....and you will know us by the trail of dead

we headed to the magic stick in detroit last nite to see trail of dead. they are one of my most favorite bands and maybe my absolute favorite band to see live. they play with 2 drummers which could be disastrous but always ends up being incredible. both of the boys have always LOVED trail of dead and i had thought about possibly bringing talan with us to this show. i know the venue and i also knew that the last time we saw them (several months back) the crowd was pretty small. the show was also an all ages show. i just wasn't sure if we actually needed to buy a ticket for him or if we could just bring him in. the show was going to start pretty late so i didn't really know if we would bring him or not, but thought i'd call to get some info so we could at least have the option. when i called the venue a couple of days before the show i spoke to a lady that was less than helpful. she answered the phone from the bowling alley that was downstairs so i let her know i had a question about a show at the magic stick. "yeah, ok. what is it?" off to a great start. so i tell her, we are going to a show there in a few nites and i know it's an all ages show, however, we have a young kid and we wondered if he could get in with us and if we'd have to buy him a ticket. "well how young is young?" 2. "TWO?! uh, yeah, i don't know about that. i mean, i would think all ages would mean like maybe 16 and over. something like that, not a 2 year old." ok....so are you telling me he can't come? "the venue has a BAR in it." yeah. "people will be DRINKING." yup. "and there aren't any SEATS in this venue. it's like a BAR." uh huh. "i'd just be worried that he would get hurt." ok. "what band are you going to see?" trail of dead. "TRAIL OF THE DEAD?!" (she obviously had never heard of them before and probably thought they were some devil worshiping thrash metal band) "yeah, i don't think so." ok...so you're telling me he can't come? "yeah, i'm going to have to say no." even though she wasn't really even in charge of the whole situation. i honestly thought she was going to track down where i lived and send child protective services to our house to take our children away. how dare we even THINK of bringing our children to a show with a band called and you will know us by the trail of dead?! gasp. so...we didn't bring talan. but i did tape a couple of songs for both of the boys which they were SO excited to see first thing this morning. oh, and the crowd? yeah, there wasn't much of one at all. most of the floor was totally empty and we were able to stand up on a little platform area (that actually had chairs!!!! huh, seating, what do you know?!) the whole time without a single person getting in our way. we aren't a fan of opening bands and usually try to miss them, although we end up catching them most of the time anyway. we have learned that when trail of dead plays we shouldn't try to miss the opening bands because they are almost always great. we have been introduced to a lot of great bands through them, one of which is the sword and is one of talan's favorite bands. at this show they had the secret machines open. we apparently saw them a couple of years ago at lollapalooza (so says dave, i wouldn't remember) but they were so great last nite. dave told me he thought they probably had the best tone he had ever heard before. he ended up getting a chance to talk to one of them and complimented him on that. he seemed really appreciative of the compliment and a few minutes later he came back with a beer for dave. trail of dead came out after the secret machines and once again blew us away. after the last time we saw them i had told dave that i would never again miss a show of theirs in our area. the 2 drummers make me want to cry, they are that good. unfortunately, venue lighting sucks and i can never get good pictures. this show seemed to be darker than normal and the lighting on stage does crazy stuff to cameras. one day i will invent a camera with a "concert" setting and i will make millions. to sum it all up, the secret machines were great. trail of dead was great. if you ever have a chance to see them, do it. if you don't have their albums, buy them. maybe next year when talan turns 3 the magic stick will think it's ok to bring him...