tape most if not all of the band members signed, though. my favorite bit o'swag from the evening was a baseball cap. on the front it had the band name, and around the back bit, it just has 'suicidal.' i still have that, too.