The Snake and The Ring
I was hitting my stride in the fall of '84. I was a senior in high school, a starter on the varsity soccer team, had a pretty nice '76 Pontiac Sunbird and had my hair at the longest length Clovis High would allow. What else could a boy want?
One afternoon on one of the first days of school, a girl I knew somewhat from the year before started paying a lot of attention to me. I wasn't really interested and wasn't the best at reading into these things anyway, so I didn't think much of it. After some of her giddy friends came up to me a few days later and gave me the old "Guess who likes you?" routine, I asked her out. But I still didn't really have any real interest, I just went along with the flow, feeling obligated to do the high school thing and have a girlfriend.
Don't get me wrong here; I liked her just fine. We had some okay times, although we really didn't click. But we did the boyfriend/girlfriend thing; she wore my lettermen jacket and my class ring. We passed notes between classes. I felt like a headbanging Richie Cunningham.
She was a bit strange at times, too. A friend of mine on the soccer team had grown up in the same neighborhood with her and told me a story that gave me a little insight to her past. It seems that she would board the school bus while eating pancakes or french toast (with syrup) with her hands, making a huge mess of her hands and face and she'd pretty much complete the school day like that. I laughed and told him that we all did stupid things as kids and he replied that it was the 8th grade bus she pulled this on. I guess my face dropped a bit because that wasn't so long ago and he piped up with, "But she's cool now, man."
I know what you're thinking. "I thought this blog was about concert memories". Okay, keep scrolling.
My friends and I got the news that Whitesnake was coming to town. That was the good news. Whitesnake's album, Slide It In, was pretty much the anchor to the soundtrack of my senior year. Seeing them live would be a great kickoff that year. But they would be the opening act for Quiet Riot. That was the bad news. Quiet Riot, in my mind, squeezed a lot out of being the band that had previously featured Ozzy's guitarist Randy Rhoades. And, I'm pretty sure their album Metal Health was the precursor to the pop-metal explosion of the late '80s. I always thought that if I could go back in time, like some heavy metal Terminator, and kill Quiet Riot that Poison would have never happened. Quiet Riot's fun loving, MTV ready, radio overkill sound made it acceptable to almost everyone in their teens, including........my girlfriend. Shit!
My buddies and I already had our tickets when she "mentioned" one day that she loved Quiet Riot and wanted to go, too. We groaned a little, but I thought it might be cool to have a girl there at the show. So I bought her a ticket and she talked excitedly about the upcoming show for the next few days.
On the day of the show (September 23, 1984), I picked her up in the ol' Sunbird and we jammed down Clovis Avenue on the way to Selland Arena. I was really jazzed; I was gonna see Whitesnake! We were to meet my friends at the arena and I couldn't wait to buy a shirt and program. I was even thinking I'd buy her a shirt, if she wanted a Whitesnake one--I wasn't giving Quiet Riot any more of my money that I had to.
Completely happy (as I usually am still on the "Day Of Show") and making the turn on Tulare Street, I was tapping my fingers on the steering wheel to the beat of Zeppelin's "Fool In The Rain", all the while babbling about where to meet the guys, where to park, where we should sit (in the good old General Admission days) and so on. Then she did it.
"We need to talk", she said.
My naive dumbass said, "Okay, what?"
She pulls my class ring off of her finger and hands it to me. "I think you better take this back", she said.
We didn't say much after that. It wasn't like some movie where there is a lot of explanation into what went wrong. With me, it would have been; what went, period? I really didn't care that she was breaking up with me. I was really indifferent to the whole experience. But the reason I went silent was that in my head I was screaming, "YOU WAIT UNTIL WE'RE ON THE WAY TO THE SHOW TO DO THIS? THE SHOW THAT YOU KNOW I'VE BEEN LOOKING FORWARD TO FOR WEEKS? THE SHOW THAT YOU HORNED IN ON? YOU COULDN'T WAIT UNTIL TOMMOROW? ARE YOU COMPLETELY OUT OF YOUR MIND, YOU PANCAKE-EATING-WITH-YOUR-HANDS-PSYCHO?
