thegayblades Blog and Journals

Andi, Vicky, Erica and I began our journey to Chicago at around 12:30.  The ride there was pretty chill, nothing too exciting, until we thought we were lost and some creepy guys were looking at and smiling at Andi XD. Eventually we found where we were supposed to be and blocked 2 blocks down from the venue. So, it wasn't a horrible place to be, but it was a pretty bad area. We oober locked the car and Andi and I walked as fast as possible the 2 blocks, Erica and Vicky trying to keep up. People were asking us for stuff and saying stuff and asking us to buy stuff and were were all kinda like, uhnmm hurry up, no thanks.

There weren't too many people in line, but eventually a few more people lined up. We got asked for change, and Vicky gave a guy some, then the owner of Reggies(or maybe just someone who worked there, but he looked familar from something I've seen on youtube while searching for stuff about the venue) came out and told him he had to leave. Later another guy came and asked us to buy bus tickets becuase he needed one beer. Erica told him that she thinks that he had enough beers. Vicky and I went inside because the guy kept coming back and she was going to ask for the guy to come out and tell him to stop. I went to the bathroom while she did that, and zomg, the bathroom was blacklite it was crazy cool, it was the coolest place I've ever peed! XDXD So yeah, then when we got back out I told Erica and Andi how cool the bathroom was(I'm weird, yes) and the whole line kinda looked at me like, uhhh..freek. They just don't know what's cool.

While waiting I at some point mentioned that I wished one of the guys from Envy would come out and start swearing and just leave. Not even 3 minutes later, a guy walked out yelling "Fuckin Cocksucker!" and got in his rent a van and left. I have powers, yes!

After that the guy came and bothered us again and just like stood there staring at us, it was horrible, and when he finally walked away he dropped the bus pass he was trying to sell us in the first place. Relatively soon after that the doors open and we got second row. I would say I love Reggie's if it weren't for the location and the horrible lighting.

The Gay Blades opened with a high pitched scream type thing. Those guys are hilarious. They spoke of how they hated touring in the south, being Jewish(as Vicky loved) and other magical things. I knew most of the songs they played but only knew a lot of the words from a few of them. I really love their music and would love to see them again. At one point, the singer stood on the amp touching the barrier in front of us and the girl in front of us was like "please dont fall on me" and he was like "I'll fall on you if I fucking feel like it!"

The Secret Lives! Of The Freemasons played next. They were really good live, and again, I knew most of their songs but not most of the lyrics. A group of guys pushed there way through the crowd a song or two in and were jumping and seemed kinda buzzed. After the set the guys were like "No, just play one more song we drove all the way here just for you!" And a guy in the band was gonna give him a beer off stage but it was gone. They're songs were a lot more screamo live than on the cd, but they were really good.

Envy played next. Before starting, Ryan introduced the band and explained why Brian wasn't there. Brian not being there made it a notably different performance. A song or two in, Ryan mentioned that they were camping with The Gay Blades and he smelled horrible, the crowd cheered this and he was like "No, dont applaud that, I need to take a shower" Vicky responded with "You can shower at my house!" since it was a small venue, he heard her and told her "No I cant, you're twelve, and I'd get arrested". Ryan was really aggitated with having to play guitar the whole time, he ended up breaking a string and talking about how Brian was a better guitar player than he was like, "That kids a fuckin genious" it was cute, but I dont think many people caught it. While Ryan was getting a different guitar, or changing the string or something, Sal tried to entertain the crowd becuase it was unusually quiet, in that awkward silence kinda way. He announced that since Brian couldn't do the stencil things that they were raffeling off 2 tote bags with the designs on them for $2 a ticket. At one point in the set, Ryan was talking more about Brian and said "Well, I guess you don't know what you got til it's gone" the whole crowd seemed to agree and say yeah, and he replied with "Yah" but really really sarcastically and kinda pissed off. He was kind of an ass about Brian being gone, I understand why but still.

After their set, we left the crowd and bought merch, I bought the orange Envy shirt that says "EOTC SAVES" and a white v neck shirt with a zebra on it saying "We Shudda Hadda Lotta Fun"  on it from The Gay Blades. When I went to look at their stuff the singer was like, "This one looks good for you" about one, I asked what it said and he said I had to read it. It was in an awkward font with weird colors so it was hard to read but it said something along the lines of "I know it's wrong, but I lie a lot" Oh, gee, thanks. Haha. Since Larry wasn't there, Sal was working their merch and he looked like he was doing a trillino things at once. But then he ate like 2 cheeseburgers and things of fries and told us we should get some.

We felt like we were crowding the merch area, so we went back to watch The Sleeping from back. I went up to second row again for a little while to take pictures. The singer was in the crowd almost the whole time, he was very very very sweaty, and you could tell he definetly put his all into the performance. They had great stage presence just becuase of how hard it seemed like they were trying and how much he connected with the fans.

After their set ended we kinda hung out and tried to meet Ryan, but he was chatting with people so we didnt. We did end up meeting Jer and Dan and I got a pic with Jer. When I asked him to sign the polaroid, he did, and then Dan asked if they were from tonight and Jer said no, I told them that they were and he looked confused and tried studying the picture to prove me wrong or something. He passed the picture to Dan,but I asked Dan to sign a different one that actually had him on it and he was like "Oh, fine, whatever I was gonna sign this for Ryan but I guess not" haha. Also, Dan and Sal were both sitting at a table thing taht was facing Erica and Vicky and they just kinda ate at them. Jer was doing the raffle and kept calling off numbers that were like, 2 numbers off from mine and no one was showing up so he would be like; "1785634" and I'd be like "...32?" and this happened like 3 times, and each time he would look at me for a few seconds with a confused kinda face like he was actually considering just giving me it, haha.

After that we left and rushed back to the car. It was actually much less sketchy and scary on the way back to the car, which was weird. On the way home we stopped at the Oasis again and I got ketchup all up and down my shirt cuz I'm a freekin 2 year old and am very messy. The way home was again, pretty boring, it rained for a while, otherwise it was just nice to be sitting cuz for some reason my feet were killing me.

This wasn't the best Envy show, but I don't think it was the worst either, though I did miss Brian. Good stuff still :)
I posted most of the pictures in a new gallery so go check em out. I posted a bunch of black and white ones of Envy but for some reason they didn't all show up and I'm not going to reupload them, but check the rest out. Yes.