Punk Rock MisAdventures

In the summer of 2006, I worked on the Van's Warped Tour as a merch girl for Shiragirl (the band) and as stage crew for the Shiragirl Stage.   The DIY-style all-girl, all-pink stage invented by my good friend, Shira, brought to the tour noted acts like Paramore (2005) and Damone (2006), as well as a ton of lesser-known (for now), but equally impressive all-female or female-fronted bands like The Vincent Blackshadow, TaT, Rocket, 5-Star Affair and..well...the list goes on.  The original Shiragirl Stage was totaled in a car crash in the summer of 2006, but I heard a rumor that it may FINALLY be making a triumphant return to the Warped Tour on select dates this coming summer.
 

Back in 2006, I had this ridiculous crush on Pete Wentz.  Me and every 14-year old girl in North America, I know, and I have since come to realize that he is way too big a deal for me and I am just not the competitive type, but  for this story’s purposes, you should know that my I did, indeed, have a  crush on Pete Wentz and was quite vocal about it.  My friends on the tour would tease me relentlessly about digging that foxxy little brown dude (Yeah, I said it. He's foxxy), and I would refer to him as "Petey" as though we were buddies and spent weekends watching nostalgic 80's movies and baking cookies or something. That same year, rumors began to circulate that Petey was having a party at his house in LA the same day the Warped Tour had a day off there.  Whenever one of my friends who was actually invited or someone else who wasn't TECHNICALLY invited but heard about the party through a friend inquired about my RSVP status, my response was, "You might see me there."  Of course, they wouldn't see me there.  I don't really know Pete Wentz aside from shaking his hand at a few parties here and there and, anyway, I had definite plans to get a pterodactyl tattooed on my chest that day.
 

Warped Tour came to LA and the day off began much like any other with the members of our crew parting ways to run their errands and do whatever else they wanted to with their "personal" time.  Shiragirl's drummer was from LA and went home to spend the day with her family.  Our guitar player, Flash Bathory (Now, epic solo guitar goddess.  Look her up.), went to go get her guitars worked on and then to feast on delicious vegan food with her boyfriend.  Our friends in The Vincent Blackshadow and Britt Black were at a tattoo shop on Melrose where an ex-band member (who will be referred to for the rest of this story as “PD”), Shira, and myself were supposed to meet them.
 

PD and Shira had rented a car for the day to run errands with, but apparently PD’s idea of running errands was leaving Shira and I stranded in downtown LA an hour and a half away from where our hotel was (Sadly, this was not the reason she was asked to leave the band.)  This kind of behavior was not uncommon for PD. She “ran away” all the time, but she usually came back, so Shira and I made the best of our situation and did some shopping and grabbed some lunch while we waited for her to return.  Hours had passed and it became abundantly clear that PD was not coming back.  Though it was too late for me to get my sweet pteradactyl chest piece, our friends had been waiting for us at the tattoo shop all day and Flash was already on her way there to meet me with some tofu cheesecake, so we hopped into a cab and headed down there. Hopefully, either Britt Black or The Vincent Blackshadow would have room in one of their vehicles for one or both of us since we now had no ride back to our hotel.
 

No dice.  All the band's rental cars were stuffed to capacity with musicians and their various toys.  Flash and her boyfriend wanted to help, but they were in a 2-seater with the hatchback full of guitars and luggage.  We were fucked.  But I had a plan......
 

I had been talking with my friend, Marc (De Jesus), from Gym Class Heroes on AIM earlier that day and I knew that his band was staying at the same hotel as us, had a huge rental car, AND were all going to Petey's party which couldn't have been too far from where we were.  All we had to do was find a way to get to the party and we were home free.
 

Flash called up our friend, Mikey, who was the videographer for the Plain White Tees on that tour, who we also knew was at the party.  "I can't find where I put the directions to Pete's place," we lied.  Mikey knew we were weren't invited, but he gave us easy directions to the bottom of a hill where he agreed meet us.  Now, we just have to get 4 people in a 2-seater car full of equipment 5 miles down the road.  Peice of cake!
 

Lucky for us, Flash is only four-feet eleven-inches tall, so she fit on my lap in the front seat just fine.  Illegal, but fine.  Shira on the other hand, (and I applaud her for this) had to pull off an amazing impersonation of a contortionist to squeeze in the back hatch of the car with all of Flash's gear.  We found this situation hilarious.  Flash's boyfriend hated our guts.
 

We arrived at the bottom of the hill where Mikey was waiting to meet us with a concerned look on his face.  Aparently, when Mikey said "bottom of the hill", what he meant was the bottom of Beverly Hills.  It was at least 2 miles up to where the party was and he was too drunk to drive himself down the hill, so he was just dropped off.  Shira couldn't move, really, so we had to fit this giant person in the front seat with us.  Flash and I sat sort of sideways in the front in a spooning position (I was the big spoon) and Mikey sat on top of us with his bony pelvis bruising my hip for the remainder of the ride.
 

We finally pulled up at Pete Wentz’s house to a small bunch of confused smokers on the front porch watching the five of us pile out of the 2-seater car like we were clowns in the circus.  We didn't know any of those people, though, so we didn't care.  I tilted my head back to say "Whatsup?" to all of the smokers while they avoided eye-contact with me and walked with confidence into the party leading my motley crew of strays. Thank God people I actually knew were inside!  Not very many, though.  As it turns out, this was Petey's house-warming party and only a handful of his friends were invited.  I practically tripped over Patrick Stump who was sitting on the floor near the entrance when I walked in and saw my lovely Petey across the room with that chick that played Harriet the Spy and some of the guys from the Plain White Tees. Shira saw our friend, Travis, from the Gym Class Heroes and went to go confirm our ride back to the hotel while I darted to the bathroom. 

Famous people and people in bands meet hundreds of people a week on tour and some are better than others at remembering faces and names.  Pete Wentz is a PRO at pretending he remembers people and even though he didn't actually know us, he was quite genuine and friendly when he welcomed me and my friends into his home.  He pointed out where the booze was and prompted us to remind him of where we had all met before.  Pete Wentz pretends to know me, too?  How funny!  We all gave short, vague answers and made our way to the kitchen to pour ourselves drinks, but we didn't stay long enough to drink them.  The Gym Class Heroes had been there all night and we were just wrapping up a long day ourselves.  Everyone was eager to get out of there and get back to our hotel, so we said our good-byes and arrived safely at our hotel thanks to our friends.

It's my belief that the world will take care of you if you let it.  Bad things can and will happen, but if you don't give up and remain optimistic a solution will often be waiting for you right around the corner.

"Be excellent to eachother." -Wyld Stallionz