After a while, we were approaching the Selland Arena and she asked if I was alright. I almost laughed out loud. I didn't care. I felt nothing. But I put on the act and gave her the sigh she wanted with the "yeah". We walked inside, found the guys who were saving seats for us and sat down. When she looked away, I caught the guys' eyes and pointed to the ring on my finger and they each gave me the "What the?" look. I shook my head and waved my hand as if to say, "No big, man".
The lights went down and Whitesnake hit the stage. The guys automatically stood and took a few steps down the stairs towards the standing room only floor of the arena. They paused and looked back at me. I thought to myself, "What am I doing up here?" An evil, gutteral chuckle emerged from my throat and I leaned over to the girl and told her that I'd be back up later. I bounded down the stairs and rocked out with my brothers.
A point of note about Whitesnake's set; during what would be the last song of a very strong performance, the power to the sound was cut and the lights came up. Very strange. The band looked around at each other, bewildered, and shrugged. They were not happy. I have to be honest and say that I don't remember the song they were playing, but I'd put odds on "Slow An' Easy" from Slide It In. I say that because after a few moments of confusion, in defiance of the situation, drummer Cozy Powell started drumming and singer David Coverdale kept singing. The crowd sang the words in unison, building momentum gradually until even those that didn't know the words were at least cheering or whistling in support. (Slow An' Easy just pops into my mind for this kind of thing). At the end of the "song", they waved wearing appreciative smiles and left the stage. To this day, I don't know the reason for that to happen. I don't know if 'Snake played too long and were cut off or maybe there was a malfunction somewhere in the arena. But I have heard and believe to an extent that Quiet Riot had the plug pulled because they were being upstaged. I may never know. If you ever run into David Coverdale, ask him if he remembers what happened that night in Fresno. (No, not the breakup thing.)
After Whitesnake's set, I went back up to the seats and sat with the girl. Her and I, along with my friends, decided to go back to the floor and stand for Quiet Riot's show. They came on stage and the crowd loved it. The girl was into it and I just stood there, doing time. My friends left after two or three tunes and I wanted to go with them. It was awful. So I watched the show basically as a driver waiting for my passenger to finish up her activities.
Months later, we ended up going to the prom together. It was really a convenience for both of us. I danced with my friends' dates more than mine. I never really kept in touch with her after that.
I think she's a lesbian anyway.
One afternoon on one of the first days of school, a girl I knew somewhat from the year before started paying a lot of attention to me. I wasn't really interested and wasn't the best at reading into these things anyway, so I didn't think much of it. After some of her giddy friends came up to me a few days later and gave me the old "Guess who likes you?" routine, I asked her out. But I still didn't really have any real interest, I just went along with the flow, feeling obligated to do the high school thing and have a girlfriend.
Don't get me wrong here; I liked her just fine. We had some okay times, although we really didn't click. But we did the boyfriend/girlfriend thing; she wore my lettermen jacket and my class ring. We passed notes between classes. I felt like a headbanging Richie Cunningham.
She was a bit strange at times, too. A friend of mine on the soccer team had grown up in the same neighborhood with her and told me a story that gave me a little insight to her past. It seems that she would board the school bus while eating pancakes or french toast (with syrup) with her hands, making a huge mess of her hands and face and she'd pretty much complete the school day like that. I laughed and told him that we all did stupid things as kids and he replied that it was the 8th grade bus she pulled this on. I guess my face dropped a bit because that wasn't so long ago and he piped up with, "But she's cool now, man."
I know what you're thinking. "I thought this blog was about concert memories". Okay, keep scrolling.
My friends and I got the news that Whitesnake was coming to town. That was the good news. Whitesnake's album, Slide It In, was pretty much the anchor to the soundtrack of my senior year. Seeing them live would be a great kickoff that year. But they would be the opening act for Quiet Riot. That was the bad news. Quiet Riot, in my mind, squeezed a lot out of being the band that had previously featured Ozzy's guitarist Randy Rhoades. And, I'm pretty sure their album Metal Health was the precursor to the pop-metal explosion of the late '80s. I always thought that if I could go back in time, like some heavy metal Terminator, and kill Quiet Riot that Poison would have never happened. Quiet Riot's fun loving, MTV ready, radio overkill sound made it acceptable to almost everyone in their teens, including........my girlfriend. Shit!
