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ON THE FRONT LINES with Freak |
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ON THE FRONT LINES WITH FREAK by Freak / Chicago Radio Personality
NICKELBACK, TRAPT & DEFAULT PEORIA, ILLIONIS ~ 2/11/06
I placed a lampshade on Default drummer Danny Craig’s head, drew a face on it, and donned a pair of sunglasses in preparation for a beer raid.
The last thing I really needed was more booze but we were on one hell of a roll. I’d already helped Default empty their dressing room coolers so, still thirsty, we barged into Trapt’s dressing room where I told them I was blind and that my seeing-eye lamp needed lots of alcohol to continue functioning.
Thoroughly confused, they offered no resistance as I fumbled around the room yelling obscenities as though I couldn’t see until I reached their coolers.
By now Trapt guitarist Simon Ormandy had retreated to the bathroom and the rest of the band looked on in amazement as we made off with their beer and their soundman’s burrito. (Sorry Jeff)
When that supply ran out, Tracy and I went scouting for more beer and stumbled into Nickleback’s camp on the other side of the arena where seven Jaeger-filled Dixie cups sat on one of the cases lining the hallway.
They were leftovers from a pre-show ritual performed by Nickelback with their friends and crew every night before taking the stage where they toast to a good performance and a safe evening.
Bassist Mike Kroeger looked down at the abandoned tray of shots before turning to me, “You aren’t gonna let those go to waste are ya?”
Without saying a word, I downed all seven in rapid-fire succession and sealed the deal with a gulp of beer and a hearty belch. “That’s why I love you brother”, he laughed and gave me a bear hug as the rest of the band emerged from the dressing room.
“What the hell ya doin down here”, Chad asked as I was administered more bear hugs from him and guitarist Ryan Peake. “There wasn’t shit goin on up North so I figured we’d take a ride down and steal a few beers from ya”, I replied as I introduced myself to their new drummer Daniel Adair (ex-3 Doors Down).
“Well the dressing room is stocked so help yourself, we have to go work for 75 minutes so we’ll see you after,” yelled Chad. “Thanks” – I yelled back as they headed towards the stage – “by the way, we drove nearly three hours to see you tonight so don’t suck.”
I grabbed a sixer from their supply and hit the head before we made our way out into the arena.
Nickelback’s stage was fairly basic with a cool ramp leading from the center out to a small circle in the middle of the arena floor. A nice gesture on the part of the band for two reasons; one, it brings them closer to the fans in the arena and two, it eats up a few hundred tickets which they could have definitely cashed in on since the show was sold out.
They came out of the gate hard with guitars blazing and a few dozen flashes of pyro.
The band rolled through all their hits in the raw gritty style that makes them, in my humble opinion, the best roadhouse band around. Halfway through the show, Chad asked the crowd how they were sounding. After the roar of approval died down he replied “Good, cause a friend of mine drove a long way to see us tonight so we don’t want to shit the bed.” It made me smile.
After the show we joined the Default guys on Chad’s bus as we waited for them to clean up so we could go out.
The plan was to invade the world famous Big Al’s strip club, which wasn’t sitting well with Tracy. Being the awesome girl she is, she gave me thirty minutes so, while she hung back with some other folks, I jumped in a van with various people from all three bands and shot around the block to the club.
I slammed a beer and did a few shots of Grey Goose with the guys as several totally nude chicks hung out sipping champagne in our private room. It was a very surreal rock star moment that I didn’t necessarily want to end. Twenty-five minutes later I was hopping back in the van to head back to the bus.
It was just after two when we got back on the road. I had to be in Rosemont in eight hours to interview custom bike builder Matt Hotch for some show on the Speed Channel.
Thank God for Tracy!
** At the end of the monster article I submitted last month I mentioned that WRXQ had just called. Well, I’m now on their airwaves and having a blast so the book hasn’t closed just yet.
*** Further ramblings on the internet – www.MySpace.com/SouthlandFreak |
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