MetaChat - Between my 13th birthday and my 17th I saw KISS play live 5 times.

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16 November 2006

Between my 13th birthday and my 17th I saw KISS play live 5 times. The best thing they ever did was

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introduce me to Cheap Trick.

In 1977, at 15 years of age, in Sudbury Ontario I saw KISS with an awesome new band. Some other DJ's and I ran concert bus tours from our hometown shithole to the next nearest towns that got major shows.

I scalped tickets for the first time and got $30 for the face value $11 tickets. I knew I was meant to do sales! After I had sold my 30 extra tickets I entered the arena and spotted a statuesque redhead I recognized from some hardcore pornographic photographs I had traded for with with the guy at the photo lab where I developed my own hardcore pornographic photographs. I chatted her up and arranged for some kinky shit to transpire a few weeks in advance.

The opening act had not been mentioned in the promo material, were not on the posters, and not mentioned on the tickets. A few minutes before the house lights went down a voice told us Cheap Trick would open.

A wicked drummer, fat, with a vaguely Hitler (and though I would not know it for about 15 more years) "Office Space", look, and a kick-ass guitar player swept in from an alternative 50's universe, and a pouty lead singer/guitar player and a Aerosmith reject bass player hit the stage with "Hello There" . They followed up with "I Want You To Want Me" and then "Surrender". The rocking ELO inspired balled "Downed" closed things out.

Everyone was blown away! These kids rocked. We demanded and got an encore of "Ain't That A Shame".

KISS was great but I still remember Cheap Trick as the stars of the night. With no promotion they still made us all scream for more up until KISS took the stage.

I was back on my bus, we had four, one for each of the sponsoring DJ's, and I was seated behind the driver. After the 1 hour wait after the concert close we were ready to roll and a sweet petite blond about 8 years older than myself was next to me. Her boyfriend was several seats back and passed out already. As we began to roll she started to chat me up. She had "loved the show" and was "peaking" and the acid was "so way fine" and she was just so "feeling fine" and she wanted to know why I had been talking to the driver. I told her I was one of the sponsors of the "concert connection" tour and she said "Wow! That is so cool! You are a really cool guy and I want to do something cool for you!" "Something cool" meant a blow job to 5 "completions" in less than 120 miles.

She was a nice girl. I still think of her when I hear Cheap Trick.

post by: arse_hat at: 06:12 | 11 comments

Arse_Hat! I had no idea you were ever in the vicinity of Sudbury! This is, of course, where I currently call home...In 1977 (fights urge to quote Clash lyrics here) I was living in Windsor, so...I didn't see KISS. I did have a cool KISS poster, and Ace was my favourite. Anyway, carry on. Great story by the way!

posted by richat 16 November | 07:02

Gene Simmons came thru town recently to promote his new colognes. While here he had lunch at a restaurant that my pregnant daughter worked at at the time.

Asked the owner for a lap dance after lunch, he did.

I THINK he might have been joking.

posted by bunnyfire 16 November | 08:03

"Surrender" is one of the greatest songs in the history of recorded sound. That is all.

posted by jonmc 16 November | 09:18

I also associate Cheap Trick with burgeoning hormones. In the summer of 1979, I bought Cheap Trick at Budokan. The LP came with a neat book that had pictures of the band and all the lyrics in Japanese. I cut out all the pictures and taped them to my bedroom walls. I spent many a hot summer night in my room listening to that record and thinking about girls.

I grew up in a very small town in southeast Ohio. There just weren't a lot of people, period, much less eligible girls to pursue. But the summer of 1979 was different. Two sisters from Detroit came to visit their grandparents for the summer. My best friend and I started horsing around with them at the local pool. Just innocent flirty fun. Then one day the girls said their grandparents were going to be away for the day and did we want to come over for a visit. Sweeter words had never been spoken.

There was one problem though. The girls were staying just outside of the town on the other side of a major highway, which carried quite a bit of semi-truck traffic. A couple of years before, a kid trying to cross the road on his bike was hit and killed by one of those semi-trucks. It traumatized the town and parents made their kids swear they wouldn't go near that highway. Most of the kids listened. We were scared of the highway too. To visit those girls, we would have to cross that highway.

My friend and I talked a lot about it. We weren't the bravest kids on the block. We mostly stayed out of trouble. But we decided this was our big opportunity. Our one chance. We decided to risk it and cross the highway. I still remember how I felt riding my bike up to the edge of the road. There was the fear of getting wiped out by a semi, the guilt of disobeying my parents’ direct orders, the anticipation of what lie on the other side of that road. With my heart pumping away in my chest, I pedaled my bike across that road as fast as I could. My friend and I both made it safely and we congratulated each other on the other side. We rode up to the girls' house, adrenaline coursing though our veins.

We played a little badminton outside and then took a tour of the house. The tour of the house ended in the basement. With a few knowing glances and stumbled words, my friend went off with one sister behind the basement bar. I went with the other sister to the privacy of the laundry room. I got my first real kiss from a girl in that laundry room, amid the smell of starched shirts and dryer sheets. We lingered forever in there, but the time eventually came when we to head back home. We didn't want our parents to start getting suspicious.

My friend and I didn't think twice about crossing the highway on the way back. We were both flying high, top of the world. We were different. We compared notes, exaggerating a bit I'm sure, and then spilt up to go back to our houses.

When I got home, I headed back to my room, put on my Cheap Trick album, and stared at the pictures on my wall.

posted by Otis 16 November | 11:05

richat, you're in sudbury? LF and I were up there in June for a wedding, shit, we coulda got together if we'd known.

posted by sciurus 16 November | 11:36

Well, lemme say now, that if any bunnies are wandering though northern Ontario, please do let me know!

posted by richat 16 November | 12:22

Meetup at the Giant Nickel!

posted by sciurus 16 November | 12:48

I <3 Cheap Trick as well. Saw them in the early 80s when they played where I was going to college.

When I got home, I headed back to my room, put on my Cheap Trick album, and stared at the pictures on my wall. the *fap...fap...fap* is implied, right?

posted by Doohickie 16 November | 13:38

I was too young for that (and Bun E. Carlos really doesn't do it for me).

posted by Otis 16 November | 13:59

Oh. I thought they had pictures girls in there or something!

(*thinking back to my copy the poster entitled, "Start of the Nude Bicycle Race" from Queen's "Jazz" album...*)

posted by Doohickie 16 November | 20:12

(and I can't imagine Bun E. doing it for anyone)

posted by Doohickie 16 November | 20:13

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