My buddies and I already had our tickets when she "mentioned" one day that she loved Quiet Riot and wanted to go, too. We groaned a little, but I thought it might be cool to have a girl there at the show. So I bought her a ticket and she talked excitedly about the upcoming show for the next few days.
On the day of the show (September 23, 1984), I picked her up in the ol' Sunbird and we jammed down Clovis Avenue on the way to Selland Arena. I was really jazzed; I was gonna see Whitesnake! We were to meet my friends at the arena and I couldn't wait to buy a shirt and program. I was even thinking I'd buy her a shirt, if she wanted a Whitesnake one--I wasn't giving Quiet Riot any more of my money that I had to.
Completely happy (as I usually am still on the "Day Of Show") and making the turn on Tulare Street, I was tapping my fingers on the steering wheel to the beat of Zeppelin's "Fool In The Rain", all the while babbling about where to meet the guys, where to park, where we should sit (in the good old General Admission days) and so on. Then she did it.
"We need to talk", she said.
My naive dumbass said, "Okay, what?"
She pulls my class ring off of her finger and hands it to me. "I think you better take this back", she said.
We didn't say much after that. It wasn't like some movie where there is a lot of explanation into what went wrong. With me, it would have been; what went, period? I really didn't care that she was breaking up with me. I was really indifferent to the whole experience. But the reason I went silent was that in my head I was screaming, "YOU WAIT UNTIL WE'RE ON THE WAY TO THE SHOW TO DO THIS? THE SHOW THAT YOU KNOW I'VE BEEN LOOKING FORWARD TO FOR WEEKS? THE SHOW THAT YOU HORNED IN ON? YOU COULDN'T WAIT UNTIL TOMMOROW? ARE YOU COMPLETELY OUT OF YOUR MIND, YOU PANCAKE-EATING-WITH-YOUR-HANDS-PSYCHO?
After a while, we were approaching the Selland Arena and she asked if I was alright. I almost laughed out loud. I didn't care. I felt nothing. But I put on the act and gave her the sigh she wanted with the "yeah". We walked inside, found the guys who were saving seats for us and sat down. When she looked away, I caught the guys' eyes and pointed to the ring on my finger and they each gave me the "What the?" look. I shook my head and waved my hand as if to say, "No big, man".
The lights went down and Whitesnake hit the stage. The guys automatically stood and took a few steps down the stairs towards the standing room only floor of the arena. They paused and looked back at me. I thought to myself, "What am I doing up here?" An evil, gutteral chuckle emerged from my throat and I leaned over to the girl and told her that I'd be back up later. I bounded down the stairs and rocked out with my brothers.
A point of note about Whitesnake's set; during what would be the last song of a very strong performance, the power to the sound was cut and the lights came up. Very strange. The band looked around at each other, bewildered, and shrugged. They were not happy. I have to be honest and say that I don't remember the song they were playing, but I'd put odds on "Slow An' Easy" from Slide It In. I say that because after a few moments of confusion, in defiance of the situation, drummer Cozy Powell started drumming and singer David Coverdale kept singing. The crowd sang the words in unison, building momentum gradually until even those that didn't know the words were at least cheering or whistling in support. (Slow An' Easy just pops into my mind for this kind of thing). At the end of the "song", they waved wearing appreciative smiles and left the stage. To this day, I don't know the reason for that to happen. I don't know if 'Snake played too long and were cut off or maybe there was a malfunction somewhere in the arena. But I have heard and believe to an extent that Quiet Riot had the plug pulled because they were being upstaged. I may never know. If you ever run into David Coverdale, ask him if he remembers what happened that night in Fresno. (No, not the breakup thing.)
After Whitesnake's set, I went back up to the seats and sat with the girl. Her and I, along with my friends, decided to go back to the floor and stand for Quiet Riot's show. They came on stage and the crowd loved it. The girl was into it and I just stood there, doing time. My friends left after two or three tunes and I wanted to go with them. It was awful. So I watched the show basically as a driver waiting for my passenger to finish up her activities.
Months later, we ended up going to the prom together. It was really a convenience for both of us. I danced with my friends' dates more than mine. I never really kept in touch with her after that.
I think she's a lesbian anyway.
posted by Tony at 7:48 PM
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