OMGOMGOMG I have anxiety pee twinges just remembering this! We got to the Mercury Music Lounge around 5:00 and sat in the parking lot for a bit, listening to SOUND CHECK I WAS FUCKING DYING. Then around 5:30, we went inside because the lounge itself opens at 4PM,  and chilled at the bar with some diet Cokes and n/a beers. I was FREAKING OUT. The last few shows we went to were low stakes for me so I felt completely calm but this one…this was different. This was a band I’ve been dying to see live for the last 10 years. A band that I fall back on every autumn.

Additionally, the collector in me was panicking because there was going to be some limited edition merch for this tour and some of it was in such limited quantities that I felt almost no hope. I guess they must have only been bringing out a certain amount for each date otherwise this stuff would have sold out immediately in the beginning of the tour. The thing I REALLY wanted was a limited edition tour poster, DESIGNED BY ROB SHERIDAN!!!! and signed by the band. 1000 made.

If you didn’t know, I am a little dirty whore for tour posters. I have a bunch framed and hanging around the house and there is not a day when I don’t pause on the steps to admire one or two of them. Concerts are everything to me and some of them truly warrant the collectible art poster!

There were also two versions of new pressings of the Fever Daydream vinyl. One was 1000 copies, and the other super sought-after one was only TWO FIFTY COPIES. I pretty much had no hope whatsoever for that one, but the other vinyl would have been nice to have.

So, because of this, and the fact that I wanted to get there before all of the BRO DUDES took all the good spots inside the venue, I was a nervous wreck. But I will say—the bartender was super chill, there was some amazing music playing, and the vibes were just GOOD in this place. I also liked that the front bar and connecting pizza joint were open early so you could chill inside rather than lining up along the sidewalk like most shows. There weren’t too many people who arrived as early as us – one older goth-y woman at the end of the bar was the only other person who got there before us. She was the one playing all the good shit on the jukebox thingie, too. (I found out later that her name is Natasha. That’s what happens when you’re a NEBBY YINZER. At one point she had to go outside to take a call and asked the bartender to keep her drink behind the bar which made me so sad that women have to do this and then I started ranting about it to Henry who LUCKILY FOR HIMSELF did not insert any IN DEFENSE OF MEN / NOT ALL MEN / CAN HAPPEN TO MEN TOO bullshit reasoning.)

Doors were set to open at 7PM – there was a second set of doors leading into the actual venue from the bar area but no one had actually started to form a line yet. I did NOT want to be the first person, and had a feeling this one solo woman would end up doing it. It ended up being her and a concert photographer that eventually broke the seal, so the rest of us joined.

What a strange entry process into a concert though. The ticket scanner person came out and set up shop in front of the doors and had us all show her our IDs while she scanned our tickets. There were just 6 people in front of us, but more and more people were starting to come into the place so she asked us to move over so that she could continue scanning tickets. Me, Henry, and two older women in front of us did as she said, but then realized that the other four people who were in front of us had simply moved over to the side instead of back, so they were still directly in front of the doors, leaving a large gap between us that ANYONE COULD STEP INTO. I immediately started to picture scenarios where we got pushed back farther and farther, and then one of the women was like, “Whoa whoa whoa, why do they get to stay up there? That’s not cool!” so the four us mutually decided to move back up because FUCK THAT. We had been there way longer than any of the people who were now getting scanned in and I’M SORRY but I wasn’t losing my spot in the merch line!

Moving up put us into this little corner by lottery machines which you would think wouldn’t matter but TWO OLD MEN came over and had two women behind us move so that they could play their numbers. The first guy took forever because he was making one of the women give him numbers, and then TOOK A CALL while this was going on and I kept distracting myself by eavesdropping on the 4 people in front of us (they all came separately but started chatting about concerts etc) so that took me out of it for awhile but I swear every time I tuned back into my own surroundings, that man was STILL behind me at the machine. He better have fucking won SOMETHING that night.

Meanwhile, the ticket girl noticed our presence and did not look pleased so when one of the security guys walked by, she stopped him and said, “Hey, ask <forgot his name already> if this is OK that they’re standing here like this.”

He either didn’t ask whatshisname, or whatshisname didn’t care because no one told us to move. I get what she was doing – she just wanted to keep the line moving so that she could everyone scanned and wristbanded before the doors actually opened but I was NOT fucking around with my spot in line, Fran.

Also? I can’t remember the last time I was at a venue that didn’t check bags. This was my kind of venue – gritty and old school LET’S GOOOO.

So, that lady Natasha was telling some wild stories and kind of reminded me of my old friend Cinn where they were either full of shit or JUST SO CRAZY that they had to be true. I mean, I genuinely thought she was pretty cool and after hearing her tell the others about how she doesn’t fuck around when people try to push her out of the way at concerts, I started to think, “OK, stick with this lass*, she knows what’s up.”

*(I have NEVER called anyone lass before but my fingers were DYING to type that so I let them do their thing. I’ll talk to them about it later. So weird.)

THEN!! Just when I was doubting everything I was hearing, THE DANNY LOHNER walked through the venue doors, HUGGED HER, and then continued on his way.

My jaw dropped.

She looked just as stunned.

“That DID just happen, right? Danny Lohner DID just hug me?” she asked all of us (well, OK, she only asked those three people in the FIRST IN LINE clique, but she was facing me and we made eye contact so I NODDED IN AWE.

Guys, if you don’t know who Danny Lohner is, the ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE DANNY LOHNER, then please google him. He is a living legend and when The Black Queen announced that he would be a touring member, I seriously was so stoked. NIN is one of the few “I can’t believe I have never seen them!” bands on my list. He is a GIANT TALENT  in the music industry.

Finally, around 7:15PM, the doors opened and we rushed on in. Henry went straight to merch and I claimed my spot at barricade. I was more toward the left side a little because I knew Danny would be over there after seeing videos on Instagram. I was happy with my spot, and the two women we commiserated with in line were to my left. A decent seeming younger guy filled the space to my right and, as long as the BRO DUDES didn’t start elbowing their way through to barricade as the night went on, I felt pretty good about my location!

I’ll come back hopefully tomorrow to talk about the MUSIC.

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