Lee's Concert story

I went to the Epicentre on February 28th to see Death Cab for Cutie and The Dismemberment Plan, arriving early with hopes to get hooked up with a photo pass (KSDT counts as press, right?). Fellow dj Jenny and I found the Death Cab van unloading, talked to Chris, the guitarist, for awhile, ended up being put on the guest list (which the Epicentre people claimed they didn't have, but that's a whole different subject), and got a station id from him. So, we took our cameras into the show to get some shots for this here zine, trying to work our ways up to the front. Unfortunately there was a large group of boys who had already claimed the entire front row section for themselves, with no intention of letting some poor little photographers get in front of them. One of the people in this group happened to be that guy at the concert who had bought a Death Cab shirt the second he walked into the venue, and proceeded to change clothes right in front of everyone, so as to be sure his shirt was cool enough - because if he bought it there it had to be cool enough to wear. As soon as the show began, this entire group started getting a bit more into the music then the average concert-goer, causing them to become very sweaty. Jenny and I overheard one confess to another "I'm not wearing deodorant;" we were trapped behind them and had nowhere to move. The opening band, Aveo, was very good, I enjoyed their set, and the boys hadn't had enough time to get too smelly yet. The Dismemberment Plan put on an awesome show, extremely entertaining indeed. Too bad the sound at the Epicentre is crap, it would have been nice to be able to actually hear the vocals. Oh well, I got the idea. It was during this set that the dancing in front of us began, and we decided we wanted to be in a better picture-taking position for Death Cab, so after the D. Plan we attempted to shift left. Bad idea. On the far left side of the clan lived a madman. This guy did not understand proper concert etiquette in the least, and had some sort of problem with thinking the music was much faster and harder then it really was. Anyone who has heard Death Cab for Cutie knows that this is not the sort of music you jump around to live; and anyone who has been to a packed show knows that it is understood amongst the audience that everyone has their space, and you don't intrude on the space of the people around you. Well, this guy... He looked like he was at a freakin' Korn show or something, he was going insane jumping around, and I just happened to be the person standing directly behind him. I was smothered by his drenched backside several times when he felt the need to suddenly jump backwards; I tried to move around him somehow, but it just was not possible in these sold-out show conditions. Well, Death Cab was pretty good, again the sound system greatly affected the quality of their performance (I saw them at the El Rey a few months earlier, and they sounded soo much better), which was very unfortunate. I spent the whole set just trying to acquire some good shots, without freak boy's head or back in the shot - not an easy task. I managed to get a few, I was happily surprised at some prints I got back. Some great shots of D. Plan too; and Jenny used my digital to get some awesome pics. So, I suppose it was worth a little odor, sweat, and annoyance because it was a pretty awesome show and I got a bunch of photos, and two DCFC station ids, out of it.

Death Cab For Cutie website: www.barsuk.com/web.cgi?dcfc&dcfcnews
The Dismemberment Plan website: www.dismembermentplan.com