September 26, 2007 the band Arcade Fire was set to play in Lehi, Utah. This date coincided with a low point in my financial history. I quite literally had less then $20 to my name. The going rate for tickets to the show was just over $40. Seeing as how the Arcade Fire are one of the best bands in the world right now, particularly when it comes to live shows, I decided I would go to the outdoor venue and listen from outside the gates.
I got to the venue and took a walk around. When I got to the side of the venue that was across from the parking lot, I saw several large buses next to a building and figured that this was the bands back stage area. I went into the building and saw one member of the band chatting with someone involved with the tour next to big table of finger foods. Now having figured out where the band was, I decided to try my hand at being a member of their entourage. I headed towards a road that lead to the back of the stage and a security guard stopped me and asked for my badge. I told him I left it in the building and could go get it if he would like. He asked me too and I said I would, but I first wanted to ask him about some things. He said alright and I spent the next 20 minutes acting like I had never been to Utah. I asked him about Thanksgiving Point (the venue we were at), Mormons, skiing, and all the other things people ask me when I tell them I am from Utah. I told him I was with the opening act, LCD Sound System, and when they finished I told him I was going to go see them off stage. He said alright and I went on my way. I had now gone from not being able to get in to the show to getting backstage for free.
I went out front and watched most the show from the front row. The show was great and I watched the encore from the wings of the stage. After the show I made my way back to the building I had found earlier, and after about an hour of the band meeting and greeting long lost family, radio contest winners, and other completely uninteresting people, everyone filtered out except me, a couple friends I snuck back, and the two bands. We proceeded to have a dance party to LCD Sound System's new album that hadn't been heard yet by anyone outside of the bands inner circle. A couple hours later, we said our goodbyes and headed to our cars.
Once in the car, still beaming with the joy of hanging out with one of my favorite bands, me and my brother headed home. We got about a mile down the road and got pulled over for having a "red flagged" license plate. I had some unpaid tickets that had turned into a warrant so I was put in the back of a police car and carted off to prison where I spent the next 20 hours.
To summarize my nigh, within about 3 hours I had seen one of the best shows of my life, met some of my musical heroes, danced with said heroes, and been booked in the Utah County jail. Life can get pretty intresting when you only have $20.
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6 comments:
Great use of medium, thanks for the youtube videos, it helped catch the excitement
Nice story. My only real question is, why can't Arcade Fire dance? Maybe I missed something in the story. Arcade Fire is awesome by the way.
I would have liked to hear more about what happened when you got backstage like were you ducking every guard did you get stopped again or was it pretty chill before the show. Cool videos.
I don’t know what to tell you I like it all. I hope you got a steady paying job now thou.
Marcus S AKA Maquiavelo
Sounds like an awesome experience, you got a good amount of detail to your story. I really liked reading it, and the video clips were a bonus:)
So, what was jail like?
I liked the story and the video clips.
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