311, Foo Fighters, Pennywise, Lit, Save Ferris & Incubus

Notes on backstage behavior: The 'How-to-be-a-Rock-Star' Chronicle:

I never thought I wanted to be a rock star much when I was little, but lately I wouldn't recommend against becoming one. It's an interesting trade, to say the least, and though I wouldn't call myself well-versed in their entire vibe, I would say that, in the limited experiences I've accumulated in their midst, I might have some wisdom to offer on the subject. Here are some ground rules for the 'rock star in training,' (or really, anyone who finds themselves backstage with the headliners).

1) If you are backstage and you walk into a dressing room and no one is in it, it becomes your dressing room and you must immediately assume the identity of some obscure band that people have heard of but don't know what they look like... someone like Fugazi, for example.

2) If you are hanging out with the band and some girl mistakes you for a person in the band, don't tell her you're not him. Why ruin her fantasy? Just go with it and maybe you'll score. Shit, it'll make her whole day and you get a hummer out of it.

3) After you're done getting groupie action and all the hundred dollar bottles of wine are gone, go ahead and break some stuff. Pick up a chair and toss it into the mirror. It's polite, nay, expected, and people will thank you for it, for living up to the rock lifestyle code.

4) Lastly—and this is the most important thing—act like you belong there.

In tackling this assignment, (covering the Arco Arena KWOD show), I can't say I accomplished mush of the first three rules, but I did quite strictly adhere to the last one. It's very much akin to the when-in-Rome, do-as-the-Roman's advice, and I can't stress how important that is. It is integral to your chances of becoming cool with the famous people and so that is how we covered this thing... Gonzo, baby.

The first band we saw play was Incubus, and after listening to their new record, Make Yourself, almost non-stop for the last week, I was quite pleased to see them pull off the same power live. They rocked. Their set was way too short however, and that was the only thing wrong with it—and the main problem with the entire show, for that matter. I guess if you're being blessed enough to get six big bands for one low ticket price, you must sacrifice some quality by forcing the smaller bands to play shorter sets. I was lucky enough to catch them the next day at The Brick Works though, and they got to play as long as they wanted to, which made up for the former shortcoming.

The highlights after Incubus included Pennywise setting the mosh-pit to full a full frappe frenzy with their always awesome punk flair, and their signature last song "Bro Hymn" ode to late bassist, Jason Thirsk (with yours truly on background vocals). Then Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl, got jiggy with some of his new and old hits, starting with "Learn To Fly" and closing strong with "This Is A Call."

311 finished up the show and rounded out the eclectic mix of bands nicely, headlining over Foo Fighters strangely, yet convincingly well for the assembled alterna-crowd.

Some other random tidbits/music news I picked up backstage are as follows:

Deftones are putting the finishing vocals and lyrics to their new album, White Pony, due sometime before next summer, words shared with me straight from the horse's mouth, Deftones' guitarist, Stephen Carpenter.

And lastly, it seems NOFX turned down an obscene amount of money from Blink 182 to open for them on their upcoming tour because, according to Fletcher of Pennywise, "[Fat Mike] can afford to be 'punk' now, when he's got a couple million dollars already."

Ah, the rock 'n' roll lifestyle.

– M. Cameron Newell

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