[kaisen]

Recently:

Seether, My Darkest Days, and Red Jumpsuit Apparatus at the Valarium in Knoxville, TN
Stood on the rail center-stage for three great performances
There is a bar attached to the venue so after the show I sat down and had a cold beer (the venue was 90+ degrees inside). Just a few people in the bar, so I talk with the (hot) bartender. A couple stools away the lead singer for RJA, Ronnie Winters, joins the conversation. We sit and talk for awhile and the rest of his band and his tour manager join us. The bar "closes" to the public, but I'm still there in the center of it all. I knew the guys from My Darkest Days, they were friends before this, and they come in and join us. We're all doing shots and everyone is acting like normal people, no drama or ego. The drummer (John)and bassist (Dale) from Seether filter in at some point. Then Seether's frontman Shaun Morgan comes in with two hot strippers and his huge personal security guard and sit in the corner, about 5 seats away from me. He buys us all a round of shots then drinks. By that point there were only three or four of us non-band related guys (plus the two strippers). The bands load-out was done, so the techs/roadies were all there too. We closed the bar at 4am, with trips to the tour buses in between. Can't tell you everything I saw, but I remain friends with most all of them today.

All time:

Motley Crue Theater of Pain Tour, 1985
Opening act was the Japanese band Loudness
My date was a beautiful blonde that is still a friend (she's now a lawyer in Santa Monica)
Got to talk (briefly) to Nikki Sixx
BTW, that was the only time Loudness ever played Minneapolis until they returned this Summer, 26 years later. I went to see them, met them, hung out on their bus for a while. There's a thread about it here somewhere.

Honorable mention:

Seeing Big Head Todd and the Monsters this Summer
Keyboardist/guitarist is in a car with my girlfriend's cute friend when she is arrested
That's all I've got to say about that.....