Placebo - DC Gig - March 1999
"Could you strip?"
The girl who posed the question laughed nervously with her friends standing in a semicircle around Stefan. A slightly confused, how-do-I-tell-them-I'm-gay look flickered across his face as he smiled politely. I think that's when a few others of us stepped forward to ask for Stefan's autograph.
Wow. And my only question to him was going to be, "Could you throw more pennies at me?" At the end of the show, Stefan looked right at me - or so it seemed - and threw a penny zooming straight for my forehead. I stood confused like a rabbit in the headlights, thinking "Well, that isn't very nice" and wondering if such is the fate of music reviewers.
The people around me started shrieking something about a guitar pick and scrambled for the floor. Minutes later, the girl who had been standing right behind me stood triumphant, pick upraised in hand.
Damn! If only my guitar classes had started sooner, I'd have had a clue.
The only other flying object of the evening was a pair of panties that had ended up on a speaker sometime earlier that night. Brian looked at it and said, "Aaaah - panties." Pause. "I hope they're...*not clean*!"
Uh...whatever, Brian.
However, neither he nor bandmate Steve seemed to have much inclination to find anyone's underwear later that evening, since the two guys remained hidden in the tour bus as Stefan, holding a tiny plastic guitar, stood next to the bus's front door. He was busy signing autographs for a steady stream of fans flowing out of the club's entrance after Stabbing Westward's performance.
I was impressed that Placebo had stuck around. After all, it had seemed their show from the very beginning - so they'd already gotten their share of attention (and, perhaps, their share of potential bus recruits, as well). Earlier in the evening, the line of fans waiting for the club doors to open had stretched from here to eternity - all 1,000 ticketholders were firmly in place by 8:30 pm or so, three and four across and wrapped around a few corners of the club.
To me, it was a clear indication that "the masses" were there mostly for Placebo, who played before Stabbing Westward. Otherwise, the fans would've drifted in later that evening. Good concert-floor placement didn't seem to be a consideration of this crowd, after all; most headed toward the upper floor or the back of the lower main floor once inside. Those of us who wanted a good look at Placebo, but who had ended up near New York in line outside earlier, breathed a sigh of relief as we surged closer to the stage once we were finally let in to the club.
|
DFA Records: Holiday Mix 2005
Placebo - Melbourne 1999
