Man, I Am Totally Hardcore

So I went to see Blink-182, Fallout Boy, and All American Rejects yesterday with Stacey. I'm not a huge fan of Blink but I like FOB and AAR and Stacey wanted someone to go with and she said she'd buy my ticket so I went. Here's an in-depth account of my concert experience!

First, here are the shows I've been to: Dashboard Confessional, City and Colour x2, The Trews, Bedouin Soundclash, and Billy Talent. All except Billy Talent are not exactly hardcore, so no moshing, and I was in nosebleed for Billy Talent. So this is my first hardcore punk rock concert. And there's only one thing you must do: crowd surf. I never have before and I told Stacey I wanted to that night. I'm so excited to tell this story that I'm rushing through the leadup. Side note: everyone had to get frisked. That's never happened to me before. I just had the quick frisk down the legs but I saw one girl get her ass frisked, for whatever reason. Anyway.

All-American Rejects: kind of in the middle of the crowd, okay view. Tyson Ritter is HILARIOUS. Some guy behind us was even like, "I thought this guy was gay, but he's hilarious!" They put on a pretty good show, played all the hits, but my memory is kind of blurred because of the utter AWESOMENESS of the Fallout Boy show.

Fallout Boy: What follows is my best concert story ever, I shit you not. So, I was kind of mulling over crowd surfing, like should I do it or should I not, and Stacey just jumps right in and goes to this guy, "SHE WANTS TO CROWD SURF!" so the nice guy picks me up at the knees and I start crowd surfing (note to guy: you were really nice. Thanks.) Anyway, I didn't crowd surf for that long. Like five seconds maybe, and then I fall on the ground. Whatever, it hurt for a second, a bunch of people reach down hands to help me up, I get up, people are like, "are you okay?" I'm like, "yeah" and then I realize my nose is running. I'm like, "Wtf? Why is my nose running?" and I reached up to wipe it away and I realize it's blood. I have a nosebleed. I initially thought it would stop right away, but it totally didn't. I frantically ask for Kleenex but no one has any, and this nice guy behind me is like, "do you need help getting out?" (Note to guy: you were TOTALLY nice. Thanks! I think I love you now). So he like yells to the surrounding people and they clear a path for me. Tip: If you ever want to escape quickly from a mosh pit with minimal contact with sweaty and gross people, start bleeding. I guarantee you'll get out in under a minute. Anyhoo, Stacey is following quickly behind me and for whatever reason it didn't occur to me to even talk to security until I had to ask one to let me out to go to the washroom. He led me over to the medics, who gave me some gauze for my nose, except the guy SURE TOOK HIS SWEET TIME ABOUT IT. Meanwhile I'm bleeding all over my shirt and hands. I had blood all over my face and hands. I looked like Jason Voorhees after a kill. The lady then took me backstage to the washroom there and I stemmed the flow and she wiped off my face. (note to lady: I know it's your job and you thought I was a moron, but thanks!) Anyway, she asked me for my name and phone number and then I went back out, although I missed the rest of FOB's show, which sucked. By the time Blink-182 came on I was so tired and my feet hurt so much because that day I worked until three, checked out the Fringe until 4:30, and left at a little before five. I sat down for like half an hour total. I came home and showered off other people's bodily fluids and then ate Kraft Dinner because I was hungry. I got to sleep at around one and then I had to work today at 8:30. My feet hurt SO MUCH and they still do. I'm trying to keep off them as much as possible until I work tomorrow at three. I really need better shoes. Tally of injuries: nosebleed, a tender spot on my lower back/side area from falling, and a ginormous splotchy bruise on my leg that I'm still not sure how I got. Coupled with back, shoulder, and feet pain from work, life is just dandy!

Blink: Can't remember much. I concentrated mostly on avoiding touching other people (pretty difficult in the mosh pit) and thinking about my pained feet.

Other stories:

Some guy kept getting all up in my grill and making weird faces and then he was like, patting my lower back in time to the music. I didn't know what to do. Finally he left.

Two guys almost got in a fight beside me. This guy with a huge ass beard was yelling hardcore at this guy with a mohawk. It was scary.

A crowd surfer fell on my head (definitely wrote bed first) and hurt my neck and then he fell right beside me and I stumbled and almost fell.

While walking to the Huskie, two guys with giant traffic cones were like, "Yeah, we have cones, no big deal!" and Stacey was like, "Can I get a picture with the cone on my head?" So we were hanging out and taking pictures and they invited us to a house party but we both had to work early so we said no and they were sad.

I still can't believe I got a nosebleed. I GOT A NOSEBLEED. Shit like that never happens to me. I don't even know how it happened. I was thinking about how it could have happened last night in bed. What I remember is falling and hitting my hip, evidenced by the tender spot in that place right now, and when I got up my nose was bleeding. I'm sure I didn't hit my nose because it didn't hurt at all, and I don't think I hit my head because I don't remember that hurting, but I'm less sure about that. I, and one of the other cooks, thought that maybe it was just body trauma in general, but I Googled nosebleeds and other than doing crack and having tumours and stuff, nosebleeds are commonly caused by foreign bodies in the nose, trauma to the nose, and head trauma. Nothing about falling on your back. So whatever. I'm also confused about the bruise on my leg because unless it happened during crowd surfing and I just don't remember, I'm most definitely positive that this could not have happened. Concerts are strange.

So that's about it. I'm most definitely not crowd surfing again ever, but at least I did it once.