The Sandlot

So I'm back from the great white north. What a fucking adventure we had. Firstly, i added all the photos to my yahoo page. They're in the Toronto HIM trip album. Enjoy. Now for the blow by blow account.

Left my house at 11. Me, santos, miz and bear. Erik followed us up in his own car cuz he wasnt staying overnight. We hit up the duty free to exchange money and buy booze. Jager, vodka, redbull and beer. The ride up was filled with the usual antics one would guess from said group; man cuddling, throwing shit at eachother(football, blue rubber ball, paper etc), highspeed weaving in and out of traffic and a pit stop at a Tim Hortons. In any event, we made it to the hotel without incident by about 1230 and checked into our room. Erik mean while was lost somewhere downtown but made it to the hotel shortly after. We had 3 rooms total because brett shawn cathy and marc were also going to be joining us overnight.

The hotel was some small joint about 2.3 miles from the concert venue. We investigated all the rooms, stole the extra pillows and glasses from 2 of the rooms and set up shop in the 3rd. We filled the bathtub with ice and water and dumped the booze in. They we drank and watched the bills game for a while. There was the customary rough housing. Jumping off the beds onto eachother. Jumping off the wall onto the bed. Throwing random shit like huge phone books at eachother. It got to be around 2 and santos wanted to head over to HMV (music store) where HIM was having a meet and greet. So we left and started walking. half hour later we make it to the place and theres a huge ass line. Tos having ADD decides he doesnt want to wait in line so we leave and get hot dogs from a street cart. Then we catch a cab back to the hotel to wait for everyone else who are in city.

We grabbed some beers and started playing nutball (you sit with your legs open and toss the blue rubber ball at someones nuts, first guy to die loses). Brett shawn cathy and marc show up and we just start going nuts. We get a warning for being too loud in the process. The beds get flipped upsidedown. People get crushed by mattresses. Its a free for all. Teddy jumped off the toop of the tv. We trap brett and cathy in the big closet and push the TV cabinet in front of it as well as a matress. In his escape attempt, brett puts the doorhandle through the back of the cabinet. Whoops! Then we started playing goal line stand. Its basically 3 vs 1 football but on your knees. That just ended badly. So after that I'm sitting on a bed and Santos chucks a ceramic coffee mug at me. it barely misses but just shatters all over me. Good one. Pnut busts into our room in just a towel looking for his shirt or something, then he drops the towel. Cute. Now its getting to be like 6ish and we start getting a lil ready for the show.

We cab it down to the Kool Haus and hop in line. I somehow forgot my camera but that turned out to be a good thing cuz it woulda got broke. More on that in a sec. In the doors by like 730, opening act comes on a lil after 8 i would say. They sucked. Second band, Finch, they sucked worse. HIM comes on at 11. They rock. Good set, good performance. However my whole concert experience was essentially ruined by the crowd. It was an all ages affair, which i hate cuz little kids dont know how to act at all. When we got in the place was already kinda full so we were toward the back somewhat. I manged to weasel my way up to about 2 rows back of the security rail dead center. It was so uncomfortable though. For the most part you were never really standing upright. Just leaning on the people all around you as the whole crowd swelled like goddamn ocean ways every which way. Ive never been crammed in an area with so many other people so tightly in all my life. Dickheads were crowdsurfing all night. These little girls kept rabbit punching my kidneys as if that would make me move or something. I had to throw a couple dudes out of the way cuz they kept starting shit. After a song and a half of HIM's set i'd had enough and faught my way toward the back where everyone else was. The rest of the show was pretty uneventful. HIM played from 11-1230 and it was a pretty good mix of old and new stuff.

Then we try to leave. All the cabs we hail say they wont take us back to the hotel. We're like WTF? Finally one guy's like yes i will. so tos cathy erik and miz hop in. Me Brett Pnut teddy and shawn attempt to get one for another 5 minutes or so to no avail. Finally we're like fuck it lets just start walking back, well catch one on the way. Well after awhile of no cab Bretts like, lets just run back, its only 2 miles, no biggie. So me him and Pnut start running. Shawn n teddy dont, and they end up snagging a cab and flip us off on the way by. Pretty soon brett is way off in front cuz hes not human and i leave pnut in the dust but im behind brett. So I'm runnning along thinking, this is a terrible idea, running through downtown TO at night alone. Then i get this sharp pain in my foot. I ignore and it eventually catch up to brett. We finally jog the rest of the way and crash in the room. We order a pizza at like 115, 40 min itll be at the room they say. Santos goes "cam whats on your sock?" I'm like huh and i look down. Yea it was a big pool of dried blood. Apparently that pain in my foot was something cutting me then i proceeded to run another mile or so with whatever it was digging in me and i just bled in my shoe. Cute.

Everyone was pretty much dead at this point what with the fighting in the room and the fighting at the show and some of us making the run home so we eat our pizza and just watch TV till people fall asleep. We checked out at 1015 after a shitty free breakfast and made the drive back peacefully and uneventfully. All in all a great little trip and exactly what I needed to break out of the rut I've been in as of late.